Confessions of a NERD: Eden makes fan art...

I used to be internet famous. No fooling.

But only among a very particular set...

When I was 14, I started writing Les Miserables fan fiction, and for a couple of years I had one of the biggest websites devoted to hosting it, for myself and for others. This was before fanfiction.net showed up and relieved me of my burdens. But for several years, I wrote stories and parodies and inflicted them upon the (largely uninterested) world.

My interests weren't limited to Les Mis, though. I was a big musical theatre fan, and an avid reader of 19th century French literature (oh the things kids get up to) and The Phantom of the Opera was always very much on my radar as well. As a more visually compelling story and stage play, it was always the more fun one to illustrate via notebook doodles and other methods of time wasting.

Sometimes... I still go through phases.

I made this particular item in mockery of one of the main songs from Webber's Phantom "sequel", which has recently opened in London and uses some serious ret-con to describe a steamy night between the main characters:



Getting back to the Webber's FIRST Phantom stage play, I've always liked the moment that Phantom and Christine have post-unmasking, in which he tries to get her to look at him, but all she can do is avert her eyes and hand him back his mask. That is COLD, woman! I did a little thumbnail sketch of this scene in my book while stalled on the subway the other day, and just this evening, did a rough "pre-ink" clean-up to get my lines sorted. Still needs some work, but here it is so far:



...The Phantom still looks too pretty here, but on stage, only one side of his face is deformed. The finished version of this drawing will have a bit of that peeking out from under his hand. (Bit of trivia: the reason they opted for the half-mask on stage was to allow the actor to still express emotions in his face. Makes for a good compromise, and the Two-Face style deformity has always been pretty compelling.)

...

Okay, now you've seen a little of my true face. My NERDY FAN-ART MAKING FACE. Back to business as usual now... Nothing to see here...