Some art and a question

[ironicbees.livejournal.com]

erynn999 was hoping for some naked Bertie & Jeeves, so here they are. *cue burlesque music*





I did a gradient on the background, and didn't notice the stripy effect till it was too late to fix. Grrrr...


Have some golfing Bertie. I did this when I was trying out my different inks.



***

I've been keeping an eye out online for photos of men who look as close as possible to my mental image of Bertie, so that I could point to one and say "There, that's what I see him looking like in real life". I've collected many pictures of men who look similar to him in one way or another, but it wasn't till yesterday that I found a near perfect match. I did a bit of manipping, adding a suit & hair (the man was bald)...and it turned out he bore an unsettling resemblance to one of my cousins, who is not someone I want to be reminded of in porny situations). All this is to say that my mental image of Bertie is currently undergoing a slight shift, for that reason among others. It seems my mental real-life Bertie just doesn't look as close as I thought to my drawn Bertie. He'll probably be undergoing some subtle alterations in my art now.

So, this whole thing got me wondering: what does your mental Bertie look like? Is your image influenced by fic? The tv show? For me, the consistent features are a lean face, prominent nose, slightly receding chin, large blue eyes, sunny smile, hair anywhere from golden blond to sandy brown, nice looking but not in a head-turning way. The details keep shifting, though, which is very frustrating.

Comments

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

heee! I am squeeful and delighted! Jeeves is a shy little bugger, isn't he? I'm sure that large bowler is absolutely necessary to preserve his modesty, though. :D

I shall give some thought to my actual head-canon Bertie and Jeeves. They do shift a bit, depending on how I'm writing them, to be honest. Aside from Stephen Fry's crooked nose, my Jeeves doesn't really resemble him that much. My Bertie doesn't really resemble Hugh Laurie at all.

[hazeltea.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love these! No surprise there :) Golfing Bertie is just charming. For me, Stephen and Hugh did such a good job that they are pretty much my mental image, but your Bertie and Jeeves are very close, handsome, dapper chaps that they are.

[gini-baggins.livejournal.com]

I adore Jeeves physique, and that Bertie is significantly leaner. They are so gorgeous.

My mental image of Bertie and Jeeves are pretty much Hugh and Stephen, though the details might shift depending on the fics I read. I've seen your art develop from Hugh's and Stephen's Bertie and Jeeves to your own mental image of Bertie and Jeeves and they both appeal to me very much.

[charie-caphine.livejournal.com]

***This keeps showing up as 'screened'. Why?? What am I doing wrong?!? Somebody, help! [/panic] Sorry if you got this repeted, like, five times.***

Gorgeous art, yes, as always, the nu is too much information for me, love the non-digital looks of the golfing Bertie and the socks especially arrest attention for some reason, moving on.

I don't have a solid visual idea for the boys, either. Something along the lines of some of your own stuff, and much of muuskanuikkunen's, too.

As for live-action versions, I haven't stumbled upon my Jeeves look-alike (who theoretically must appear: not too tall, strong but lean, dark-eyed, and have a sort of very correct facial features), but when I first came across young Bing Crosby photos my immediate impression was: this is Bertie. Or startlingly similar, anyway. Not to hotlink, here's why: author's photo (http://fusedfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/00aa-ss-bing-crosby.jpg) on Bertie's novels (nevermind the text), suave and in the mood (http://blueopossum.homestead.com/files/crosby-bing.jpg), Bertie watching a music show (http://www.a-1video.com/Bing%20young%20C.U..JPG), just look at these eyes (http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Crosby,%20Bing/Annex/Annex%20-%20Crosby,%20Bing_04.jpg) (!!!), got top-hat (http://warchild13.com/images/2009/07/BingCrosby.jpg), need I say more. And, he sings! =)

[cicerothewriter.livejournal.com]

I really love these, especially the golfing picture! It's so difficult to draw a human, much less a human twisted into a slightly awkward position.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I read the books years before the TV show even existed, but after seeing the TV show I automatically see the characters as Hugh and Stephen, although I love the fanart in this community and some of it doesn't look anything like Hugh or Stephen, and BTW, your fanart is quite gorgeous. (nice butt on Bertie!)

[jameta4all.livejournal.com]

Your pictures are pretty much how I picture them in my head, though I'd prefer Jeeves to be chunkier. Not corpulent... merely rotund.

[coffee-n-retcon.livejournal.com]

Very wonderful pictures (as always!) Are you planning on colouring the golfing Bertie?

As to mental image, as I saw the television series first, it would seem that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie will always be my mental image. In fact, as I'm currently still working my way through the books if any description does not exactly fit Stephen or Hugh it causes be a bit of a pause.

[saylee.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous pictures!

As far as mental images, hmmmm. I see Bertie fairly similarly to the way you've drawn him here. Your written description sounds spot-on to my mental image. My mental Jeeves is harder to pin down. Dark hair and eyes, tan-ish skin, tall. I see his build as being slightly bigger than Bertie's - certainly not fat, and not built like an ox the way some fic paints him, but solid and in good shape. I'm willing to take Bertie's word for it that his features are finely chiselled, but I haven't worked out in my head exactly what they look like. I also see him as youngish, usually 8 years older than Bertie at the outside, more likely 4-5. But he's got the whole tall, dark and handsome thing going on.

Neither my mental Bertie or my mental Jeeves look much like Hugh and Stephen, except for the height, and certain facial expressions. My mental Jeeves shares some of his eyebrow lifts and self-satisfied looks with Stephen, and my mental Bertie shares that moony-eyed look that Hugh does so well.

[sookail.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pics!

As for mental images, thinking of Hugh and Stephen quite automatically (like many others :P). They were just so perfect doing this :P

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

Your version of Bertie always reminds me a bit of Roger from 101 Dalmations.

In my head Bertie and Jeeves are two guys who bear a vague passing resemblance to Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Of course that is further influenced by whether or not the author of a particular fic references Stephen Fry's bent nose.

[wotwotleigh.livejournal.com]

My own mental images are still shifting. I developed a strong image of Bertie pretty early on, and a more vague one for Jeeves, based on the books. Since watching the show, my image of Jeeves has been almost completely supplanted by Stephen Fry. Although I adore Hugh Laurie and think he played the role of Bertie to perfection, my old mental image of Bertie is still basically in place.

One thing that's both frustrating and wonderful about Wodehouse's writing is how vague he is with the descriptions of his protagonists. He's generally more specific with secondary characters.

All Wodehouse says about Bertie is that he is slender and elegant. I have a vague memory of a mention of blue eyes somewhere, but I haven't come across it during my recent re-reading. I always got the sense that he was reasonably good looking. I picture one of those boyishly handsome fellows with the big eyes and round chins that were so in vogue in the 1920s, sort of a Buddy Rogers (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iNLtcc6dW9Q/TH2nZAwKQaI/AAAAAAAAFKM/C04gIiVHeXk/s1600/Buddy+Rogers+042832.jpg) type (although not quite that pretty, and not that dark-haired).

Back before I saw the show, I always pictured Jeeves being considerably older than Bertie. Having re-read most of the books and a handful of the short stories in the past few months, I really don't see any evidence for a great age difference, although Bertie does sometimes compare Jeeves to a "father" or some other quasi-parental figure. I still picture Jeeves being a bit older, maybe by 10 years or a little more. He's described as "dark" (I assume that refers to dark hair and eyes, but maybe he had a swarthy complexion as well), with "finely chiseled features", so I do get the impression of a man who is fairly handsome, or at least distinguished-looking. There's no hint of him being as big as Stephen Fry, but I kind of like that -- Stephen Fry's Jeeves gives you the sense that he could beat the crap out of anyone who tried to cross him (although he would only do so as a last resort).

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

very much like Hugh, actually. Crossed a little bit with a young Ben Daniels and Jonny Lee Miller and the bloke from all the shirt ads from the 20s and 30s that someone put up a while back - the one that was the boyfriend of the artist? I grew up on the various watercolour images of the Penguin editions, and none of them ever looked anything like my mental image of Bertie. For a start, most of them were distinctly chubby. Then I saw the images of Hugh-as-Bertie and went 'Yes! thankyou!'

OTOH, mental Jeeves looks very little like Stephen Fry except from a few expressions.

[triedunture.livejournal.com]

I think I once said my mental Jeeves is pretty much your Jeeves, or getting closer to it all the time. He gets leaner and less broad and is closely approaching your sketches. Bertie, like you said, shifts a lot. I think of him as pretty tall and a little gawky, with blond hair and pale skin. I think he has a prominent nose, or thinks he does at least, and a small forehead probably. People who think they have big noses often have small foreheads.

But other than that he's very fuzzy to me.

Bunny!

[krisreinke.livejournal.com]

I love the nekid Bertie and Jeeves ( esp. the bowler - because some things just can not be cast off.)

But! The pictures inspired a bunny! :-) Even in the 1920's England ( and the US - both LA and NY) had 'naturalist' resorts.
So some friend of Bertie's (I'd suggest Rocky T) invites Bertie for a stay in the country - at a naturalist resort - and of course Jeeves has to come along as Berties valet. And, of course, obey the resort rules!
Leaving the question of... what does a valet do to dress a naked gentleman?

[muuskanuikkunen.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely! I really like the poses and golfing Bertie is absolutely darling :D

My Bertie tends to change his appearance quite a bit. At the moment I see him as a bit awkward, tall and thin man who has a slighlty buck teeth and floppy hair. Oh, and he also has a nose that bears a resemblance to those Who-people in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. (Does that last sentence make any sense? I'm not sure.)

Jeeves is more set in my mind. He's tall, dark-haired and has grey eyes. He's more sturdy than Bertie, but not too much. His face has clear cut features, and a lightly bent nose.

When I read Wodehouse I don't see Fry and Laurie at all. I always imagine Bertie and Jeeves (+ other characters) as cartoon characters. :')

[detective-wolf.livejournal.com]

I love your art, so much. So inspiring *_*! *grabby hands*

My Bertie used to be very much like Hugh Laurie in the beginning, but now he's morphed into something else entirely. He's got brown hair, that is a warm tint of brown which isn't too light but not too dark either, he's got blue eyes and a jutting sharpish nose. I never draw Bertie particularly tall, but I do draw him lanky. I don't know where his height has gone to, it just disappeared with time. I love dressing him in brown clothes and a blue tie. He's got an adorable, bit lost expression, dopey, you know? But he's got a large and kind smile, which gives away a cute innocence that I see when I read Wodehouse.

My Jeeves is a big chap, very much like Stephen Fry, but he's become a bit leaner during my fanarting years. To contrast Bertie, he's not lanky, he's just a wardrobe dressed in a valeting suit. He's got semi thick eyebrows and dark eyes. Hair is black, like usual. I have noticed, that I very often draw Jeeves with an incredibly stern expression, now that I have read the 15 yearly stories of Jeeves, it is not that surprising, Jeeves was very specific on his words and what he demanded of Bertie in some of those stories. And Bertie gave in. My Jeeves can also be pretty intimidating, I guess, which is probably all kinds of wrong, he's not supposed to be even 'visible' when in the same room as the characters, yet he usually looks like someone kicked his puppy (Bertie).

[lady529.livejournal.com]

I keep trying to decide which one is my favourite, and I just can't choose. Jeeves and his surreptitiously placed big bowler hat, or Bertie's cute ickle bum <3

Also, golfing Bertie is wicked. You nailed the posture and the draping of his clothes and everything is just fab.

The Lady 529

[emeraldreeve.livejournal.com]

I love these especially the sexy Jeeves! They are all great! I so love your art!

I'll discuss how I see them in my next email to you. :)