Appealing, but unrealistic - who have you seen do it the best?

[akitsukino]

For the past couple of years I've been working hard to learn anatomy so that I could be better at character design. My anatomy is pretty good, but my designs are so bland. I'll wonder what it is I'm doing wrong, then I'll go and look at other artists. Look at this artist for example.

Her name is Nadya Mira. She's an ex student of Gobelins animation school in France.
https://nadya-mira.tumblr.com

Her art is amazing and fun to look at, but you'd never assume it was trying to be "realistic" or even semi-realistic like you see in 2d Disney characters. A part of me wonders if I'm missing out by not trying more out-there styles like this. I spend so much time trying to get proportions and negative space and anatomy right I wonder if my characters are losing some of their "soul".

So what do you think? Do you know of any other artist like Nadya who create appeal in such exaggerated styles? Who are some of you favoroite artists who you think do it the best? What do you think about the balance of realism and abstractism in character design? Let me know below!

[J.Lovelace]

When I look at these, I'm instantly thinking of Naninadz

Naninadz's DeviantArt Gallery

[Knight_Wolf]

think like this you you the "rules" of anatomy so now its time to brake or bend then and find you own style
in european comics there very stylized drawing leaving toughter whit very realistic drawing and one say this one this better then this one so doing experiments and find watt apeals to you watt give a soul to your drawings!

[tayo_rafferty]

A lot of these artist are playing around with shape and your expectations of shape, colour and proportion. They only use their knowledge of anatomy as a base-line. Try and research how shape and colour can inform or communicate, it's something I'm slowly learning but it is a lot more useful for someone who want's to develop a style similar to those examples.

[keii4ii]

Something to note: character design =/= stylization. Character design can utilize stylization, but they're still two different things. One single character can be drawn in a range of different styles, and still remain recognizable.

[joannekwan]

Yeah good words by Mythos and keii!

I was always told to get the basics down (anatomy and proportions and so forth) before trying to stylize.

And a great out-there kinda style I absolutely love is ParaNorman

The faces are hardly symmetrical which adds to the character and charm of the cast. Heidi Smith was the character designer if you want to look her up.

[justinkrever]

Animes they often times are more concerned with being cute rather than proportions. Or looking realistic. But it is just such a huge market in america.