Looks to fit a personality or intentional dichotomy's? How do you prefer to design your characters?

[thepenmonster]

I design by "Can I draw this consistently over many pages?"

[Lorian]

Partially, but yes, he is the main character. Though more an antihero, than pure villain.

[KevinReijnders]

This especially.

Though I notice in myself, the longer I work on a project the more detailed the designs become.

[moontokkym]

Ironically a lot of my villain character's features are based in part on irl people I admire or am close friends with so I have an easier time seeing their humanity, but the rest of them probably looks a bit intimidating. The only antagonist we've seen in universe so far is Mina, who's... Not the most friendly looking character, but a couple of people are already really invested in her because they say she looks cool so idk.

[Animal508]

Rule 1 of any design is to have a distinct silhouette. This means that a character should be recognizable even if they were blacked out, or well, silhouetted.

Otherwise, I don't usually factor personality into the designs. Many of my characters do not have designs that reflect their personalities, in fact many characters have designs which clash with their personalities. Instead, I factor personality into the poses, and even those may not be reliable as some of my characters may be faking parts of their personalities.

For instance, I once thought of a character who's behaves in a stepford manner. Her appearance, behaviors, and mannerisms in concept art would reflect as such. However, I had the plot twist that she was a cult leader of some sort, and she gleefully facilitated human sacrifices.

[kyupol]

I always designed villains to look evil...

But I remember being told that my recent villain, Akala doesn't "look" too evil. She's not make up maxed or have that femdom vibe. She's the approachable villainess... even if she's more evil than my previous villains.

[BoomerZ]

I just design so they don't look like one another. (except the 2 twins, which I gave different piercings to make them different.) I truly believe you should be able to tell characters apart by just a glace. The last thing I want is the reader to be confused. I dislike making evil people look evil as the real world doesn't work that way. The people that cause the most destruction usually are very charismatic and/or good looking people.

[LostKelp]

I feel like Leopold design doesn't read immediately as evil, he could plausibly be a comedic relief in a different comic, but he does draw on the general look of tech CEOs, and has color changing eyes which makes him more ominous.

I feel my MCs are all pretty generic looking, and pretty much any other background character are as distinct as the MCs which is the point, because of the whole corperations-sqwashing-identity-to-make-everyone-into-cogs-of-a-machine thing. The Shadows especially look almost identical, but this is specificly because Leopold wants a certain type of person to be a symbol of power and violence (light skinned and masculine with eyes that glow red in the dark)

[ArtGremlin]

Soooo when I originally designed this guy I was going for “creepy uncle” vibes… but then he became the main character, so the comic is set before he becomes a creepy uncle- yeah.

He was originally just the “bad guy” then after I finally designed his (girlfriend?) everything fell into place and he became the main character against my will
(Yeah it was my will, but shhhhhhh)

[DasIstWunderblyat]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[NickRowler]

I usually use personality to define their mannerism.

I personally have a pet peeve of how character design is taught because a lot of it reenforces negative stereotypes.

This is why I might have characters that look creepy or unusual but they aren’t villains or bad. Because I don’t think we should be defining that by physical features. Or by disability. Just because my character is blind in one eye doesn’t make him evil.

[Leyelle]

i agree, i think it's dangerous to assume that evil people will be ugly, and pretty people will be good. Though some people will write pretty villains, unusual people or people who don't fit the beauty standard are rarely made protagonists

[Leyelle]

Jinwoo's design is very specific to his character with a lot of little details relating to who he is, basically everything has a reason behind it's place in his design, and that in and of itself, makes really simple things profound. Since they are crucial to the story, i won't give spoilers but i will say what traits are relevant to his character's intent.

1. Gray hair (and when he's reading, glasses)
2. his long hair
3. the fact that he always always always wears blue

All these things were designed with his character in mind, and a story behind them IN the story, or for intentional contrast to express the dichotomy of his existence

[Leyelle]

Tbh tho, what does it mean to look like you're personality? technically that whole idea is based in cliches that are always associated with an idea. like assuming that a cute person would wear bright colors because bright colors are cuter than dark ones?

[TheBlacKat333]

I’m not very good at character design, since a lot of it is completely unplanned. I usually have an idea for the design first, and then think of a personality for it later. Then, I draw the character, until the design naturally evolves into something that fun and quick to draw.
I do put a LOT of value in the silhouette, and using as little colors as possible. Those are the only things I’m actively paying attention to.
Heres two characters designs, one of them changed a lot as his personality changed, and the other just got a bit tweaked

[Leyelle]

if you design the look first and then add a personality you'll probably have an easier time avoiding the trap of making a character design a cliche 'representation' of a character archetype.

the way a character dresses, imao, should fit their personality, but not their personality by how it fits into a trope, but the character's specific likes, dislikes, hobbies etc.

[Leyelle]

My character Madeline (Hushabye Prince.) is a very crazy and chaotic little tomboy. Hence, her style fits her personality because she rarely wears skirts or dresses or anything like that, and likes quirky, colorful accessories, but her physical design, I would venture to say, doesn't fit the typical tomboy aesthetic. Her hair, while not being super long, is fairly long and curly, and the cut is pretty feminine and cutesy. She honestly looks less traditionally tomboyish than another character of mine who isn't a tomboy at all, Jimin.

[ArtGremlin]

Since Ian was originally just a villain, he still looks like one.

I feel like having a long face/nose is often a “villain trait” usually not something main characters have.

[Leyelle]

yeah, I think it's because having a long face makes you look thinner, and we usually associate being tall and thin with being scary for some reason.

[Leyelle]

like being scary or being hot. there's no in between somehow