Kevin's Watch

Despite the extensive descriptions given some characters, I think there's still some room for variations between readers' mental images. Other interpretations may vary from person to person, too.

I think there is some value in preserving Donaldson's original (or current) vision for the characters. Some day soon, we may develop a way to capture the internal dialog and nuanced character development intrinsic to The Chronicles. When that happens, some might like to experience Donaldson's perspective - sort of a Director's Cut for books.

Has anyone ever reached out to Donaldson to capture his take on the Land and its inhabitants? Like involving an illustrator, sketch artist, voice actor to try to gather detailed information for long-term preservation?

When Scott Brick, Watch member audiocovenant, recorded the audio books for the chrons, he consulted SRD on many aspects before recording, especially pronunciation. Is this the type of thing you mean?

Yes'm, that's the stuff! I'm especially curious to see SRD's visual of some characters that may have been harder to visualize or may be harder to capture in makeup and wardrobe: Vain, the sandgorgons, or even Drool.
Any/everything to support a film adaptation. Maybe even do interim marketing: "The Author's Visual Guide to the Land", "Author-approved patterns for cosplay outfits" or such.

I found a thread about making a movie. My answers are probably all in there.

I often don't even notice physical descriptions of people. I don’t know why. But my impression of most characters in most parks is not at all what’s described. Sometimes I hear descriptions, and I’m surprised how different iview them.

Remember the drawings from... Santiago? I still had/have trouble visualizing cavewights, urviles, demondim, etc. The drawings helped me focus more on the book's descriptions in my current reread. My mental image of Revelstone doesn't match the drawings, and I think it's ok to have your own picture.
But that's why I'm so interested in capturing SRD's thoughts in a concrete form - to reduce 'drift' if ever a movie gets made. Seems more respectful, imo.