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Stickly
Apr '17

I need to create a crowd of people, but how do I come up with unique designs for characters I won't use again?

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    Apr '17

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    Jul '17
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AnnaLandin
Apr '17

Don't! You don't have to go out of your way to design elaborate or unique-looking people - just settle on a small number of basic looks, and then vary the details. Draw a chubby man in a yellow t-shirt - and then at the opposite end of the crowd, draw him again, but give him a blue t-shirt, a bigger nose and maybe a moustache. Swap colours and hairstyles, noses and skintones, etc. but give yourself only a handful of basic bodies to figure out.

Crowds don't need to be full of unique characters, unless your intent is to signal to the reader that this is a crowd they need to really investigate when they look at it.

If you want to make a crowd that says something about the place they're in, do some fashion research first. Is it a crowd of people in a very cold place? Look up how to draw winter-outfits. Is it a crowd in a city in a desert? Look up what people who live in desert areas wear. And so on and so forth. Incorporate a few details, but don't elaborate too much.

heraclus
Apr '17

When i don't know how to do something , i look how other artist did it and that helps me to see an image of how i imagined it , i often look how takeshi obata ( illustrator of death note ) did a scene similar to mine because i love his style , anyway i think others work can help you , thats how i work cause i am self-taught artist .

Shanny8
Apr '17

I use tons of photo reference, coz I dont plan on using these figures again. I may use them in the same scene through a couple of panels but I wont ever use them in another issue/chapter of my story.

punkarsenic
Apr '17

like annaLandin said, you dont need to create a crowd of unique individuals. however, i dunno about you but i have a problem with my drawings getting proper stiff when im drawing characters i dont particularly care about (see: background crowds.) a nice solution i found is to draw characters i love from other places - altered enough to not be obvious and fit the scene. it makes drawing the crowd a lot more fun, and adds character.

Kaykeactual fraggle
Apr '17

Just make them up as you're drawing them? If they're characters who aren't important and won't be used again just have fun with it. I usually don't even think about it when I'm drawing background characters but if you're struggling you can pull inspiration from anywhere. Draw someone you know, draw someone with a hair cut you're thinking of getting, draw the kid you had a crush on at summer camp, draw your math teacher.... or just pretend you're randomizing video game characters and choose everything on a whim!

If you spend time laboring over what every character in the background should look like you're going to make yourself miserable, so just do whatever is the most fun.

Bobler09
Apr '17

I agree with AnnaLandin, when you draw a crowd, you try exactly NOT to make them stand out to much... I mean if 2 of your MC's are talking in the foreground for example you dont want some of the backgroundcharacters to take there spotlight right?

Michelle
Apr '17

Ah man, drawing crowds is your chance to draw whatever random people you want! Don't think too hard about it, really. So long as the people in the crowd fit the aesthetic of your world (So, y'know, no weird 1800's monocle man in a present-day setting), and they're not more flashy than your main characters, you'll be ok. Take it as an opportunity to draw people you might not normally draw.

Also, you only really need to design the look of the first 1-2 rows of people in a crowd. After that you can get away with being less detailed with your designs. :>

UncleVlad
Apr '17

I've seen comic artists who leave crowds real sketchy and unfinished- as well as super generic all-the-same 'blank' kinds of background people.

If you want to do something a little fun, you can always hide things in the crowd- like more interesting people or little knots of folks in the middle of tasks/conversations.

Cronaj
Apr '17

I agree with pretty much everyone. I tend to just draw a lot of people who look similar and then change a few details, and like @Michelle said, you really don't even have to finish drawing people after the first few rows. You leave them looking pretty blank and uninteresting, because they are far away.

3 months later
tuesdayisms
Jul '17

Wow, I'm really late to the party...
Anywho, I've heard advice somewhere (I don't remember where) to use colors to make your main characters stand out from the background characters. Maybe use a warmer palate for the background characters and a cooler one for your main characters or vice versa. Even having all your background characters wear clothes from the same palate makes them all uniform while having each of them be unique. You can cheat a bit by reusing character designs, but I admire artists who take the time to vary up the background characters. Just using the same four designs is easier, but comes across as lazy.

GFalconDX
Jul '17

I'm just going from experience here, but just draw simple characters. Of course, draw them in the style that fits the world of your comic, but most importantly: do not draw extremely detailed background characters. You don't want to draw the attention away from your main characters in the comic panels, so just keep it as simple as possible.