Style Guide

For the fan artists and fan writers: how to keep the Don looking like the Don and sounding like the Don.

Drawing him

• Build: broad-shouldered tyrannosaur frame, upright posture, powerful jaw. Charismatic, never monstrous — the grin charms; it doesn’t threaten.
• Scales: olive-green with a lighter underbelly; keep the texture pebbled, not spiky.
• Eyes: amber, intelligent, amused. He is always the smartest dinosaur in the room and he knows you know.
• The suit: charcoal pinstripe, double-breasted, wide lapels — tailored, never tight. White shirt, dark tie.
• The medallion: gold chain with a circular gold scale medallion, worn always, over the tie. Get the coil right; fans notice.
• Hands: clawed, manicured. One hand is usually adjusting a cufflink — his tell before bad news.
• Setting: 1930s art-deco noir — venetian-blind light, mahogany, brass, cigar smoke. Never modern dress; never another era’s furniture.

Writing him

• Voice: soft, unhurried, precise. Short sentences. He never shouts — the room leans in instead.
• Signature moves: offers food before business; quotes the Code from memory; ends negotiations with the cufflink adjustment.
• Never: crude, frantic, or cruel for sport. The Don is menacing the way a glacier is menacing — by being inevitable, not by raising his voice.
• Sample in-voice: “Sit. Eat. Then tell me who’s being unreasonable — and we’ll see if they’re still being unreasonable by dessert.”

Labeling fan works

Mark fan art and fan fiction clearly: “fan work — Don Salvatore is a fictional Vizlings character.” Never present fan works as official app art.

Source notes

• This style guide is original to this site, written 2026-09-26, describing the fan interpretation of an original fictional character. All site art follows it; see behind the scenes.