Art Based On Novels - Good or Bad?

[VermillionWorks]

I've been trying to write a dark fantasy novel on the side, and I really want to make art for it to post around, maybe even short comics based on it eventually...BUT...I am wondering if people consider this a good or bad thing?

Do you think the author showing off art for their novel (whether they made it or say, commissioned someone else to) is a good way to make people intrigued, or do you think it just ruins a reader's own possible vision of the characters and/or world? Basically do you prefer not being 'shown' with novels - only comics, movies, ect?

Technically speaking though, I've already drawn some of the main characters so the 'damage' might already be done on my end. XD

[whovianandwriting]

Go for it man, quite alot of books have illustrations for them on the covers, but making promotinal art would be quite novel!

[whovianandwriting]

Oh, noes, excuse the pun.

would be quite novel!

[keii4ii]

I would say go for it for the fun of it, but I question its effectiveness as a promotion tool. It probably wouldn't hurt, in any case.

[whovianandwriting]

Also, if you want help with the art or the writing, you can come to me

(Concept art from yesterday)

(From my old comic a couple of months ago. Drastically improving my art.)

[VermillionWorks]

I'm not sure how well it would work as a promotional tool either, maybe if the art was really, really pretty it could be effective? Mine is only...okayish maybe, so I dunno. XP I'd do it just for fun too, though.

[Aloredd]

Some of my favorite novels have pictures every few chapters detailing the more important scenes and the artist always (at least in my favorite series) makes the main characters vague. One of the images, for example, is the good guy shooting the bad guy while the girls watches (a western, if anyone's curious...the bad guy had tried kidnapping the girl and the good guy chased them down) The girl is detailed pretty well but the bad guy is facedown on the ground dead so you can't see his face and the good guy's face was covered by his hat (the image was angled slightly over the good guy's shoulder so you saw more of his back than anything). I like having the images in the books but usually do come up with my own mental image of the characters so having them (the images) purposefully vague around the characters' faces (be it from shadows, clothing, their arm/pose or other methods) is an idea if you're afraid of spoiling your readers' depictions of the characters

EDIT: after rereading you post i realize this wasn't quite what you were asking about....

[heterodont]

I don't think you have to worry about stifling others creativity if you have art for your novel. There are going to be people who are gonna make their own interpretations of how the characters look! Then for those who are too lazy to try to imagine what the characters would look like based off description alone, or incapable of doing so, can just go by your art.

don't think i've ever heard of anyone complain about a novel having art, anyway, :y

[Mocha]

I remember in the past I had read a novel that was connected to a manga series by the same author. I think the book had about ten black and white illustrations scattered throughout the book. I remember it really left an impression on me, not only because it got me into the other series the author wrote, but because I found it really interesting to read a book that occasionally showed exactly what the author was imagining it to be when they wrote it. Even though I do enjoy imagining how things look in stories, I really love seeing the author's exact vision for the characters and the world since everyone imagines thing differently based on experience and preferences, so it's like getting to see a piece of someone else's imagination.

[hushicho]

It's said "you can't judge a book by its cover" and it's good advice; you really can't. But the whole reason why that is even such a timeless quote is because book covers are generally designed to captivate a potential reader and get them interested in reading what's inside. You indeed cannot judge a book by its cover, nor by its promotional art, but using art as a promotional tool is not only wise, but widely-done because it communicates a great deal efficiently.

Another well-known saying is "a picture paints a thousand words", well-said and good to remember. Everyone will have a different mental image of the written word, but there's nothing wrong with having one example of an image that comes from another person. It might not interest someone, but then again it might! It's worth giving it a try and potentially interesting plenty in what you're doing.

[VermillionWorks]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I'm happy most see it as more of a good thing than a bad one (so far at least), and maybe I can make art for my stuff now without worrying too much about tainting someone's personal view of the story...

...though I suck at scenery art, so they're still going to have to use their imagination for better imagery there. XP