Hello, friends! Remember that update where I told you I made some moodboards for a novel I’m working on? Well, here they are, babyyy! A moodboard for the story as a whole and one for each main character. For now, lets refer to the novel as RDB or “Robot Draft B”. We don’t talk about draft A. Also I made all of these moodboards in Canva using pins from my personal Pinterest board if anyone was wondering. So, no, I do not own any of the individual images used in this, but I did collage them myself. Feel free to use these moodboards for personal use, just don’t claim you made them yourself, please. That would be lame of you.
I won’t go into the plot or synopsis of the story yet because spoilers, duh. What I will say about this story, is that this is yet another story about robots (technically androids) as an allegory for oppressed peoples in our current society! Wow! Innovation! No one’s ever done it before. That’s what you’re saying; I know because I can hear you. I’m in your walls. But here’s the thing: that story has never been told by me. That’s what you gotta remember as a writer or any kind of artist really: yes, the story has been told, but it has yet to be told by you. Each of us has a unique perspective, a valuable perspective, and we each will tell a story differently from the last guy. So don’t feel discouraged if you have an idea using a theme or motif or allegory or metaphor that’s been done to death; just tell the damn story anyway.
Ok, yes! Hi! Art! Let’s start with the first moodboard: the moodboard for the story as a whole.
RDB Moodboard
Now, first of all, I gotta ask if y’all would categorize this as a “moodboard” or a “collage”. ‘Cause I’ve been calling it a moodboard, but I also just remembered that the word “collage” exists, and now I’m second guessing myself. Secondly! Let’s talk about this image. In the background, I’ve inserted pictures of a motel and an alley at night along with a cropped image of diner seats at the bottom. On top, I’ve inserted quotes relevant to the struggles the characters will face, all overlayed with repeating text.
I wanted this moodboard (and the rest of the moodboards in the set) to give off this overwhelmed and slightly claustrophobic feeling. I wanted them to be visual representations of overthinking, of being flooded by thoughts, regrets, fears, feelings. I also wanted this one in particular to represent the kind of setting and emotion that can be expected in this novel.
Character Moodboard: Penny
The first character we’re gonna take a look at is named Penny. I won’t be going into detail about the backstory or lore of these characters because… spoilers, man, oh my god. We talked about this. Besides, all the information you need at the moment is information that can be grasped from these moodboards, I promise you that.
I’m not gonna hold your hand and fully analyze my own collages for you, because I know I don’t need to. You’re smart; you know how to analyze art. You’re an artist. So instead of hand holding, I’ll just give a general gist of what’s going on.
One thing I do want to note, as it’s not very visible in the image, is that the background for this is the painting “Blue Monday” by Annie Lee. The painting depicts a black woman sitting in bed before getting ready for work. While I included this piece in my collage, you’ll notice that I almost completely covered the woman with other images. This is extremely relevant to Penny’s character. Penny is someone who is often ignored, overlooked, and, when she is not ignored, she’s ogled, sexualized, objectified. She’s almost never seen as in individual, as a human. She’s just a cog in the machine.
Character Moodboard: Claudie
The first thing I have to say about Claudie is that her name is inspired the lead singer in one of my favorite bands, Pinc Louds. Shoutout to that band for real; they’re so weird and cool and fun and deep. Sorry, I’m rambling. Just had to get that out of the way.
Claudie is an embodiment of feminine rage. Of course, all of the characters in this story have rage, and most of them are women, but Claudie encapsulates that emotion just a touch more than the others. From the start, she’s angry, and that anger, like all anger, stems from fear. Deep inside, she’s afraid of being replaced, of being forgotten, of being seen as worthless, unworthy of love, respect, safety, comfort. Claudie is the rage you feel against injustice, the feeling you get deep in your gut when someone wrongs you. Claudie is that anger.
Character Moodboard: April
April is for the (non gender specific) girlies with daddy issues. In a sense, she is also a form of feminine rage, but, for her, that rage stems more from grieving the life she could’ve had. April also embodies the current Westernized version of the ideal woman: white, blonde, thin, feminine, fragile, infantilized. She has been forced into this perfect little box of what it means to be a “beautiful woman”. She never got a chance to learn who she really is, to choose who she wanted to be. That’s where her flavor of feminine rage stems from.
Character Moodboard: Faron
Surprise surprise, here’s yet another woman that’s angry! Faron’s anger, however, manifests through her kindness. She takes care of those that the rest of the world forgets. She sees the beauty in the little things, the disregarded things, the flowers that people call weeds. Faron is a representation of how anger and resistance can be enacted with a gentle, loving hand.
Character Moodboard: Syd
Syd’s character represents how, often, kindness and trust can be taken advantage of. It’s not a weakness to be kind, to give people the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes it can feel like it is. There is strength in the act of staying soft in a world that wants to harden you. While this is true, it’s also true that Syd sometimes makes the mistake of putting their trust in people who haven’t earned it, and that comes to bite them in the ass.
Character Moodboard: Harlan
Harlan’s character is nostalgic for a life he’s never really lived. His character shows how, sometimes, someone saying they love you doesn’t mean you’ll feel loved by them. Maybe they don’t love you in the way that you need to be loved, or maybe what they think is love is really just possessiveness, a feeling of ownership. Maybe to them, loving someone just means enjoying how they’re treated by them with no attempt to do anything in return. Love to them is a stative verb, not an action verb. Maybe they appreciate, but they do not “love”. That’s the difficult lesson Harlan needs to learn.
Well, those are my moodboards for RDB! Or collages. Still haven’t decided which word is more accurate, but who really cares, let’s be honest. I hope you liked these! I’m really happy with how they came out. I will also be posting these moodboards on my socials soon, including Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram, so feel free to add these to your boards or blogs or whatever Instagram has, I forget. I do also have a Bluesky, but I forget to post on there ’cause you can’t schedule posts, and I just… I don’t enjoy managing this many social media pages at once; I just find it exhausting, personally. Anyway, talk to you soon, friend!
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