After my Twenty Questions project ran its course, I converted my Tumbr into a visual-inspiration board for characters I am developing for a writing project. I take pains to identify the subject and credit the artist-photographer whenever possible.
Characters ideas
- A conservatively dressed Hasidic woman in her early twenties
- A woman who stands 6’3″ tall
- A square-jawed detective of natural beauty with a military background
- A bearded detective who abandoned the Hasidic community that raised him
- His supportive and well-dressed husband, the doctor
- An unflappable man with extensive martial arts training
- A community leader and counselor
- An older, female professor of Hawaiian descent who married a conservative rabbi
- A mother of orphans who owns a bar
- Her wife, the lawyer
- A genius, billionaire, philanthropist, and captain of industry
- The bearded religious leader of a Hasidic community in his sixties or seventies
- A home-schooled student in her first year at a major metropolitan university
- A transgender woman, confident in her own identity
- Another who is not
- A barista who does not suffer assholes
- A whip-smart, socially awkward student
- A tweedy uncle and retired professor who owns the university watering hole
- Supportive, blue-collar parents
- Members of a close-knit Jewish community
- Members of a neighborhood watch
- The eclectic faculty of a city university
- The officers and detectives of the local police precinct
- A young, flamboyant drag queen
- A bartender who serves as an underworld liaison
- A dog named “tits”
- A no-nonsense librarian
- An overcoat infused with technology that lets it adapt to blend with its surroundings
- A free-spirited, sexually confident character that balances a conservative and repressed one
- A female gym rat who refers to her trans friend as “Tiny”
Platform
Tumblr
Toolset
Various search engines, browser developer tools, curation, research, investigation
Reference
- Librarian and Comic Book Historian Robert Hulshof-Schmidt


Lessons Learned
- Every professional photographer worth his/her salt has an Instagram account.
- An Instagram account tends to have richer content and better citation than the photographer’s professional website. A photographer is more likely to tag a subject on Instagram.
- Instagram images are excluded from Google Image searches.
- Pinterest users rarely if ever cite sources.
- Celebrity fan sites are loaded with content. Unfortunately, the photographer is rarely given credit.
- Alternate versions of a photo can be found by sifting through Similar Images. The original may be in color or cropped differently.