Rapture artwork, and thoughts about my characters

I'm developing my ideas around the two protagonists of my game Caverns and Dryads. 

I've been reading about what personality a character must have to have appeal in a novel. Most videos and books agree that they must have virtues, and flaws.

So I asked others. It's curious because in conversations I had offline, all the suggestions I got for each character were: in the case of Tamzyn, the female protagonist, to make her toxic, and in the case of Sioul, the male one, make him weak or go through ridiculous situations.

I'm not going to do any of that. Simply because it will not add anything to all the existing books, movies or other stuff out there.

I've told you before that I am not going to create another toxic couple. I am also not going to alienate them from their nature. 

Then I thought about the classical heroes of literature. For example, el Cid, or King Arthur, or Parsifal. 

They are not appealing because they have flaws. They are appealing because you came to love them because of their virtues, AND because their flaws.

For example, you can admire the bravery and fight for what is right of a knight as el Cid, and then admire him too when he is in disgrace. In a famous quote, people of the crowd say:

"How good will he serve if he had a good king". 

Because he had problems and difficulties, and made mistakes because of being honest, trust in others, or exceed in bravery to what was reasonable. You say to yourself "he should not have done that, but he did and it's admirable he did".

Hector, in the defense of Troy, is a father that goes to fight to protect their people, instead of just taking cover behind the walls. He shouldn't, you wish he wouldn't, but if he hadn't, you would not admire him.
"Tell my son to be even more brave than his father", is one of his last words, and your heart sinks when you read that.

So  I think most tutorials out there are wrong. You admire your heroes because of their virtues... and because their flaws are also heroic. You can relate to both, because in your own life, you are brave, but you fear. You are tenacious, but you doubt. You are loyal, but you often are betrayed. 

That's all. I had to say :D 

Here's a work I did last week, and two wallpapers of it. It's called "Rapture". Just a moment frozen in time, wanting to depict natural beauty, with the messy hair, the fair skin, and the flowers, and maybe also the elusive nature of a creature of the woods.

To download these wallpapers, click on them, and then right click and select "Save image as..." or similar in your browser, to download them to your computer.