sheep

oh maxal of course PS. girls are soft and smell nice, which is very strange and scary when you're used to sweaty dudes and shardplate codpieces.

Pattern is really weird to me, too. He doesn't look like a small person like Syl and he has no mouth. When Shallan carries him around, he causes slight shadowing and rippling on her dress but I draw him as a black outline because he would otherwise be invisible. In my mind, he is the mix between a slug and one of those pinwheel toys for children, about the size of a CD and small enough to fit on a sheet of paper. And he doesn't need a mouth to talk because I think the communication between Radiant and spren is perceived mentally: you think you're hearing a voice but it's all in your head. That's why Bridge Four thinks Kaladin is weird when he talks to the air - Syl's and Pattern's voices aren't audible on the physical realm unless they want them to be, like when Syl talks to Sigzil and Pattern mimics voices for Shallan. In my country the average height for women and men is 165cm/178cm, with younger people and those of Anglo-european heritage being taller on average. 190+cm is not rare enough to be remarkable but it is uncommon, especially for people of Asian background whom I see a lot of on a daily basis. There are some southeast Asian people I know who I think could very well pass for Alethi with their black hair and tan skintone. I can admit that when I was figuring out how Alethi facial proportions worked, I drew on some Vietnamese Australians I know who have very expressive faces. They are of average height and probably why my estimates for the Kholins' heights are a little lower than yours. I also thought that since the plants on Roshar have to devote energy resources to protecting themselves from the highstorms, their crop yields would be lower because of it. On Earth, a lot of food plants that originally had defence mechanisms in place such as thorny stems or bitter leaves or tough skins had them bred out to produce heftier fruits. And the gradual average height increase in western countries post WW1 has been because of better crop breeds and more efficient farming practises. Unless Stormlight and parshman and chull labour makes up for it, the lack of horses and mechanisation in agriculture would leave Alethkar at a 1700's level of communal village farming, with Soulcasters only being used for food in cities of high population density, like Kholinar. As a side note, Alethkar doesn't even have crossbows though they seem to have the capacity to produce them, just look at the Shardbearer's Grandbow. If an engineer can design a crankable folding siege bridge, a crossbow isn't too far off. Dalinar's regular facial expression veers between stern and grim most of the time. It's similar to Kaladin, but Kal has an extra edge of bitterness that I try to channel. People who don't know Dalinar would think that he never smiles, but people who know him well, like Adolin and Renarin, would be able to able to tell. And when he is pleased and his eyes crinkle up, it's like he just said "I'm proud of you, son" even if he didn't say anything. That means a lot because normally he just gives a solemn nod of acknowledgment when he is satisfied with things. To me, Brandon's style of writing about relationships tends to be...idealised. He played Adolin's pathetic love life for humour rather than making it feasibly realistic, so readers would suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy the sitcom level shenanigans. But when you think about it, it's very very strange. Even Lin Davar, Shallan's dad, who is a not particularly wealthy minor noble with a reputation for violent and crazy behaviour, somehow got remarried. Adolin is nowhere near that level of crazy; at worst he's just apathetic. He brags to Kaladin about girls going to the training arena to watch him spar and having to kick them out - but none of the girls he courts bothers to approach him; instead they wait for him to call and get mad when he doesn't. I'm probably reading too much into something that is an obvious plot setup to introduce Shallan as main love interest. But it still niggles at me a bit, because the worst things I can think of in a feudal society that would make you repulse girls so regularly, is being known as the guy who murdered his previous wife or the guy who sired and acknowledged an illegitimate son. Adolin at the end of WoK had barely even kissed a girl. I take the biological age calculation with a grain of salt. Rosharans obviously don't measure their own development by Earth standard and it would be silly if they did, since the Cosmere has no Earth and they all originate from Yolen anyway. It would have put Jasnah in her 40's and Dalinar in his 60's. Just feels weird to contemplate it. I think the only people to put any shred of belief behind it are the ones who think that it's unrealistic for Kaladin to be a surgeon, spearman soldier, and squadleader by age 18. You should be careful when you talk about boybands and their hair and what they looked like in the way back. Douchey is only the beginning. I was reminded of the Dutch TV show "New Kids", about young working class men in a small town. They all have interesting hair that would look very strange if it were black and blond.

Zahel said that young lighteyes start training at around ten years old, and at that point they'd be too small to fit Shardplate assuming Plate can't shrink down to child size. Maybe there were petite women Radiants with Plate, who knows. But seeing what Zahel ordered Renarin and Kaladin to do, it wouldn't be hard to assume that it was a lot of karate kid wax on-wax off menial tasks until a kid was serious about learning. Adolin starting at 6 is unusual since Amaram said city lighteyes can start as early as 8 or 9 when Tien got conscripted. It's pretty crazy how skilled Adolin is. Even Dalinar got Oathbringer at 20. Most of the guys in camp Adolin's age are half bearers and must be sour about Renarin having a full set he never uses. Plate enhances your natural strength like cyborg arms. I wouldn't think it would stunt you unless you wore it all day and all night and forgot what your natural state was like. Kal started growing at age 14 and was taller than his parents by 15. I know he is the default favourite character for most people but there are certain traits about him that make me want to smack him. He is chronically nearsighted, and as you say, he sees what he wants to see. Adolin has nice clothes. In fact, all of the Kholins have nice clothes - or dress appropriately for their rank, and presumably pay their tailors well and treat them fairly, but Kaladin gets tunnel vision on Adolin particularly. He seems to have forgotten that when Wistiow was still alive and his family were the richest darkeyes in town, he and Tien were the ones with nice new clothes and all the other farmer boys in the flashback chapter where he holds a staff for the first time had patched up work pants. This same nearsightedness is why Moash got away with bad things. In my opinion, a lighteyes and son of a highprince who got the military haircut would be rebellious. In the warcamps the darkeyes in all armies crop their hair for practical reasons but the lighteye officers only want to party and have fun, so grow their hair long, like Sadeas and his long curls. The default haircut for high ranking brightlords like Jakamav and Elit would be fashionable and styled, and they would think Dalinar's military crop shows what a boring, stodgy old man he is. Anyone high ranking who got the haircut would be tacitly in support of Dalinar's Codes. My interpretation is that Renarin does not rock the boat and settles on something in between that is not military regulation but still combed neatly and trimmed regularly. Maybe he lets Rock trim his hair after he joins Bridge Four. But no one expects him to get his hair cut military short after he gets Shards and "joins" the Kholin army. Same way they comment on him bonding a Shardblade but never see him summon it for weeks at a time, and no one asks him or orders him to practice with it. Dalinar is afflicted with nearsightedness too, it seems. I would say that in public, it's expected that Alethi women should present themselves to be elegant and refined, just like Vorin codes expect the men should be dignified and honourable. Of course they're squabbling, passive aggressive hens when not in public. But when I draw them, I want the average Brightness's courtly formalness to contrast to Shallan's open friendliness. If Alethi can grow beards at a young age and Kaladin probably had to start shaving more than once a week at age 18, does this mean that Renarin can grow a beard? I think beards are not too fashionable because they're associated with ardents and the church isn't so popular. Or associated with the working class since poor people can't afford razors and only bathe once a week or whenever there's a highstorm.

I don't have a defined image for a character unless I try to draw them. I remember their described physical features like red hair or wobbly jowls but it never clicks together into a cohesive image until I draw it, and often I have to draw it multiple times until I have gotten closer to how I feel they should look. It reminds me of how Shallan saw Pattern floating around in the corner of her eye but he wasn't real until she drew him. Wow, in your interpretation, it sounds like the Shattered Plains is a bizarre alternate universe version of the Netherlands. I actually went to my ereader copy of WoK and searched for "tall" and everyone seems above average, except for Gaz and Tien. In the WoR scene where Shallan goes to the arena to sketch Shardplate, she tells Adolin she's 5'6" (168cm), a good height for a Veden woman, when he asks what she's up to. If we say that an average including peasants is 165cm, then multiply by the average height ratio of women to men which is 1.09, then the average Veden man would be 180cm. That was what I assumed was what most adult men Jah Keved and Alethkar were, so 190cm or above would be considered pretty unusual. Even today, 190cm is not very common and mostly seen in people under age 30. The Highprinces only started getting gemhearts for Soulcasting en masse 6 years ago, and most of the products stay in the Plains rather than being spread out to the rest of Alethkar. That's why I estimated most nobles would be in the mid 180cms and Kaladin is unusually tall at 191-192cm. Dalinar rarely smiles. When he is pleased with something, his wrinkles rearrange themselves so his frown lines aren't so deep but his mouth barely moves. He also gets happy eyes. What I don't understand is how Adolin is handsome, rich, skilled duellist, and a prince but somehow single in WoK. Gold diggers are all around in a feudal society and it never made sense that no girl stuck around with him even if he looked at waitresses' bums and their sisters. Given how shy he is about physical intimacy, it was all look and no touch and any girl (or her family) really interested in having her son inherit a princedom wouldn't make a big deal about it. I get that no one likes Dalinar, but Dalinar won't live forever. There was that one thread on calculating Roshar years to Earth years and I think Adolin was worked out to be biologically 26 years old. I kind of feel sorry for the guy now. Oh man, that spiky hair makes me think about professional soccer players in 2005. You need a short cut back and sides to get gelled up hair to look like that. I think Adolin's hair is too long for that. And it makes him look a bit like a douchebag, which Kaladin would think is perfectly fitting.

I think it's weightlifting that's bad for you at a young age. It's not good to compress a growing skeleton. Renarin mentioned that Adolin started training at age 6, but I don't think Alethi military training really involves weightlifting. For lighteyed kids it's probably just whacking dummies with wooden swords. If Shardbearers do weight training, then Adolin inheriting his mother's Plate at age 16 wouldn't have stunted him that much. The real question is how Kaladin is so freakishly tall when his family is presumably on the short end of average and he was in Amaram's army during his developing years. Is it unconscious Stormlight infusion, like how greatshells get so big? It's kind of frustrating how little canonised physical description of Renarin there is. He's skinny with glasses, and that's about it. I'm pretty sure his hair colour isn't mentioned, but everyone draws it the same way because he isn't described as blond like Adolin so he must be dark haired and follows mysterious Roshar Yu-Gi-Oh genetics. I really only have a generic picture of Renarin in my head. He was never hit hard with the puberty stick so he doesn't have a deep voice like Dalinar; he has soft features instead of angular ones which is why Kaladin forgets that he is only a year younger and treats him like one of those teenage boys he needs to protect. Kaladin judges Adolin for his expensive boots, but overlooks Renarin wearing glasses doing exercises in the arena and jumping off roofs. In Kal's childhood, glasses were the most expensive item his dad owned next to the jar of diamonds. Lirin never even took the glasses outdoors. To me, Renarin is the type of person who doesn't like sitting for pictures and turns his face away if you try to look straight into his eyes. He has hair in a longer fashionable cut that is definitely not military regulation, but he gets away with it because everyone in his family spoils him and lets him be play at being a soldier even though he is completely unsuited for it. I always thought that because Adolin and Renarin had the same parents, they'd have the same skintone. But Adolin is outdoors a lot whilst Renarin stays at home so Adolin is tanned. Renarin's skin colour is the same as noble women who have slaves to carry palanquins and umbrellas. But who knows how Rosharan genetics work, maybe Iriali have metallic shiny skin along with their metallic shiny hair and the Kholin brothers sparkle like Edward Cullen in the right light. To me, Alethi noblewomen are supposed to be elegant, reserved and competent. They all have perfect posture and glide along, while Shallan is energetic and bouncy. And Alethi brightnesses all have perfectly shaped and arched eyebrows. It's such a small and insignificant detail, but perfect eyebrows say a lot about a person. Kaladin has the type of hardboiled cynic personality that generates permastubble an hour after shaving, if he was a police detective in another sort of novel. He can grow a beard at age 19 (that's pretty rare, most Polynesians/Asian men at that age can only grow the neckbeard and the soulpatch) and never cares about his appearance, so I'm surprised every single depiction of him post-slavery has him clean-shaven. And he has the same kind of scary eyes that Dalinar has. If he was looking in your direction, you'd glance from side to side to reassure yourself that he wasn't staring at you.

I looked it up and Google is filled with all sorts of urban myths and personal anecdotes about exercise and height. Stretching exercises and swimming may let you grow taller, but mostly it's genetics and diet. And Renarin can't have the best genetics since he does have the blood sickness. I don't know how they treat symptoms of epilepsy in Alethkar, but it wouldn't be too farfetched to imagine that Renarin was sent to bed with lukewarm soup and other plain foods that are purposefully unexciting in order not to trigger fits. And you're right, there are few physical descriptions of Renarin and he doesn't have any viewpoint chapters, which is why I dislike drawing him. I haven't gotten a feel for his personality and what analysis there is on his character is mostly presumption and reading very deeply into a few throwaway lines. I feel like I'm throwing darts in the dark when I try to pin my impression of him to paper. So far I've drawn him skinnier and less conventionally attractive than Adolin, paler skintone on the same level of the female characters because he is an indoors person, and boyish aesthetic rather than manly. He also avoids eye contact and physical contact with non-family members. Also he probably tried women's food when no one was looking and liked it. Adolin eating a lot is not really that surprising. He spends every day either in or preparing for battle or duels. That kind of daily workout would make him the equivalent of a professional athlete. He'd probably happily eat chouta and after being told what it's made from, he'd just shrug and keep eating. My character designs for Kaladin and Shallan took a lot of evolving. The first drawings of them look weird to me now, like watching the first season of The Simpsons and wondering what's wrong with their faces. There are certain elements that I think are most important for conveying their character. For Shallan it's rounded lines in her face and hair to represent the "blossoms and cake" that everyone thinks she is. As for Kaladin, he's allergic to smiles.

It is rare (to me at least) to find people who are not artists come up with detailed mental pictures when they read. Even I don't have one for the first or second read through, or first time I try sketching from memory. To me, Dalinar is tall (184/185cm; I'm guessing 177cm or so is average Alethi male which is pretty big for a pre-industrial society, since in 170cm was considered average in 1920 in my country) and very fit for his age, but in the warcamps there are many young men who are taller and more muscular. Dalinar gets by on his strength of personality. He may not be that much taller than most people, but when they speak to him, they leave with the impression that he's a lot bigger than he is because of his presence and aura of authority. I experimented with a number of hairstyles see what would fit Adolin the best. The first hand-drawn sketches I drew, in retrospect, resembled Fred from Scooby Doo (now that I think about it, Fred and Daphne could easily be recoloured into Adolin and Shallan). Rounded lines suggest softness and youth, and angular lines are better for conveying maturity. It was a bit of trial and error to settle on a style that compromised on his personality of boyish playfulness and adult competence. And one of the reasons why I kept re-working the picture was because there was always something that I wanted to change. You mentioned Adolin with hair product and I remembered that I did draw a variant of it, but painted over it because I thought it was too "princeling" and not enough mop. It looks silly, doesn't it? I think it makes him edge into prettyboy level rather than just being handsome. I think longer or "pretty" hair styles fit Renarin better.

If you rubbed Adolin's head, his hair would still look the same after as it did before. That is how I imagined it would be like when I drew it. Not curly hair, but thick and gets fluffy looking 3 hours after a trim from the barber. I drew the eye as a grey-ish blue, or how blue eyes look on Earth. I don't know if blue eyes on Roshar mean bright blue like gemstones, of it's just Radiants who have them. But Alethi are humans so I went with the more natural human look. But of course you can't really tell in low resolution. The original file when I was working on it was around 4000px wide. I like to explain why I drew certain features because I like seeing explanations from other people. Drawing a character in a stylised way means you condense your perceptions into an image, and summarise hundreds lines of text to convey one or two main traits. It's part of my process, and lets other people see what I see in a character and what parts of them struck me as significant and character defining. For example, some people would see "mop of hair" in Adolin's description and draw it all the way down to his forehead and covering his eyebrows, Bieber-style. To me, that would be too young since I would consider Adolin a man and not a boy. Some other people would have it shorter, 2cm below the hairline. But to me, that kind of Roman soldier haircut wouldn't fit Adolin because he never wanted to be a soldier, and he rebels against Dalinar's uniform regulations without actually breaking the rules... Yeah I think about these things when trying to draw a character design. Small things having meaning to me.

Thanks! Every reader and every artist forms their own impression and voice for a character...well, as long as the author knows what they're doing. That is why representative cover art with character faces like a movie poster turn me off. Your first impression is coloured by it immediately since cover art is accepted as semi-canon, even if the author had no input.

He becomes slightly acceptable at the end of WoR but then I reread WoK again and I'm just like 'ugh'. When he develops enough to be honest with himself while sober I will like him more. He's just looking at Jasnah's bum. Maybe he wonders why people bother to wear clothes since everyone knows what a bum looks like. Thanks, I remembered that the hours had fewer minutes and the years had more days, but I couldn't recall if there were fewer hours in a day. 20/5 doesn't sound quite that cool, sadly. Fair enough question. In my personal interpretation, I put him at ~180cm while Adolin and Dalinar are 184/185cm. My reasoning was that he probably didn't eat as much or get as much exercise as he ought to, due to a sickly childhood and the awkwardness of glasses (reading is fine in glasses, try running and you get a dizzy headache from the frames bouncing up and down on your nose). I imagined that if Dalinar asked everyone about their day at the dinner table in the proper dad way, Renarin would finish quickly and leave while Adolin would just shrug and clear all the plates and talk about heroic things that happened with a mouth full of chicken. 180cm is still tall, taller than average in most countries. And Renarin is still young enough that there's potential for more growth, especially since . But when all the people around him are curvy Alethi women or fit soldiers I think most people draw Renarin much shorter as shorthand (hah) to show how he is less physically imposing than the rest of the cast.

Thanks, I realised afterwards that I forgot Elhokar but his character annoyed me so much during reading that I couldn't do a drawing of him proper justice. He'd probably have a unibrow, humpback, crossed eyes and stink lines due to my frustration with him.

Thanks...Occasionally I decide it's a good day to tap my graphite metalmind.