Character Design: Wing It or Work It?

[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.

[DireKingLeon114]

These are my current characters for my webtoon! I chose very basic designs that worked well for what I had Imagined they'd look like according to they're description and personality! They are easy to draw from memory and it helps I have a pretty good memory! I enjoy illustrating my webtoon in a simple, but effective style. I'm not one to over plan everything, but I have been guilty of that with my past drawings!

[gh0stcr33p]

I personally think it's bad to ever officially go with your initial designs. in many cases the concepts end up being totally different than the final product and the change is usually for the better. people's ideas and opinions on things change over time. even if you like something you've made once for the first time, you might not later on. in my experience I've had to go through at least 3 different phases of different designs of my established characters before deciding on the final ones. if I went with the originals.. well.... I don't think I'd be too happy about it

[demthorshie]

I almost always go through several prototype sketches for my characters until I'm happy with their appearance. I can't really tell you whether or not there's a certain blueprint I follow for each character design, but generally I am never completely happy with the initial idea. My character Roxy for example had 5 or some variations before I came to the current design.

[dawgofdawgness]

I wang it. The design of my protag was actually made back in freshman year, and I only tweaked it a little before using it in my story. The only thing I really did was change her hair from blonde to pink since it would stand out better in a blue color scheme.
Other than that, I like to give the supporting cast little design quirks like:
aggressive eye bags, a cross necklace, stubble, over-the-top cute clothing, etc.
it just sort of sets them apart from each other. I also vary the face shapes among the characters - main character being a circle and the supporting being a triangle.