It's typical for me to do sketches while writing, a sort of mental doodling as I work out events and character arcs. These sketches are not intended to be the final word on what the characters look like! In fact, I usually have trouble pinning down people's looks. I just keep at it anyway.
Here are my favorite "thinking out loud" pieces of the characters of the Blood Ladders series.
1. Amhric, Against the Wall. An early piece of Amhric, when I was still developing him. The glyphs on the wall actually read something. (It's dire, something about sacrificing himself to the race.)
2. Morgan, By the Sea. A melancholic reflection on Morgan, after he's discovered his true form.
3. Almond, with Salt. A portrait of Almond, in all her innocence. (The salt part refers to the watercolor technique that produces the cloudy/crystalline patterns in the background.) The glyphs under her are Morgan's name, from the pendant.
4. Recovering by the Fireplace. It's rare for me to draw literal scenes, since I don't often conflate the writing process with the illustration process: one is developmental and more about my internal sense of the characters/themes, and the other is the actual story. But I liked this piece of Morgan after the unfortunate incident with the dragon in the fireplace for the truthful bit about hanging your glasses off your hand while rubbing the bridge of your nose.
5. Circumscribed. A very old piece of Amhric holding Morgan that influenced the scene in the ditch in Book 1. The style is inspired by Art Deco.
6. Kelu (Rawr). Kelu insisted this should be the portrait of her that went in the back of the book.
7. A Mount for Priests and Kings. The drake needs to make its appearance too. This is the "model sheet" of Morgan I shared with the cover artist, which resulted in the rather astonishing pieces she did for the trilogy.
8. Kemses and His Lovers. I liked this one more for the humans than for Kemses... so here it is.
9. ....And Sedetnet. Can't not have a piece of him. This one I included because it inspired the name of Book 3, and I vividly recall drawing it while talking out the plot with the friend who suggested that Sedetnet's aim in life was to escape it.
10. Morgan's Name. And a bonus final image... the pendant with Morgan's name really does exist. Or it did. I had it made based on the glyphs, which I drew (and used for that picture of Almond). When I commissioned the cover art for the series, I sent this scan of the pendant to the artist, and after that, the pendant vanished. I don't know where it went! I am still puzzled about it; some part of me is convinced it simply returned to the aether once it knew I was done....