From the Sketchbook: Character Sketches for the Untamed Series

So, one of my favorite parts of drafting a new book is getting to know the characters through drawing them. I love art, and doing sketching characters has become an integral part of my planning and drafting stages when working on a new manuscript. And so, I thought I’d share with you some of those character drawings…

SEVEN SARR

So, Seven is my main character and the narrator of the Untamed books. She’s a powerful Seer, who in book one has to cope with the disappearance of her mother and her own kidnapping and torturing at the hands of the enemy, the Enhanced Ones. Plus, she also has an addiction to beat.

 

KATYA SARR

This is Seven’s mother, and she’s one of the strong, powerful women in the series. She’s also one of my favorite characters to write! I absolutely love her, and she’s a firm favourite with fans too, which makes me so happy. Like Seven, she’s a Seer.

 

RAHN ERIKSEN

So, both Seven and Katya belong to a group of Untamed people (those who can feel negative emotions, and are hunted down by the Enhanced, who want to turn everyone into beings who can only feel positive emotions). And Rahn Eriksen is the leader of this group of Untamed. He’s a complex character (and one of my favorites). And he’s also rather prejudiced toward Katya and Seven, both of whom are Seers, as he blames Katya for the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law as she failed to foresee the conversion attack that killed them.

Seven also has a thing for Rahn’s nephew, Corin!

ELF LIN-SYKES

Elf is one of my favorite characters too! He first appears in book one at the beginning, but he’s mentioned a lot in the later books—and he’s got an integral part in A Dangerous Game, the first standalone set in the Untamed world.

ELWOOD MANNING

Manning. Manning. Manning.  Where to start? He too is an Untamed human, first introduced in book two of the Untamed series, Fragmented. He’s the leader of the Zharat tribe (one of the last surviving large tribes of Untamed).

He was definitely a fun character to write, though he is dangerous…

TARAS

So, Taras first appears in Divided, book three of the Untamed series, but he becomes a powerful allie to Seven as she fights the leader of the Enhanced Ones, and he’s also in book four, Destroyed (releasing in summer/autumn 2018).

Like Seven and Katya, Taras is also a Seer.

 

SORAYA

 Soraya appears in Fragmented, book two, and she’s part of the Zharat tribe, led by Manning. She becomes a good friend for Seven, which is just what our main character needs as it becomes clear that the Zharat people are not at all what they seem…

 

THE BISON

The Dream Land bison is one of my favourites and he’s in all the books of the series!

I often find myself doodling him in my writing notebooks when I’m stuck on a scene.

THREE SARR

Okay, this isn’t really a quick sketch like the others as it took me nearly two hours, but I drew Seven’s brother, Three! One thing I particularly like about the Sarr family is how close they all are and how they’re always looking out for each other. This is also mirrored in the sibling relationships of the Lin-Sykes (Elf, Keelie, Mila, and Bea–which is really explored in the Untamed standalone, A Dangerous Game).

And that’s all of my character sketches!

I often find that I can’t draw some of the characters at all—I have a solid idea of what they look like in my head, but I just can’t get that down onto paper. Corin (Seven’s love interest) is one of them, as is Jed (a main character in Fragmented), and Raleigh (the leader of the Enhanced Ones).

You can buy the books and read all the adventures of these characters here.

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Some of the drawings were originally shared as part of the YA Scavenger Hunt spring 2017, but I thought I’d post them here too.