Written descriptions of characters, whether in stories or as documents in their own right, often conjure different visualizations in the minds of different readers. For some people, particularly if they are not visually oriented, it may be difficult to arrive at any clear mental images. Even the author may have only a hazy or general idea of what his (or her) creations look like.

In some degree that’s the situation with the main characters of Anasazi’s Road. To help me clarify their appearance in my own mind, I’ve commissioned portraits from a variety of artists and looked at the results. Sometimes an artist suggests, through details in an image, a new idea I hadn’t considered previously. Sometimes an artist misses the mark—but even that can be useful, because it forces me to figure out why, dredging thought processes up from my subconscious into the light where I can examine them.

This rendition of Ana by  eura is, as with most of her work, appealingly charming. It’s easy to imagine Ana, after a long, hard shift waiting tables, curled up on the couch watching television during a warm summer evening. The character design, expression, and body language are expressive and almost entirely dead-on accurate. In fact, the only quibble is her feet, which should be fully plantigrade, with humanoid toes and bare soles rather than paw-pads. (In fairness, I overlooked that detail when inspecting the preliminary sketch.) Overall, however, I am quite satisfied with the result and regard it as worth far more than the vastly undervalued purchase price!