Key Scenes Illustrated!

I was digging through some random files and found a doodle I did for Krispy when I read Twilight a few years ago and got to the scene with Bella and Edward in the valley. I was prepared for the Big Sparkling Reveal since Krispy had told me beforehand just why vampires don't venture out into sunlight, but even armed with that foreknowledge I still snorted chai up my nose.

Click to see detail of his six-pack sculpted-marble abs. (Edit: I guess it's not clickable. That's just as well.)
That got me thinking about the books I've been reading lately, and what key scenes and big moments are important to stories, and which ones get remembered the best. The I Am Your Father Scene in Star Wars, Hamlet holding aloft Yorick's skull, Prince Philip facing down Dragon!Maleficent, Arthur pulling the sword from the stone, Katniss volunteering to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games—these are all memorable scenes. Most of them take place near the end of their stories, but Katniss stepping forward happens at the beginning, and Hamlet's "Alas, poor Yorick!" schpiel occurs—actually, I don't remember when it occurs, but it's not at the end.

At any rate, I was thinking about what makes scenes memorable and/or powerful, but I pretty much clinched it right there: the most memorable scenes are usually powerful ones, either emotionally or intellectually. Or sparklingly, I guess.

So, since I don't really have much more to say than that and therefore have nothing to blog about, I'll just finish off this post with random doodles illustrations of key scenes from a few more books.

From Nightshade by Andrea Cremer: The very first page of the book, where Calla the Alpha Werewolf fights a bear that's already mauled the mysterious hot love interest who was innocently hiking on the forbidden mountain.



Yes, the hot love interest was mauled by a bear before the book even began.
From Across the Universe by Beth Revis: Elder gazes awestruck upon the cryogenically frozen Amy.


This is pretty much how I visualized it in my head.

From The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce: The twelve-winged icarus vampire darkangel confronts the compassionate girl who would save him from himself.




To be fair, it never said where his wings were located.
And that's all for today, folks! Stay warm if you're cold, and stay cool if you're hot!