Hey all! I've been an SVS member for about 3 months and occasionally lurked here. Now I have a question for you!
I have a potential illustration job with a local author for self-publishing. One thing that raised a red flag in my mind was that the character was like her little girl. That got me wondering, what do you say when the author wants to model a character after someone they know? They have a clear idea of what they want, so is it different from a made-up character?
Past experience with portrait photography and illustration has taught me people are really critical of how they are portrayed (I look fat, my hair's a mess, can you erase my wrinkles, etc), so I think using a real child as a model might get into a sensitive area.
My question is how much influence should real-life people or pets have on a book character? And how would you steer the conversation so the author is open to alternative character designs? I haven't discussed anything in-depth yet with the author I'm working with, I was just curious because the question must come up often enough in the realm of self-published works. I remember Will Terry saying once in a video that character design was his area of expertise as the illustrator. How much influence does the illustrator have?