Samantha Lillian Duvert

Maiden Name: Samantha Lillian Blaire

Age: 20

Gender: female

Eye Color: vibrant, emerald green

Hair: Her hair is long (down to the middle of her back), thick, and naturally curly. Its a deep mahogany brown, with reddish highlights.

Animal Associated With: snake, the healer

Familiar: Simon, a white-silver color magical fox

Abilities (non-magical): sewing, writing, getting into trouble, cooking

Abilities (magical): communication with animals, slight control over nature, summoning animals and plants, life-energy magic and healing

Likes: animals, Sabin, being outside in nature, princesses, fairy tales, Simon, traveling, stories, unicorns, dragons, and other mythical critters

Dislikes: getting in trouble, quibbles between Sabin and Simon, the Society, Renee, being naive, London, corsets (but wears them anyway)

Personality: Samantha is a dreamer and a idealist. She wants to live the perfect fairy tale: adventure, fun, and romance. She currently is living her dream, but has learned the hard way that adventure can come at a high price. She's generally quiet, a trait drilled into her through her high-class life in London, but has never been able to hold her tongue as well as a "lady" should. She's a sucker for the underdog: she believes anyone or anything can change for the better and deserves a second chance.

Build Description: Samantha is 5'6 (she claimes 5'7"), and weighs around 135lbs. She very tall, but curvy. She has a large bust, but not overly huge (the equivalent to a modern full 36C), and child-bearing hips. Her waist is small for her frame, thanks to the corsets of the time, however, Sam often uses something called a "Union Under-Flannel," which is a no-bones corset-like garment made of wool and uses eyelets and laces to form the figure. Because of them, Sam's waist has filled out a bit from her wasp-waist days in London.

Distinguishing Features: Samantha's most distinguishing features are a series of rune-like markings over her body. A cross between Celtic knotwork and runes, these marks start at the back of her neck, run down the length of her back, down her arms and legs, and circle around her wrists and ankles. They are a medium brown color (the color of most birthmarks), and resemble tattoos in appearance (though they are naturally occurring). She usually keeps them mostly covered (between her long hair, dresses, and gloves), but they usually show through on her arms and neck.

Common Mistakes with Samantha art:

Samantha's hair is not RED. Her hair is BROWN. Deep brown, with hints of red highlights. NOT RED.
Samantha's hair is CURLY. Naturally curly, to boot. Which means while she would curl it in tight ringlets to dress up, most of the time her hair would be the loser, natural curls.
Victorian Ladies did NOT WEAR BRIGHT RED. People LOVE to draw Samantha is bright red outfits. Bright red was a color reserved for Prostitutes in the Victorian times. Especially when paired with black. Deep rose pink is okay, as is red as a secondary color, but not a primary. Very dark maroon would be acceptable. Samantha personally loves to wear green and blue.
No D&D Fantasy clothing. There is a difference between typical fantasy attire and Victorian. I have no problem with you drawing Samantha in fantasy clothes, but if you're trying for a Victorian look, realize the difference. You can find hundreds of reference images online.

Images:
The Best Art Reference Pictures of Samantha:

References:
Non-VL images to help get a mental image of Samantha

Charlotte (from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust)
The very first moment I saw Charlotte from the amazing VHD:B, my jaw dropped. "That's her! That's Sam!" I said. The art style in the movie is a little more "hard" than I pictured Sam, but it definitely looks like her.

Jennifer Connelly
When I was describing Samantha to artist Brian LeBlanc, he mentioned to me that she sounded like a young Jennifer Connelly. The thought never really crossed me mind, but as I went searching through some images of her I was amazed! She's gorgeous, and she really is how I envisioned Samantha looking like. She's an excellent reference. Images below from http://members.iinet.net.au/~almeath/jc/.

Belle (from Beauty and the Beast)
I can't deny Belle had several influences on Sam. Her heads-in-the-clouds dreamer personality, soft heart, and beautiful brunette hair really made an impact on me.