Character sheets and refrences

[okellymx]

How many times do you draw your characters and world before you start drawing the actual comic and do you make any character model sheets?
Here is one of the main characters for my upcoming comic, I don't know if I should keep drawing the character or at least put her in different poses.

[Marvin]

Well you have to draw her until you feel comfortable enough. Like you have a lot of 3/4 here but no face and you can draw some more extreme expressions to decide how much her face can squash and stretch =)
Also yeah, you can draw a bit mor of her full body to make sure you have her proportions under control =D

[Kura]

Hardly at all, I get used to drawing them as I draw the comic. Some characters I don't even get around to drawing out before they show up. (though I have the idea of what I want to look like in my head, just not on paper yet)

[okellymx]

I didn't even notice all the 3/4 views, I normally do a turn around first but I got bored. Thanks for the information, Doing this for most of the recurring characters will take forever.

[okellymx]

Do you use previous pages as reference or just go off memory? I feel like that would take up extra time.

[mappypaint]

I lost count how many sheets of paper I used to draw my characters over and over before drawing their comics... yet they still evolved as the pages go by.XD

[zoonland]

I used to draw the characters only when they appeared on the pages, but I'm trying to do some kind of character sheets and world references BEFORE doing them, often basing on the storyboard I drew before starting the actual comic pages.
It saves a lot of time when I'll have to draw them in the pages, because I know I won't forget little details, for example on the clothes, body, etc. or on the buildings.
There's nothing more irritating than work on finished pages again just to add a couple of lines, a hat, some windows, etc.
They are also useful when you have to color your pages, because with character/background sheets you don't have to jump to an old page to pick the colors.

[shazzbaa]

Like.... you don't have to keep drawing them, but I'll admit this question is hard for me to understand. If you don't want to draw your characters over and over and over and over again, comics might not be for you!

I don't really do turn-arounds, but I do draw my major characters a heck of a lot so that I have a good FEEL for what they look like and how their faces & clothes & anatomy work at different angles/poses. Here's some sketches of me figuring out the design for a new character in RW -- I didn't just draw her until I had a good example of what she looked like; I kept drawing her until I was comfortable with her design and could reliably draw her "on-model." But at the same time I didn't bother to make a like..... nice, neat character sheet or anything. xD

[Kura]

Do you use previous pages as reference or just go off memory? I feel like that would take up extra time.

The characters I know pretty much off memory, and if I need to look up a reference because I can't remember a detail it's honestly no more time consuming for me than when I'm using a reference as I know/can remember what page the detail did show up on so I can open it easily. Especially when you're working on comics, these characters will eventually pretty much be part of your muscle memory once you've drawn them enough.

Character sheets I find really aren't that important (for me, everyone is different) when it's my character and I'm working alone. (My readers seem to use/enjoy them more than me) If I'm working with someone else tough character sheets are very necessary.

[Kamikaze]

Within traditional character design, when you're doing one character you don't settle on a single idea first. You try different face shapes, different hair styles, different body types and outfit types. Then you combine your favorites, to make a character. But you probably know all this so I'll digress...

One of the biggest things character designers have to keep in mind is the character's acting ability. That means extremes. Think about the character you have. She's got a really round face, and in one of the drawings you have her mouth open talking. Okay good start, but...what does it look like when her jaw drops in surprise? What about in horror? What does it look like when she scrunches up her face? Let's say someone tricked her and gave her a super bitter or tart candy. What would that look like?

When you play with the extreme's of a characters acting ability you allow yourself a point of reference to dial back from, or extend beyond.

The face isn't the only part of your character that acts though:
Actors use this really cool concept that I think is called "Center of Gravity or Power". It's the idea that if your character has a place that their acting comes from, their body will gravitate to that place. For example: If a character has very stooped over posture, their center of gravity is their feet. That's where all their acting comes from. A good example of this might be the genie from Aladdin. His center of gravity isn't on his person but is extended AROUND him, as though he was in a bubble. His entire method of acting is wild and crazy and swooping and all of that is because his gravity/power is just outside his reach. Characters that have that exuberant and active center will always take up AS MUCH SPACE as possible.

With your character here, I have very little sense of where her acting comes from. She's well drawn, but she's drawn as though you're restraining yourself.

Ultimately when it comes to character sheets and ref, it's all about what you need as an artist. We have to use them constantly on Kamikaze because we have such a broad cast and the continuity has to be right to make our world believable. We can't just change up the character design for no reason.

Anyway, I hope that helps, and hasn't been a huge non-sequitur...

[Thesleepypencil]

My answer is oooo yeah i do. I studied 3 years of animation and my favourite part was the designing and storyboarding. I never go into a progect without having some form of refrence. Each comic with have a concept folder filled with character sheets, costume sheets, layouts, floor plans. sometimes set designs and sometimes colour schemes. I also have a sketchbook dedicated to each story. I refuse to do a story without knowing what I'm doing.

Here are some of my favourite refrence sheets from unpublished projects

posing sheets/ action sheets

Clothing designs

Emotion sheets

set designs

colour schemes

And a final note if i have a story with a large supporting cast or a need for bg characters. I make a character line up of all bg/ support character so i can find them in one place

In note... I make all of my stories into large production. And with that tied to the clearly large amount of stories i have it's a miracle i ever start anything

[SpavVy]

I make character sheets and I'm also making a height chart.

[joannekwan]

Mostly I draw a character to a point where I know that's their final design. Then I'll just keep their features in my memory bank, like the shape of their nose, their profile, their height relative to other characters etc. I don't really look back at previous art as reference for characters.

Now backgrounds and settings, I'll go look at previous pages constantly.

[AnnaLandin]

I do basic turnarounds, to figure out how a character looks from the front/sides/back, and I do a fair bit of scribbling them in sketchbooks and stuff while I work on the story - a lot of the time, I can't tell the story properly until I've figured out what a character looks like.

Some minor characters get invented on the page, though - like extras in crowdscenes, etc.

I do tinker a bit with character designs as I go, though - my character sheets for Kazue wears different clothing than she does in the actual comic, for example - but it's good to get the basics down.

.... And also yes, I do go back and look at previous pages ALL THE TIME. Not for the two main characters - I've got them figured out by now - but for everybody else, I have to. I have this weird partial face-blindness thing going on; I can recognise people when I see them, but if I try to remember what they look like when they aren't there, I can only remember individual facial features - I can't assemble them, in my head, into a coherent face. I need a reference - at least until I've drawn them, like, a thousand times. :T

Some faces are harder to make stick than other faces, though! I keep struggling with one of my reoccurring characters, and I'll probably keep struggling for a long time. I just can't get his hair right, and his nose is being stubborn.

[okellymx]

Thank you everyone for your input.

[yvettegustafsson]

I am waaaay to lazy for my own good and almost never make character design sheets before starting a new project. I start with the idea, the basic feel of the character and when I want to get to know that character a bit better I might make a character sheet. But by then, I've probably made quite a few drawings of him/her already so I keep on with the story instead.

However, when I try to teach others how to work on their characters I insist on making the character sheet and parallell to theirs I make my own characters and try to find new angles for them.

[Alamino]

In all honesty I never drew them before I started my comics. While I was sketching the first page they came to life for me and I just never changed them. Though I do wish I had a character sheet, as it is I save pictures of them from my comic doing expressions that I deem are just 'them' and that's my sheet.
But the more I draw them the more I just know what they will look like for that expression and sadly it doesn't always match the one I had in my head when writing it. Mainly because the only in my head just doesn't work with that character or what not.
Though I love that pose you have on the bottom there. I really like how it looks. It's a good sheet all together ^_^

[demthorshie]

I tend draw all of my characters several times, but I have especially had to draw a few of my the cast members on Cosmos Song more than once because there will be a major time lapse during a specific portion of the comic. Other than that, I also like switching up my character fashions in my comics so I like to see what my characters look like in different outfits at different stages of the story.