@AsrensChaos's post on Artfol
Does anyone have any tips for improving character design skills? I noticed my designs often don't meet what I hoped for them to be, so any tips on designing better looking characters?Jan 16, 2023
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Having an objective in mind for the character can be helpful, bc certain shapes, colors, and clothing styles convey different impressions for the character. Basically, reverse engineer the design. Want a friendly character? Use round shapes, large eyes, soft low contrast colors. Think of the character's personality. What clothes do they have access to? Would they wear this, why? Are they really into staying in shape, or are they a couch potato?
Looking at characters that are similar to the one you're trying to design can be helpful too. Notice the traits the similar characters all have in common with each other to decide which attributes are right for your character. (Once you get familiar with the rules of character design, you can even break them to be disarming/surprising for the audience)
Looking at characters that are similar to the one you're trying to design can be helpful too. Notice the traits the similar characters all have in common with each other to decide which attributes are right for your character. (Once you get familiar with the rules of character design, you can even break them to be disarming/surprising for the audience)
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I have thousands of reference pictures for only one character on Pinterest 
hmm but otherwise it helped me a lot to look at characters from professionals, when it comes to the looks. When we talk about a character in general I’m a very lazy artist. There was a challenge I’ve seen once I think it was called OC music challenge and that’s how I design most of my OCs now 
so you open a Spotify playlist. Either one of yours, or you search for something. Then shuffle and the first song that you hear describes how the OC feels at the beginning of the story, second song is how your OC looks like (either you take inspiration from the sound, or the lyrics, or the cover)… and then you go from song to song until you have the feeling it’s done. And don’t mind skipping songs, because it’s no fun if you draw with music you don’t like!
hmm but otherwise it helped me a lot to look at characters from professionals, when it comes to the looks. When we talk about a character in general I’m a very lazy artist. There was a challenge I’ve seen once I think it was called OC music challenge and that’s how I design most of my OCs now so you open a Spotify playlist. Either one of yours, or you search for something. Then shuffle and the first song that you hear describes how the OC feels at the beginning of the story, second song is how your OC looks like (either you take inspiration from the sound, or the lyrics, or the cover)… and then you go from song to song until you have the feeling it’s done. And don’t mind skipping songs, because it’s no fun if you draw with music you don’t like!•
Expanding your visual library is good - Pinterest, YouTube, specialized Tumblr accounts are popular options. I think you can find a lot of character design "exercises" on YouTube if you type that into the search.
If you're talking about a specific character design moment, the doing some research into the clothing styles, history, etc would be good.
If you're talking about a specific character design moment, the doing some research into the clothing styles, history, etc would be good.
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l mainly find references for what l want
Which Pinterest does help with that
Well for me at least
But l recommend u look at references
Which Pinterest does help with that
Well for me at least
But l recommend u look at references
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