"Inspiration" for characters?

Do many of you base the looks of your fictional characters on actual people? Do specific women inspire stories? I know ConceptFan does this. He has pictures of famous models on his site, with notes about which ones inspired the looks of specific characters in his stories.

My character of Lindsay in The Pool Toy was physically inspired by Sanja Matice ( www.sunmod.com ), as I mentioned at the time. On the other hand, my Celebrity SuperAgent character wasn't inspired by a real person. My third story character on this site is a teenager. That story is vaguely based on a pose I saw in a picture of a 20-something model, but I wasn't thinking of the model's specific looks when writing about the character. So sometimes my characters are visually inspired by real people, and sometimes they're not.

I just thought of this while working on my story for workshop 2.6 because, oddly enough, my visual inspiration for the character in this story has changed. I saw a picture of a model that inspired a story idea, which I started writing a year and a half ago. That story got set aside, and I just came back to it for workshop 2.6. As I'm writing it, though, I'm not sure why, but I just have an easier time seeing Alisa Kiss ( www.alisakiss.com ) in my mind as this character than the model who originally inspired me to start the story.

So who else "sees" actual women in their minds playing the roles of the characters in their stories as they write? Anyone ever changed "inspirations" midway through a story this way? Not that it matters, but I'm just wondering if I'm completely nuts. :?

YAGS

I absolutely depend on some truly good pictures to be my 'muse'. I feel compelled to flush out the character, figure out their story and their world, and then write about it.

Here's a pict that I tweaked (starting with one from ChillyPlasma) that's inspiring me now. So why the bulletholes in the supposedly invulnerable uniform? Some kind of superweapon? And what's with the arrogant attitude that's clear on her face.

Obviously the bullets tore much larger holes across her abs (exploded as they hit steel muscle) and smaller across her breast as they dimpled and then rebounded, not shattering as badly.

But beyond that, the question that begs a story is what is going on here? This is often how it starts for me.

velorian.org/7590ab2a.jpg

And if that's not inspirational, how about:

velorian.org/britta_kamrau01lo.jpg

A real hardbody... is she Kryptonian or Velorian or what? On Earth or some distant planet? Is she a heroine or a villain or maybe just out for herself? Is she getting dressed or undressed? Why is she looking that way at the guy whose staring back at her? Seducing him or getting ready to kick his ass? All questions that need a story to explain.

Shadar

To date none of my characters appearances have been based on any real world models.

I never really thought about it until this topica came up but in my stories, I think that singer Lisa Loeb would be my inspiration for the main character with fitness model Debbie Leung as her superheroine alter ego.

I almost never use pictures of other women to make up for whatever girls
I am writing about, relying on drawing them out myself or picturing them in my mind. Sometimes when I write, I go for exaggerated characteristics and work out on how those relate to her powers/nature/etc. Due to my sexual non-interest, I have a very poor perception and/or experience with 'sexiness', so mostly it is a hit and miss thing.

Alright, back to the point. I don't usually use real life or fictional pictures of women to serve as an 'avatar' in my stories, I just attempt to draw it out myself or make up a physical discription in thier bios.

I suppose I'm easily inspired. Sometimes it's just flickers of parts of a costume over a few fleshy curves in my waking dreams, sometimes just the wink of a girl on the street. I'll go from there to a sketch

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And then it pretty much just snowballs

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But that's just the visual (easier) side: art flares from bits of smaller art. Any idiot can learn to draw. I know several who do. My stories come from simple phrases or a metaphor that strikes my eye in a simmiar manner. Something like "She had a body like a superbike, with plenty of radiator up front' could probably burn off 10 pages or so. Seriously, have you ever followed the contours of a superbike with a woman's muscular body in mind? I did at a stoplight the other day. And the girl riding it wasn't bad either. That's pretty typical inspiration for me.

Interesting quote from a cousin of mine who actually has a degree in art: "Respect the crap on museum walls because they've gone through the process to get it there. It's still the same level of crap the rest of us produce, but the've done a lot of hard pavement pounding to get it there."

Carry on.
-Paw.

Here's a pict that I tweaked (starting with one from ChillyPlasma) that's inspiring me now. So why the bulletholes in the supposedly invulnerable uniform? Some kind of superweapon? And what's with the arrogant attitude that's clear on her face.
Shadar

It's like in SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND -- she's invulnerable but the costume isn't. G-2 and Hannah must run up horrendous clothing bills.

Here's a pict that I tweaked (starting with one from ChillyPlasma) that's inspiring me now. So why the bulletholes in the supposedly invulnerable uniform? Some kind of superweapon? And what's with the arrogant attitude that's clear on her face.
Shadar

It's like in SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND -- she's invulnerable but the costume isn't. G-2 and Hannah must run up horrendous clothing bills.