Art

None of the pictures I've seen of Dejah Thoris quite matches the mental image I've had since I first read the books, a fair few decades. Project Gutenberg have  'A Princess Of Mars' online ( http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62 ) and I've started to read them again. She's quite clearly described at the end of Chapter VIII - A Fair Captive From The Sky (bottom of page 35), and I'm pleased to say that my mental picture doesn't depart too much from this,

"And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life... Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure."

The common depictions of buxom caucasian (or very red-skinned) amazons don't, for me, quite capture  the 'slender, girlish figure' or ' light reddish copper color' skin. I've always imagined the authors reference to her colouring as being indicative of a metallic glow or sheen - surprisingly the Star Trek TOS klingons were the closest to my imagination (although they had a far more khaki colouration, and I don't recall any TOS klingon women as beautiful).

Anyway, here's my early attempts at converting my mental image into something more concrete. I know that her crimson cheeks and ruby lips are missing, she appears to levitating slightly above the floor, and her earrings are defying gravity, but I'm sure there are other issues.

Poser 9 renders with my worldball/mars for backdrop and lighting. Victoria 4 and SWAM/Goldtassel's Duchesse Hair and hairband (both from DAZ). All other  body ornaments from Rhiannon's V4 Tanya (Renderosity), significantly modified in the material room. Syltermermaid's X-Mas Freebie Lindy (from Pretty3D/ArtRaiders) as the base body texture, also with modifications in the material room.

Constructive criticism is always appreciated - what doesn't look right, what can be improved?
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