Meme: PB Meme!

[life_inshadow]

Because we haven't done this since 2010, if the tags can be believed, add I suspect a lot of us want an excuse to talk about our newbies anyhow:

Originally from solo_sword:

So for those of you who have never had to choose a PB, I envy you because it can be very very hard. For those who have, who do you use? Why did you choose them? Or do you have any future journals you want to talk about how you searched high and low to find that one perfect face for your character, or complain how you haven't?

Comments

[abitlowkey]

I used this kid here for Maximus the Mad Inhuman back when I had Blackagar around.

He's just douchey and sweet enough looking for me to pick him as Loki.

[nookiepowered]

Francine is the only non-NPC character I didn't have a canon PB for, and OMFG Sara Rue IS Francine. At least in her Popular years. Though I'd even argue that her changing looks over the later years reflect that she's gone through a lot of the same self-image issues that Francine has.

Amusingly I started watching Lost Girl due to considering Anna Silk as a PB for a book character who is also dark-haired, Fae, and good with sharp objects. At some point I went "....We know more about Bo and her canon has tons more to play with that's more easily accessible than the entire OWOD Changeling library. Sorry, Tango."

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

THIS IS A MEME? HUH.

...that's how we know we haven't done it in a while I guess.

So my kids all came with PBs built in, pretty much. With Frank I guess I could've picked someone else who's played him -- Aaron Tveit was the original Frank on Broadway but there were a bunch of others in workshops and I've totally been stalking audition forums to see who got cast as him for the upcoming tour. (Shut up I'm a nerd.) But Aaron Tveit is adorbs and he's the only one I've ever seen play him and has a pretty voice and that is that.

[geewhizfellas.livejournal.com]

Finding a PB for a character who is mostly made up of primary shapes and is a nine year old isn't the easiest thing, but I always wanted to use Mitch Hewer for something, I had no idea what. I was leaning for him for Butters, because GOD, the expressions, and somehow all the nakedness seemed to fit in there, too.

Then I watched Skins and realized that Butters was basically a nerdier, less confident, (slightly) less gay, and generally more fucked up version of Maxxie, anyway. SO IT WORKED! =D

And Ke$ha will always be Marjorine in my head. Always.

[ultron_junior]

Victor Mancha took forever and a day, to the point where my app did not have a final PB named in it.

He's hard both because his face is pretty distinctively drawn, and because the original colorist decided he had green eyes. Which are quite lovely, but not exactly easy to match if you're also looking for somebody Latino who is not Gael Garcia Bernal. (Gael just doesn't look like the comics to me, and he's hard to find icons of at the right age anyhow.)

Anyhow, I had two matches that were close but not PERFECT and was on about my third trawl through pb_updates when I spotted some older images of Tyler Posey. I'd only seen icons from Teen Wolf, which are often a bit jocky for Vic. But when he looks like this, it's easy to see him as a match for this.

... other than the damn eyes.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

Luke: Was easy because he came with the perfect PB thanks to the movie. Though admittedly I did have other people in mind when I first considered apping him before the movie came out. Boyd Holbrook was one and ironically enough him and Jake Abel are playing brothers in The Host.

Jace: Also easy because most of the fandom approves of Alex Pettyfer. He's an asshole irl just like Jace is. Jamie Campbell Bower is playing him in the movie but all the icons of him right now he looks like a dirty hobo and Jace would never. So I stuck with Alex.

Peeta: Oh how I was so against Josh Hutcherson as Peeta at first because this boy has a head of a lego and is so, so tiny and wee. But I watched him be cute in interviews and saw how much he related to Peeta and it kind of mirrored how Peeta's attractiveness comes from his charm, not necessarily his looks. And then the movie came out and he blew me away (HIM CRYING AFTER THE REAPING UGH) so I gave in and picked him for a PB.

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

I was lucky enough to have built-in PBs for basically everyone I've played -- anyone who came from a book had an adaptation coming out soon, and usually the casting was great and that was that (see Dany, even though Emilia does not have purple eyes, wtf were you thinking GRRM?)

The only one I had to cast in recent memory was Katniss, and in hindsight, I think I did okay though I absolutely adore JLaw in the movie. The girl I picked -- Amelia Warner -- had just the right amount of hardness in her features, braided her hair a bunch, and was a fairly rare smiler. I did a little photoshop on her eyes -- they're supposed to be gray, and Amelia has brown -- and I was golden.

That being said, my newbie comes with a built-in PB but ICONS ARE IMPOSSIBLE. EGADS, I AM GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE MY OWN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVER. SMH.

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Usually, I have a list of characters in need of PBs that I plan to app once I figure out a PB for them, and I follow an insane amount of icon journals. Then I find one. And it STICKS LIKE GLUE, and that's how it was with Fawn.

Fawn's interesting because she's described as being "so pretty that it hurts to look at her for too long" (ugh). She needed to be blonde, blonde, blonde, and thin and waifish, but with giant boobs (oh, it's one thing when female authors create perfect Mary Sue characters to live vicariously through, but when male authors do it? And this happens with every young female character in this book, too).

Finding pretty waifish blonde girls isn't too hard. Finding pretty waifish blonde girls with larger breasts that don't look fake and can still manage to look fourteen years old and innocent is a little more difficult. But Indiana Evans had that in spades, and I love that I'm going to get a lot of icons as she grew up in various different roles to last me a while.

Couldn't be happier with the choice. This girl is freakin' gorgeous. And Australian. And is in a bikini a lot, which is probably the least Fawn-like thing about her, with the exception of, you know, having a penis, but I'll get to that in my info post.

And also? LOL Blue Lagoon.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better J.Hutch is gonna be in the Red Dawn remake. WITH THOR.

[throughaphase]

When I originally had Kitty from X-Men Evolution, I used Lucy Hale for the PB because I saw one particular icon with her hair styled the way the cartoon character had it and she looked exactly right. When I brought in a different version of her, that particular PB didn't work anymore. And while I could have used say, Ellen Page, who's fine, I looked at where this version was coming from canon and just could not imagine her putting on the outfits needed to work at the bar she did in Mekanix, and I just had the worst time imagining her in the role there.

So I literally went through PB Updates and looked through all their brown-haired, brown-eyed girls and stumbled on Phoebe Tonkin, where I came across a bunch of Secret Circle icons where she was dressed like I imagined. And then I found a ton of icons for that Australian mermaid show she did, where she looked more like my idea of what she looked like day-to-day and decided she worked.

Now if only she would stop making bitchface in all her icons recently.

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

AUSTRALIAN MERMAID SHOW!!

I'm actually going to have to watch that Australian movie mermaid (I can type...) show someday now, too, so help me.

[shestheworst.livejournal.com]

As for the others?

Britta came with a built-in PB, and Gillian Jacobs is probably half the reason I wanted to app Britta. She astounds me and I am in constant awe of this woman and want to totally be her bestie.

I don't have any intention to find a PB for Samus, though I can't imagine it would be hard. I like keeping her in the Power Suit as much as possible, and the game icons of her without it are pretty enough and expressive enough as it is. I'm sure one day I'll come across a PB that just SCREAMS "extra Samus icons!" but right now, she's good.

And the Librarian is an orangutan. So...

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky because I look for PBs, get annoyed, whine to someone, then they find me someone good. Thank you, PBS support system!

Bruce: Sean Faris - Steve helped me out with this one. Since Bruce's defining facial characteristic is his jaw (since that's what you see of his face when the cowl is on), I was going through possible PBs and rejecting guys quickly based on the jaw being too pointy or too round or just vaguely not strong enough. I got annoyed, gave up, and Steve came along with Sean Faris who has been a godsend. He's a steadily working C-list action star (plenty of icons) who's been in bad movies about MMA, rugby, and freerunning, but he also had a bad Fox series where he played a lawyer or politician or something. And he's distinctively good-looking enough that people cap the crap he's in, so I can icon without having to watch it if I don't want to.

Although I have watched King of Fighters and Freerunner for icons. Both are entertainingly horrible. I'm still trying to figure out how a clearly Japanese kid turned very white in KoF....

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Finding PBs for these girls was hard. I could have easily found a PB for any one of them, as their descriptions are sketchy at best, but having to find three who could match their individual descriptions, but still have enough features in common that they could pass for sisters who are roughly the same age and also don't look too contemporary?

It took me forever. And they still aren't perfect. I foresee a lot of begging for Photoshoppery magic in my future to fix eye colors and the like.

Sholeh was the easiest. I needed someone with red hair and green eyes, who was skinny and kind of young and vulnerable looking. I'd wanted to use Dakota Blue Richards for a PB since I'd first seen icons made from The Secret of Moonacre, and I think she really captures Sholeh's youth and love of learning, as well as the hints of enthusiasm and mischief she gets. We don't really know how the Tryad dresses (the world of Ephemera is both fantasy-old fashioned and yet rather modern), but I think the Victorian dresses she wears do a good job of saying, "Not From Around Here." I have a slew of icons with Dakota in modern clothing that I'll start to add in, but only once they've been in Fandom for awhile.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zeela was the next easiest, though I didn't have a built-in red-haired PB like I did with Sholeh. I needed someone with dark eyes and dark hair that looked like she could kick ass if she needed to--or, at least, would be able to once she got a little more growth and training in. Her PB, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, actually has green eyes, so I grabbed only the icons that played with lighting and shadow enough to pass for dark. (I mentioned Photoshop magic help, y/y?)

I like her smirky expressions the best; she absolutely looks like the kind of sister who would tease the hell out of her siblings, but then jump down the throat of anyone who tries to do the same.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony wasn't too difficult, actually. I'd watched Eurotrip when it came out (NO, I DON'T KNOW WHY. I AM INSANE OR SOMETHING.) and immediately thought of him for Tony once I saw Iron Man: Armored Adventures.

And then went insane and decided to app a teenage Tony Stark. Though, on the plus side, this version is lacking in Batman & Robin style nipples on his suit.

[catchmeifyoucan.livejournal.com]

Wait... Eurotrip isn't a good movie?

[maidandbeauty.livejournal.com]

As for future PBs... I'm still iffy on this one. Why do I keep making journals for ASOIAF characters? What is so wrong with meeeeee?

[morethnmachine.livejournal.com]

Though, I am pleased by other future potential picks!

[notconflicted]

Sia was a bitch and a half to find. I needed someone who could look appropriately princessy, but still kick ass, and who looked like the drawings and looked like she could be descended from Jaina and Leia. Tall order there.

Originally I wanted to use a young Angelina Jolie for her. Which was a problem as a) young Angelina Jolie was doing weird things to her hair and that made icons difficult, and 2) no one icons Angelina Jolie before the Tomb Raider days and by then I thought her too old to use for a 15-year-old. So I started looking for other PB's, and started going through PB Updates again, and was sort of trying to convince myself to use Odette Yustman, who I'd rejected for Jaina way back when for being too pretty-pretty. And she felt too old for 15 and was too pretty-pretty.

And then Fry, who is amazing at finding Star Wars PBs, suggested Lyndsy Fonseca. And I'd seen her on PB Updates and decided she wasn't right, but this was one of those cases where it's alllll about the role, because she showed me Nikita icons and suddenly the PB worked. She's not 100% matchy to the canon images, but she's got enough of the right attitude in the icons that I'm tooootally happy with her.

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

Ugh she's just so pretty. I saw her in Kick-Ass recently and had a "HOLY CRAP TED MOSBY'S FUTURE WIFE MUST BE SO HOT, BECAUSE THAT'S TOTALLY THE DAUGHTER FROM HIMYM" moment.

[myownface]

... It's weird. This is actually the first character I've ever had to find a PB for. I tend to just not bother when I'm playing a character from an already visual canon, like comic books or movies or video games. Especially when there's plenty of source, like there was for Reno.

For Sparkle here, it was a bit of a hunt, though. I needed a punk-looking boy with dark hair, green eyes, and some obvious attitude issues. You'd be surprised how few of those there ARE on the internet. So, Lou Taylor Pucci won, courtesy of a 12-minute Green Day music video where he played the titular Jesus of Suburbia. He's still a little too emo for my taste, since Sparks is the sort to burst out laughing at the worst possible moments, but he's close enough to pass muster.

And then I capped the whole thing like a mad fiend. A lot of work for a super-obscure character, woo!

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

No PB yet, because I have ALL THE ANIME/MANGA SOURCE EVER for Minako. Will take suggestions, however, just for visual reference.

I am (attempting) to refrain from giving LJ money, so restricting myself to JUST 15 icons was hard enough as-is without a PB involved.

[bloody-luck.livejournal.com]

Mat took me forever: in the book he's described as tallish (but not as tall as Rand), brown hair, and always wearing a distinctive hat and scarf.

I was looking pre-hipsters so finding a dude wandering around in a scarf was a lot harder back then. I wasn't entirely sold on Orli here because he's 1) a little too pretty and 2) slightly obsessed with having facial hair as he looks about fourteen when he doesn't have a goatee but he had absolutely fascinating facial expressions, and Mat is definitely expressive.

Plus really, who wouldn't like Orlando Bloom on the flist?

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

I don't have any future journals I have to come with PBs for but having written out the list of NPCs I need to cast for Peeta LAWD HAMMERCY I hope THG casting directors do my work for me. They better not cast a flop Finnick and Johanna.

Not sure if I'm gonna match up with the PJO casting directors and switch Henry Cavill for Nathan Fillion as Hermes should he come back during PW.

[witch-for-hire.livejournal.com]

While we are talking future PBs: In my head, and despite the fact the actual comics art does not bear this out, Thessaly looks like Chloe Sevigny.

So .... I'll likely stick to comics on her unless Chloe dyes her hair brown and starts wearing glasses for a role.

[momslilassassin]

Ben also took forever because I needed a kid who looks like Hayden Christensen and Mark Hamill but, according to canon, also needs to be a redhead. Or a blonde. Or a reddish-blond. Or a dark redhead.

The writers aren't so much with the consistency.

I finally went with Max Thieriot here because he had icons young enough to work for wee fourteen year old Ben and, fortunately for me, has had enough work in the intervening years to age up along with my character.

[icecoldfrost]

I came across Stam when PB-searching for Dojima, and there was never any question once I decided to app Emma. None.

Jessica Stam is a teenage Emma Frost. Full stop.

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

Zayne: Joseph Gordon-Levitt - I was doing PB searches for Zayne for about a year or two and just settling for comics icons instead. He's another one with a really distinct jaw so I eliminated a lot of PBs for not having a jaw that was pointy enough, and even if they had that, they needed longer hair. A young JGL was actually perfect except his hair is too dark so I rejected him over and over. Then Steve found the perfect icon to convince me and I had to finally give in and ignore the hair color.

I'll be changing his icons to be an older JGL soon. His hair will be a bit shorter, but I will have so many more icons to choose from.

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate was a right pain to find a PB for. The books give distinguishing features of 'exotic' eyes and really, really, reaaaaally long dark hair. Which should have give me tonnes of options, but as it turns out all the brunettes of the right age looked way too cutesy to pull off badass or way too model-y or just too happy.

I found Olivia Thirlby pretty early on, and just kept coming back to her as my benchmark. She ticked all the boxes looked a lot like the promo art (http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/9677/picture2tn.png), and pulled some great faces. So she became my Kate.

[alreadyisbeyond.livejournal.com]

Terry McGinnis: Male model with a ridiculously Polish name. I don't even know for sure that he's Polish, but you'd have to work hard to convince me that he wasn't based on whatever his last name that I can't remember offhand is.

Anyway, I got it in my head to play Terry once Bruce graduated. (Truth be told, I considered apping him before I ever apped Bruce. I made the right call at the time.) I started looking for PBs, couldn't find any, whined to Elaine, and she pointed me toward a PB she found one time when she thought of apping him. And he looks JUST LIKE TERRY. But based on his photoshoots, Terry would need to be shirtless 23 hours a day. So Elaine also pointed me to someone on LJ who made like 400 Terry icons from the show, plus another 200 Batman icons from the show.

So I have a PB that I might not ever have to use. But still.

Anyway, that was the easiest hunt ever for me. Thanks, Elaine!

My other current characters either have a natural PB (GOB) or are Yakko and don't need one/couldn't have one.

[onemoreproblem.livejournal.com]

I WIN AT ALL THE THINGS.