Do you think your character's aesthetics 'fit' their personality?

[Leyelle]

Thanks to color and shape theory, as well as aesthetic/fashion trends, most people subconsciously or consciously use visual cues to guess about a character. Do you think people would be able to accurately guess what your character was like just by looking at them? Are they clearly 'coded' in one direction or another? And if so, was that intentional?

TBH, I don't think Alicia's physical design is very telling. It doesn't really scream out any of her personality traits, but I think that's pretty normal for a slice of life character, since they tend to be less extreme than characters from other genres.

By looking at her, you probably wouldn't be able to tell she's a mega-nerd (straight-a student with a love for marine life) or that she has a volatile, explosive personality. You might guess she's shy because of the big eyes, but she's not really shy, just depressed and socially anxious, which sometimes makes people think she's shy. On a good day, where the anxiety and depression aren't eating her alive she's actually playful, energetic, flirtatious, teasing, and mischievous, but she's definitely not 'imp coded' lol, except that she's crazy short.

If I was to say one trend/trope I think she leans toward visually, she might be a little more 'bad-girl coded,' given the fact that her beauty is ostentatious, but occasionally a little sly-looking. To me, she LOOKS like she'd be the play-girl in a high school popular group who flirts with innocent boys and tries to get them into trouble.

Well...that might be a little bit accurate.

(excuse the body suit lol, this was a character design sheet)

[ArtGremlin]

Emo

Mmm can’t think of any more of my characters that seem to have specific aesthetics… Oh yeah, there’s Axel-

Her personality is very much (Evil sparkles)

[Leyelle]

What is evil sparkles like evil but cute or cutesy?

[NickRowler]

I think I am a little split on if my characters fit an aesthetic of their personalities. There is sort of a not so obvious theme of my work where people are not villainized for having certain physical characteristics. Eye patches, scars, and fangs are usually villain coded but these character aren't evil.

But on the other hand...Zeta is supposed to look a little hoity-toity.

[Leyelle]

I can see the hoity-toity attitude in Zeta's fashion lol. But I'm the same way with the physical features, I have characters with horns and other usually villain-coded features who aren't evil even though some other characters are often afraid of them

[jwabeasley]

If you can't tell much about a character from their character design, you should keep working at the character design!

For Veronica, I tried to establish the 19th-century-lite retrofuture setting, show that she is an outdoorsy, feminine witch apprentice who is eager, unafraid of hard work, and spends a lot of time outdoors, while also being a bit weird and an outcast. The red and blue together in her costume shows how she has body and spirit, physical and etheric natures in one person. And while I'll likely never get to tell that part of the story, there's a tale behind each part of her outfit.

[Leyelle]

If you can't tell much about a character from their character design, you should keep working at the character design!

it depends on the context. sometimes you want the character design to contrast the character, or to make people curious without people knowing too much. if people can't read into the character, the character design can still be good or interesting, just by being captivating, even if it doesn't tell you much about who the character is at first glance.

[Crusoe]

Robin! Is my first visual project but I like to think my characters' style reflects their personality. Robin is based on me a little and so her wardrobe reflects mine in the sense that it is very colourful, full of patterns and shapes. I think it fits her bubbly personality. Goose wears more athlesure but I need to draw him wearing more business casual as itd suit him well and Cleo wears a lot of goth/punk ish alternative outfits.

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[ArtGremlin]

Yeah, Cutesy-evil whatever that aesthetic is called

[Leyelle]

i'm not sure it has a name xd

[Mohini9000]

Definitely!

Tsukasa's taste in fashion suits his flamboyant and feminine personality. He loves to wear pretty dresses that I am unable to draw at this moment, but you could get the gist of them. His outfits have pink on them, which is his favorite color. He regularly dons two cherry blossom hair clips on both of his twin-tails, which add to his overall and he wears a round pair of eyeglasses, which suits him because he is a bookworm, and as an added bonus, they make him cuter. But his fashion choices will mislead you into thinking that he is a girl, when in reality, he's a cis guy.

Tsukasa: the preppy fashionista

Haru, on the other hand, has a more limited wardrobe, regularly wearing boyish t-shirts and shorts. But that's because she's a tomboy. Haru has short wavy black hair that curls up into an Afro-like hairstyle, which she doesn't mind and actually likes. So based off of her aesthetic and fashion senses, Haru is obviously NOT a girly girl and leans more towards being a tomboy.

Haru: the tomboy who could care less about her fashion choices

[kyupol]

Claudita... wanted to make her modest in appearance but also functional when it comes to fighting. She's been in a lot of fights even if she's ultimately pacifist

If I can change her char design, I'll make her color scheme more subdued. Bright pink and red catches too much attention. Even if she's a calm and collected type and not an aggressive, attention seeker, fire user. Kept her that way only for consistency as she's been around in older comics. So her aesthetic only matches her personality 50%

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Akala... I was thinking partial sex demon with more intelligence and troll type behavior. That's why short skirt for sex appeal, long sleeve top to give a little more formal look but not completely formal... she looks like a student in a typical Japanese anime to give that youthful sense of humor vibe.

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Eman... I was thinking low self esteem abused guy that's why gave him blue colors and long sleeved sweater.

When he levels up, I gave him a black thin sweater. Black... is the color of martial art proficiency.

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I can go on and on with other OCs but don't wanna image spam too much lol

[llobucervallince]

I feel like Henry's warm color outfit fits his energetic and emotional character, he's active and talk too much, so his jacket and... shoes I guess you could call it, helps to sell this.

Larry works in a similar but opposite way, him constantly wearing a cape to his side helps to develope the idea that he needs shielding, like a blanket, he also uses a colorful outfit but it works on the other side of the spectrum, while Henry's red and yellow works as happy and angry, Larry purple and blue indicates that he leans more into sadness and fear, which you see a lot and fits his childish, speaking of, besides his cape, Larry's cloths design is simple, which also fits his character as a simple kid with a simple objective who sees the world in black and white, while he learns through his adventure next to his "gray" friend, how complicated it all is.

Spring doesn't have any outfit but that's only because she hasn't leanrt how to make her own clothes and has to transform into her bipedal form, so here it is.

this is 2 or 3 years into the future, I most like will change it to something that will fit her highschool teenage enviroment more, like the next ones.

now, as you might have notice, she repeats the same palette, I do that with a bunch of characters, including Henry and Larry, but inher case is because she makes her clothes for her bipedal form from her own fur and blood, which makes all the clothes either red, white, orange or blue.

lastly there's Autumn. who yeah, you can tell many thigns from her clothes, but also from her "arm".

she also uses her blood to make her clothes, but her style shows the aesthetic of a teacher or master, and her arm already tells you that she's not really friendly.

[Leyelle]

I think Mora's design hints at her being someone out of the ordinary, even if people can't guess what exactly makes her different. Blue eyes are rarely seen on people with dark complexions, and Mora's complexion is exceptionally dark giving her a kind of nature or darkness goddess vibe in my opinion. she looks like a magical being you'd find in a forest and she's pretty close to one.

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[DasIstWunderblyat]

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[abigaillmartin]

Eh I think so.

Elsie is down to earth I guess

Ernest is a gentleman so he wears clothes like that.

Roy is super sweet and innocent so I think blue works.

Rosie pink and red yeah. She’s a rose!

[MelancholicOtaku]

Elyn’s outfit consists of a simple white tunic,brown leather pants,ankle boots with and a green cloak with a hood. Elyn enjoys the simple things in life but also has a high
maintenance feisty side . I think the outfit reflects that. Her dreads tie everything together

[Leyelle]

what about the outfit makes you think high maintenance?

[MelancholicOtaku]

Maybe the leather pants,they would be considered high fashion since mostly nobles can afford material. When she’s in a healthy state of mind Elyn can be a bit of a brat. Also the green cloak is made of high quality fabric and the green dye is a bit expensive. Guardians make great income.

[Leyelle]

Interestingly, since Mental Soup is kind of poetic musings and diary entries mixed together and put into the form of a comic, many of the characters just represent ideas or are symbolic. For that reason they are often entirely, or mostly, designed to represent something specific.

this rose fairy is designed to represent a person who is attractive to people in some way (not inherently physically, they might just seem like they'd be cool to be around) but is ultimately toxic/a red flag.