My characters aren't based off of anyone I know in real life. Although one of the main characters is based loosely off of myself. Other than that, my ideas come form the other forms of media.
Usually i get inspired for characters from anime, tv shows and webtoons, but very recently i started working on some characters based on the people that i know in real life (and this is probably why i'm gonna drop it at some point XD).
Though i do believe that the best characters pops out from the most casual sketch you could do ^^
Mmm... I think, I've noticed the similarity between Alex and the cartoon version of you long ago. 
So is this what are you talking about?
Yes, I do the same from time to time. But most of my characters - current and future - are based not on concrete character/person, but on collective images of different sorts. So they usually combine features of multiple fiction characters (archetypes) and real persons. Like a cocktail 
Usually I make the designs of characters up as I draw. The personalities of my characters and the situations that they are in are inspired by people that I've interacted with in real life. Sometimes the influence is by positive things and other times the influence is by negative things. That's why I put narcissistic scenes in my web comic.
That's part of it, yeah. Since my comic was just intended to be a quick test run to learn how to make comics, I didn't want to spend very much time on the character design phase, so I just grabbed some old OCs that were based off of my friends and I from highschool (they used to be cameo characters for another comic I was working back in the day ) and used them for the main cast. The only main char I had to design from scratch was the thief. There are old photos on like my deviant art from middle and highschool of early versions of these chars:
I honestly usually get inspiration for my characters personalities from anime/manga/tv show characters, and usually I get most of my design sense from MMORPGs. I just stand in town and look at all the sick fashions everyone has to offer, and it expands my visual library.
I strongly pull from my own experiences and insecurities, and I can't really recall ever pulling from a real life person I know. If I do it, it's subconsciously, not intentionally.
Haha, that's so nice. 
Now I wonder about the girl on the background, will she be the part of the story, too?
since when was this a no no?
ive consciously and unconsciously based lots of characters off friends - as you say, all our knowledge of people comes from those weve met, and thats what feeds into our characters and makes them 3D.
i feel like itd only be a no-no if you copy/pasted your friend name and all into either a villain or love interest slot - villain bc thats kinda insulting, and love interest bc thats kinda creepy
Not in the final draft sadly @u@ The original draft of my story had four additional characters based on characters of my friends from HS but then I realized that that was way way way too many for a 60 page short story so half were cut xD. If/when I do additional stories she may show up though~
My characters are supposedly made from scratch. I say supposedly because there always the possibility I've been inconsciously inspired by someone or something. 
I'm sooooo bad at character deign, so all my characters look a lot like my actual kung fu brothers DX I tried to change them appearance wise, but.... only succeeded a little bit otl
All my characters are based off of people. Usually I'll include personality tidbits from people that I personally know, but the physical design is more likely influenced by strangers with a cool aesthetic. Even then I usually won't just straight up draw the person- I'll identify what inspires me or is fun to draw about them, and go from there. For instance, I saw a girl with really cool purple eyeliner and it led me to design a character whose signature color is purple. Silly things like that stick in my mind I guess. I'm definitely a lot more influenced by personalities than appearances though.
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My sister wishes I made a character inspired by her in the comic, but I didn't and won't XD
I like to say that my character Helene is 1/3 my mom and she embraces that.
But if I wasn't making a comic about Helene I doubt that aspect of her personality would be so apparent. I just use my mom's momisms to write her dialogue.
the older concepts of my main character were slightly based off of 2 people who went to my school back then appearance wise. I hardly even knew them but well, yeah. I always felt a bit guilty once I first drew her
Funnily enough, the main characters in Edible green Tea are partially based off of me, my friend, my pets, and family. Though modified and exaggerated to work more with the the surreal comedy. (I call it "Semi-autobiographical" because some strips were partially based off of strange things that had happened in my life.) I also have some characters that are parodies of celebrities or just are real people (namely Richard Nixon.) My family and friends have actually embraced this whole-heartedly and love the fact that we're all technically comic stars now.
For DRGN, I not only based Flare off of myself (namely as a guy to vent annoyances through.) But also loosely based him off of a few guys I knew at a game design college I took some classes at in high school as part of a program my star offers to high school students. Also loosely based Fubuki Grey off of this one girl I knew from that college as well. Also partially based some of the DRGN characters off of real people as well. (E.I. Zephyr was partially modeled after Andy Warhol and David Tennant among other british actors while King Gufuu was loosely modeled after David Bowie.)
I think it's nigh impossible to fully disconnect a character from real-life inspirations to create a truly original character seeing as I believe everything comes from something. The "Nothing new under the sun" principle, I guess you could call it.
I can't see how it's NOT possible to be inspired by people around you, either it being good or bad. In the end creating a story and drawing are forms of self-expression, that eventually will bare some mark of who we are and what we experience in some greater or lesser capacity. People around you are therefore bound to pop up.
Finding inspiration I think is of no issue, it is when you outright base a character on someone, likeness, real name the whole shebang, and that may not reflect a very nice side of them that it may be a problem if they read the story and don't like what they see. That I think you need to have in mind.
Otherwise just go nuts.
The main love interest in my webcomic is 100% my husband. In looks and mostly personality (hubby isn’t as grumpy in real life :p). I posted a few pages to my personal Facebook a while back and I was bombarded with “OMG it’s -husband’s name” ...so yes, you could say I draw inspiration from the people around me
I don’t think creating characters based on people you know or meet is a no no. I’d say that if you wanting to create a character that was essentially a carbon copy of that person, or real names would be used, to ask permission first. But other than that, go for it!
