One of the magical things about reading books is that there is no set way to how things look. It is up to your own creativity, as a reader, to form the world and its people in your imagination. That said, we were interested to see how other people might imagine some of our characters. With this in mind, we decided to commission some highly talented indie artists to give us their impressions – unbounded by what we might think
We intend to keep adding to these over time so that we have many different thoughts and impressions – with no fixed point. The fact that each artist’s impressions are different is kind of the point and also part of the beauty of this project
Disclaimer
All of these creatives were either commissioned by us, or are friends or family. Their versions are built from one page briefs of each of the four characters, rather than after having reading the entire book (which would have been quite a big ask from us!) It’s only fair to say that contributing here does not imply that they necessarily support our views or our story, although obviously we hope that they do!
Musicians
Music may seem a curious medium for painting portraits but I suspect that if you’re lucky enough to know a musician, they’ll understand. If you want some additional fun, try reading about these characters elsewhere on this site and then ask someone to play them for you – to see if you can guess which is which
Tom
Tom is a young musician from the middle of the UK. He is deeply passionate about music and revels in the geekery and maths that he finds within it. He is also a superb bass player. Being a musician’s musician his tastes and influences are wide, varied, and continually shifting
Rhode
Phamphilos
Helena
Shadow
Socials
Tom isn’t doing public socials right now. One day he may. If you have any enquiries then please get in touch with us through this site and we’ll pass them on
Artists
It’s always a gamble to give a written character a concrete image, as it risks limiting where the reader’s imagination can travel. However, it’s also fun. That’s why we’re gathering lots of different impressions and ideas, and also why we’ve said that there’s no right or wrong with how they look. This is just artists doing their thing: taking a lose description and an idea and giving it shape and life
Ingloriouse
Ingloriouse is an illustrator and doll maker. She spent most of professional life between corporate meetings and planning calls, but really only wanted to doodle and create little objects with weird faces on them. That’s how her sassy, colourful illustrated world came to be. She loves creating all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff
Rhode
Phamphilos
Helena
Shadow
Socials
Emory Southwick
Emory Southwick (they/them) is an artist, life model, and facilitator based in Durham. Emory’s practice focusses on creating joyful artworks using lots of colour, making work at the intersection of transness, disability, and neurodiversity. As Director of The Marra Project, Emory creates sober events for the queer community in Durham, including running online sessions of Queer Life Drawing, and Transoup, an in-person social and evening meal by and for the trans community
Rhode
Phamphilos
Helena
Shadow
Socials
Paul Newman
Paul is less than average at drawing but enjoys having a dabble sometimes. These are some images that will appear on exclusive merch and stickers for our advanced readers, and hopefully for some giveaways at signing events – look out for them. The phrases represent are snippets from the book that make us giggle
Rhode
Phamphilos
Helena
Shadow
