How many changes did you make to your character designs before you were satisfied?

[pomagranateflower]

How many changes did you make to your characters before you were satisfied? It would also be great if you guys can show some before and after pictures. Also talk about your process and what you were thinking as you made each change.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Some of my characters changed a lot, other not so much. From my comic, The Black Belt Society, I have a character who originally had a bright, hyper active personality. Her main colors were sky blue and red. Eventually her design changed over the course of years and so did her background and personality. Elliot and Tyler, the two other main characters of my comic, have mostly stayed thr same with only minor changes.
Lara 2014-15

Lara 2019

For Lara at least I wanted to streamline her design. Take out unnecessary details but keep what made Lara herself.
I decided the light blue in her clothes and her clothing choice was weird and uneeded. Her theme was fire and the color red, so left the blue for her eyes to they would stand out against the black and red. There was little to no cohesion with my trio of main characters so to add uniformity, each of them got a headband, some form of netting as undergarments, and the same shoes. The cloak around her waist was something I couldn't get rid of so I kept and made into something she could wear, but not always wear.
She has more of a fiery and intelligent personality. Its a bit cliche but she's a fighter who's eloquent but always ready to throwdown.

[Kura]

Not enough really.

Though in general characters like to gradually change on me while I'm drawing thousands of comic pages so I'm not bothered too much by it.

[mariusthered]

well i considered a plant pot and a saucepan but the bucket is the best fit.

[Kann]

I've talked about Himuri's design changing over the years a lot here, so time to talk about someone else. xD

Sakari's design changed more times during like, two years than Himuri's since I initially made him, because I just couldn't decide on his haircut, eye color and so on. He was really giving me a hard time... xD

[ble]

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[arcojawa]

I......... can relate to that.
In my current comic my characters have gone through only tiny changes since I conceptualized them. It enough tiny changes that you can tell the difference but you can also tell that the design is still roughly the same.
But I've been trying to make comics my whole life and there was one in the past, probably the one I've working on the longest, that I just put through constant changes.
I think it helps that the current comic I'm doing I did with a lot of better preparation using advice from older more experienced cartoonists and that earlier comic was just young me dinking around. Still, it can be kind of a bummer to abandon an old comic just because all the changes I made end up making the comic too weird, bizarre looking and confusing. That old comic was my baby... but for my own betterment I had to drop it....

[Kelheor]

I'd say 1 to 2 for every character I've ever made. Most of them haven't change really, my hands just became straighter Some examples, I guess.

[teasidesketches]

It depends on the character; I've gone through a few designs for each of my main characters as I developed a larger visual library throughout the years, but some have changed more than others!

I think the one whose design has changed the most (that I have documentation of) is Lilian's. I made her back when I was in... middle school, probably? So her design was very different. This is the earliest version of her design I could find!

I significantly altered her design then later on to get here:

Although I liked that design, I had to redesign things again to make a uniform though so now I'm here!

[Iris-Grimoire]

I try to stick to at least three changes. It's SO easy to get caught in the trap that your first design is the right one, but the truth is, it's rarely the one that'll stay right in the comic every panel - and if it's not consistent, then it's probably not working. That said, the second one sometimes is too complicated from other angles, making the third one very similar to it but with streamlined details, without having to "fix" the problems with the first attempt.

Here's an example with Elise. Rough sketch of what I want the outfit to be, first attempt and palette, second attempt with a nearly finalized design, then the final version.

And not pictured, but I got rid of the third row of buttons on her jacket because I constantly forgot it was there anyway. For minor characters, I rarely put this much work, but I try to at least have a first pass so the reference is the cleanest it can be.

For nonhuman characters it's way more involved, but I don't have any with a fully digital silhouette work. Here's Stormsever's process, where I was just sketching deer creatures nonstop until I found the right look.

[MichaelFIGComix]

I've made a lot of changes through the years. Here is 1 example of the main character of my series, Ubeoky.

The Alcacell | Tapas

[nostalgicroxas]

I won't go into clothing changes for Will/Crow and most other characters, but straight outright designs as "this is what the character'll be have changed for a few... I actually just draw a character and say "yep" and leave it as that...? If that makes sense. Julian, I can't find any pictures for right now, went through several outfit changes and designs - like his eyes used to both be the same color.
And Cyril keeps getting different sorts of uniforms. It'll eventually change where he likely won't be a knight/have a uniform any more -or not in that sense of him belonging to a group of knights.

DeviantArt

want you

He also used to be younger/cuter

Cyril - date

And Hiero used to dress in purple, not green. Wasn't earthy enough for him.

DeviantArt

(of note, Hiero's skin color changing from white to tan to honey and so on is part of the plot)

[Rhonder]

I gave the whole history in another recent topic, so I'll boil it down to the essential parts this time:

Basically the MC for my comic is an OC that I've had since around middle/highschool. This wasn't his "original" look, but the starting point for his current design (2010):

Upon selecting him to be the main character of my current story, I updated his design a little to reflect my current drawing style more and simplify his design a bit. This was early 2018, the drawing I did for his character sheet/ concept art:

But even then, I ended up changing him a liiiiittle more between then and actually starting the comic in late 2018 (mostly the head, made some stylistic modifications):

and now his appearance from the most recent page (2019):

[silverraven0]

Sometimes they changed a lot. Mostly the hairstyle and eyes, but a lot more that I just okayed the first time I draw them.

[TheBlankScroll]

I've tried to have my characters change subtly over the course of their adventures. One of my main characters was in a magic explosion that frazzled her hair (it used to be straight and pulled back in a tight pony tail) so now it's all curly and a little wild. They've lost and acquired a few new bits of equipment that they cary, but TBH it's still really subtle.

I really like the idea of evolving character design, something like what happened to the characters in The Last Airbender. But it's definitely a challenge.

[Wumbl]

Many. Most of my characters have been through multiple concepts.

It's very normal to make numerous concept sketches before you decide on the final design to use.

I mean, J.J. Coolguy looks very different now to what she looked like in initial sketches. She's also gotten older as I designed her and eventually she became a teen, not a full-on kid. Her mask went from a gas mask to a plague doctor style mask. She's always been a lifestyle lolita though. I went through a lot of rough sketches and ideas in designing her. Her progress went a bit like this:

Also, Annabelle's design changed rapidly as I was concepting her. Even her body type changed quite drastically from athletic to pear-shaped (or dummy thicc as I call it). I also gave her a funky perm.

I put a lot of work into concepts before I decide how I want my characters to look.

[indagold]

My character japhin changed a lot. I think he was much younger and was more sullen looking, I wanted to actually give him a story that didn't last 10 pages cause the original was much darker and depressing and changed him from becoming corrupted by a curse to someone a bit more sympathetic.

Most of my other characters are new so they didn't go through much significant changes. I had an embarrassingly bad comic I made in highschool where I aged up the characters and redesigned them that reappear in this comic. Although its not canon some things do remain:

Odansae matured and went from a hippie to be less dorky as he had to take on the role of a god.

And del hoppay I didn't like his weird mishmash design I did years ago so made it look more like he was disabled as I felt it would make people understand his situation more and not think he was some magic fantasy kid. After all that was the theme for the older comic as well the current one i'm working on.

[KSlinger]

To tell you the truth, I don't really design characters. I wish I could, but I just don't have the patience. Instead I draw them as best I can exactly how I imagine them, and I keep drawing them that way for as long as I can, true to that first image. Then, over time-- and to atually save time-- the design simplifies itself without me realising it. I start to forget superfluous details. Drawing them becomes natural and the whole design gets streamlined. Eventually all that's left of the original image are the essential aspects of what makes that character themselves. From there, I expand. So if a character requires a change of clothes for a particular scene, I'll try to repeat motiffs from their 'classic' design. For example, my MC has a pattern on his shirt that is echoed in clothes he wore as a child. Hope that helps!