So I tried to think up a new character, starting with their species. I didn’t want to go with anything too standard… like kitsune. Kitsune has become my standard first-thought creature, even before vampire and catboy. You know me, I always want to try something new.

And I couldn’t think of a darn one. My mind utterly blanked.

Then I got angry at myself. Of course, I know more kinds of creatures than “kitsune.” It’s just… gah, blank!

That’s when I tried to put a list together. It would be a new resource to glance up and down when designing new characters. It would naturally become too massive to be just one blog post.

So I started on Pinterest. It is an amazing tool to collect visual things, like arts and crafts and fashion (which seems like 80% of the pins).

Thus the “Mythological Creatures” pinboard came into creation. Now, when I need a new creature, I can just take a stroll through. Plus, I can make notes of different interpretations, like how the tengu in Black Bird look a whole lot sexier than the usual depiction or how kirin differ from Twelve Kingdoms to Pet Shop of Horrors.

For example, I’ve pinned…

Yuki Onna (Snow Woman) Tengu from Black Bird

Source: google.ca via Tanith on Pinterest
Kirin from Twelve Kingdoms Kirin from Pet Shop of Horrors

It also turns out that it’s fantastic for planning characters too, especially their styles. In my current WIP, there’s Lara. She’s sort of punk, sort of goth, and her style would totally fit in contemporary times. Unfortunately, the world it’s set in is closer to the 1950′s/1960′s. While her style says so much about her character, I had no idea how to dress her.

Until I started looking and pinning. Now I have a whole pinboard of her looks to refer to.

So, I want to know, do you use Pinterest? What do you use it for?

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