Character Design: Wing It or Work It?

[silverraven0]

In the middle because I don't know how to work my brain and hands sometimes.

[rmdooley]

Work it. Especially if this is a main character. You will be spending a lot of time with them, know them well and be sure you want to spend time with what you have designed.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Both. I can't really put into words why though. It's just the way it is lol.

[aqua03]

I tend to do both as well. I have a general idea of what I want the character to look like (I am a very visual thinker.) and then doodle down a basic idea, then further refine it. I tend to do a lot of spur of the moment character designs as well depending on how important the character is as well. (Recently made a super fast character design for the villain of Alpha Alpaca after a last minute change in the script.)

[Jenna_A]

I definitely wing it. However, I do have many advantages- 1. My story is set in the real world, so I don't have extreme looking characters 2. The majority of my characters are based on real people, so I already have a very clear picture of what they look like (no need for character sheets!), 3. My characters are all in uniforms lol. Kinda nice not having to design different outfits.

[Reign]

I wing it, at least I used to. I kind of regret it in some aspects. In terms of Tom and Shelldon, I really wonder how Tom would have looked if I made him a ginger instead of a blond. But because I never explored, he's a blond. I tend to be more careful with character creation when I'm making manga. Many of the characters within Tom and Shelldon come from spur-of-the-moment doodles and drawings. There are only three characters that are based off of real people: Tom's father looks much like my father.

Tom's small-time bully is based off of my younger brother. Then we've also got a superhero with a sentient tie (the superhero dresses fancy) who is based off of a friend.

[JeanGuillet]

yeah well...my characters don't wear the same clothes every day. and one even does some subtle shapeshifting and may be prone to reverse people's aging for a joke. so beyond bone structure i'm pretty lost. actually scratch that, even nailing down bone structure doesn't always work.

so I've got a general aesthetic for people. and a good idea of what they look like. gets easier after you've drawn them a thousand times.

[skicoak]

All kinds of winging it...

If I make all those design choices ahead of time, I have absolutely no creative momentum going into the storytelling. Took me a long time to realize that.

[baasinsimple]

Wing it all the way, baby! I plan literally everything else, so the groundwork for the character design is already set in my head. A story isn't anything until it's elements come together, rather than those elements existing as separate things. So if everything else has already been pretty much set in stone, than the character designs are pretty much a small amount of consideration for me in the first place.

[VibrantFox]

really thinking about it i gotta say work it. i almost always have some kind of rough concept but i almost always prefer to do more research and what not to make sure ive got a good design im willing to work with but also genuinely fits with their story setting. for my slice of life comic i didnt bother to much with givig a hoot about designs but for every other plot based story ive got in development i put loads of time into sorting hairstyles, clothing, and checking that it suited the setting/period its based in.

it could be because im secretly addicted to research or something but i love putting in a little extra effort for character designs since i worry that by winging it I'll have failed them somehow ;;;

[yondoloki]

I want to say that I wing it, but thinking about it I probably do work it more...

It's more a case of "Ok, this character will show up in the next page, maybe I should get around to that character design."

I usually have a clear idea of the concept in my head, but do a bit of research on clothing since my comic is set in Victorian England.

Wait, that does sound like winging it... Okay, a bit of both then?

[LT1986]

I wing it. I used to practice drawing characters before I added them to stories that I've made in the past. I discovered that no matter whether I plan or wing it, I end up trying to improve the designs of my characters. Making finished products gives me a better sense of what I need to work on.

[Maps]

I wing it at first. Once I have an idea of what my character will look like, I begin drawing the different angles of that character to have reference points.

[simplykit]

i do both

i draw the idea i have then research on how it could look better

also i make sure im not copying someone elses idea

[PaulDevers]

I'd probably say Wing It at first, for sure. I draw a lot of characters rather constantly, but my referance image is usually the last image I drew of them, so they sort of evolve as they go along. It's sort of a 'Work It' from there over the course of several months usually, but sometimes a faster pace if the character is going to appear soon. Some of my characters are indistinguishable from they're first incarnations!
So yeah, a bit of both. Only a small handful of characters have gotten no redesigns from start to finish.

[ToxicRamen]

I do both. First I would just create characters at random (That's the Wing It Part) and if I like the design I would keep drawing the character and give them a story (That's the Work It Part)

[MST3KFan]

Well, it depends on if they're a major or minor character.

Major characters I work on it a bit as I look at a number of characters from various stuff like comics or anime or movies for influence.

Minor characters...they are kind of wing it with whatever pops into my head at the time cause I generally don't expect them to be more than minor characters.

POW! Right in the Nostalgia | Tapas

[ben]

Character design is absolutely one of my strong suits and I’d say 90% of the time I just wing it. I think it helps that I have a strong background in fashion and I already think a lot about how people present.

The times I do work through it is when its something kinda weird and out of my oeuvre. I recently had to design a pair of characters that were running away from a circus. The one I immediately knew I wanted to do a kinda sexy flouncy pierrot costume classic white that will get progressively dirtier as the story goes on. I didn’t even do any research on that one since its something I’m already familiar with.

But the character she runs away with is a giant mountain lion man who has the body of a big cat and the face of a person and this has been taking me a lot of research and tweaking since 1) I don’t think I’ve ever drawn a big cat before and 2) The human face on that body is really hard to get it to not look completely off. I think I’m still working in his design.

[GrimRose]

Wing it! Though I sometimes make minor changes to an outfit/hairstyle afterwards.

[lucika]

In the middle but wing it most of the time. My excuse is since my story's setting is fantasy, it is alright if the character's clothes are too advanced. If I do my research, I would find some character designs that I like and based on them like an inspiration. But I can only get away with that because it is my story and I, the author, know what I want. If it is professional work then I think that some in-depth research is needed.