Jacob & Bowman Facts

( Uncommon Questions for OCs and their Creators )

39  How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?

With Bowman and Jacob, I think it probably seems like they’re opposites on the surface. Bowman is quick to point out the first things he notices about someone ( “Giant!” ), while Jacob really isn’t. He’s a very chill guy when it gets down to it, so as long as a flaw isn’t directly hurting someone ( for example, someone being arrogant and hurting someone much smaller ), Jacob tends to look past them.

Bowman, once he’s had time to think things over after his initial reaction, can usually also roll with it. Again, if the flaw isn’t threatening, he will take the pacifist sprite route and begrudgingly forgive giants for being giants.

43  If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so?

Bowman: “Like who I want to mate with? Probably my mate, whenever I get one. Is that anyone else’s business?”

Jacob: “I guess they call it ace? I’m pretty much just ‘nah, dude.’ ”

B  What inspired you to create them?

For Bowman, he’s been in my head for a very long time. Since I was a small child, pretty much. There were lots of visits to grandma’s house when I was a kid, and that’s a couple hours’ drive from where we live. I know it’s fairly common to imagine flying alongside the car, but that’s who Bowman is for me. He was that muse dodging around branches and through the trees that entertained me for the long trips, and he has grown into his own distinct character since then.

He would be so offended to know that he probably couldn’t keep pace with a car like he could in his original form.

Jacob had much simpler origins. I needed a human to pit against Bowman in his original story. Jacob was the one who caught him, though I had planned for a different human (Bobby) to become Bowman’s best friend. However, Jacob and Bowman had much better chemistry than I ever expected, so plans changed. I have no regrets 🙂

D  Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

Jacob has stayed more or less the same. I’ve fleshed out his backstory a lot more since his creation, but he’s stayed looking pretty much the same. He’s Bowman’s giant.

Bowman’s design hasn’t seen any drastic changes, either. I’ve adjusted how his wings look and feel until landing on the leafy sheen they have now, but as far as hair, skin, clothes, height, etc, things have stayed pretty constant for him. I did, at one point, add the scarf that he wears around his waist (to keep his shirt from blowing about too much), and I really like that. It’s fun to see it drawn worn on the neck, too, which I can see him doing from time to time.

I guess one thing that did happen was I noticed that the earliest fanart of him showed him with fair skin. I realized I had this image in my head of Bowman with brown skin that I had literally never mentioned in the original story ( preteen me was much more preoccupied with yay fairies meeting humans! ), so in later drafts I made sure to point that out.