The worst character design advice

A lot of it is either up to personal taste (I don't like some professional studio's styles but that doesn't mean they are objectively bad) or it is an amateur artist thing and they are just starting to learn.

The thing I try to do personally is avoid having too many characters that look too similar, and even more so try not to make all the girls too samey (while making the guys extraordinarily different or cartoony, because it makes it stand out even more)

I would say the things I say to "avoid" are somewhat "pet peeves" rather than saying you absolutely shouldn't do them. It does come to down to preference sometimes.

When writing a horror story, the ethnic minority always dies first. Case in point, The Killer Shrews. The first guy to die in that is the Mexican guy. The second one is the black guy.

People from the South are either charming Scarlett O'Hara-likes or inbred hillbillies. You might include a black person if you're in Atlanta. There isn't any kind of Latino, Middle Eastern, East Asian, ect communties, of course.

"My momma hit me!" is a valid excuse for wanting to murder orphans.

Going off topic for a moment, but I saw a Youtube video once where someone accused Miyazaki of putting vore into his Nausicaa comic. The scene showed the main character being swallowed up by a monster, temporarily.....I just took it as that, the main character being swallowed up by the monster - a scary/tense scene from my point of view, it didn't look like it was being 'suggestive' of anything else, but the person who made the video swore off anything Miyazaki when they found this, assuming it was a fetish thing.

I know Miyazaki is absolutely against that sort of stuff, so that's just ridiculous to assume he had that mindset when drawing that scene. I guess I wouldn't know anything for certain, but had I come across that scene while reading the comic myself, I wouldn't have gone "HOLY CRAP VORE WHAT THE HELL MIYAZAKI?!"

So yeah, it feels like the line is a kind of blurred. I mean, if someone were to draw bare feet should we assume the artist has a foot fetish? XD Come on now people, get your head out of the gutter a LITTLE bit.

Sorry for continuing the off topic-ness, but by that logic, Attack on Titan is just one giant hard core vore fetish fest. : D

Honestly though, why does anyone care? So someone slips in something that gets them going. How's it any different then someone slipping in unnecessary fan service? They're both just serving the purpose of turning the artist on (and others if that appeals to the readers).
Some people get their rocks off by seeing characters in pain so they torture their characters, others like big boobs and tits so they throw in some pantie shots. If Miyazaki or the AoT guy did really get off to vore, how would that be any different? And at least their's would contribute to to the story. :'D

Btw, this isn't all directly at you, @VermillionWorks, this all just happened to land in my response to your post. :'D I just never got why some harmless kinks are so much more taboo than others?

(And queue everyone thinking I'm into vore now for defending it. I'm honestly not, but I have several friends who are and yeah "kink shaming!!!!" I just never got why THAT one is so weird to people when there's far more actually harmful fetishes out there that are blatantly slipped into popular media all the time. I mean, nobody into vore is ever gonna actually try to eat you, but there are perverts that are gonna check out kids and assault women. And most people into vore just kinda silently appreciate anything "vore" related in media. Other fetishists aren't so good about keeping shit to themselves.)

Oh, I don't blame people for finding it odd. I can't blame anyone for feeling "weirded out" over things, that's not really an on-off switch people can control. But my question still stands that why are some harmless kinks still so much more shamed than others? And I mean, just like how people can't control if something is weird to them, people can't control what turns them on. My girlfriend likes vore and she was so fucking ashamed and felt legitimately worried when she came to terms with it because of how much people shit on people for liking it. Even though? Her like for it literally affects no one? She isn't shoving it other people's faces. Literally nobody I know with an unusual kink is shoving it in people's faces, in fact. They keep it to themselves and if something pops up that happens to include that kink, they post about it maybe on a private twitter at most or something.
I know far more people sneaking their guro and non-con kinks into media, and those are far more "problematic." Once again, this isn't a question of why do people find it odd. I totally see why it's odd (speaking as someone who isn't into it myself). It's a question of why does it get shamed so much more than other far more common and dangerous kinks?
And my point is, nobody should feel ashamed for something they can't control when it's not anything harmful to others (so that we can't bring the entire shota/loli issue into this). I don't know, maybe a bit embarrassed for liking something odd? But not ashamed.
This isn't exclusive to vore by the way.

I'm still just wondering what's the point in making people feel bad for having unusual tastes? How is it affecting you? Is someone into vore following you around and trying to eat you? Probably not, but someone might be trying to snap a photo up your skirt.
If someone draws a lot of an unusual kink just...don't follow them? I know there's a few comics on here who are very obviously sneaking in their author's kinks, and it's not my cup of tea so I just don't follow them?

I'm just not comprehending how making people feel bad for harmless things benefits anyone? Making my girlfriend feel gross and weird for liking this thing she has no control over isn't going to "cure" her or anything. It's just gonna make her feel bad.

Now if someone is going and commenting on every page where your character is eating something and going "God I wish I was that sushi roll," then that person probably needs to be put in line, but nearly everyone I know with unusual kinks just keeps stuff to their own pages or pages of people who share whatever kink. It's honestly the more normal stuff I see constantly forced on people, like creepy comments on female characters in situations that aren't meant to be remotely sexual.

Doesn't a kink basically mean "something unusual that turns you on"? Because most kinks are weird AF lol.

To the question how it's affecting me? It's not actually, everyone is free to like whatever they like, I think I'm free to think some kinks are disgusting or disturbing. Though vore isn't harmful as far as I know, badly drawn vore is kind of popular on DeviantArt for some reason? I wrote it in bad design choices because it's very unappealing to the majority of our population, and I just don't understand vore at all.

But then again, I probably like stuff that other people would find weird or offsetting. So I'm sorry if I offended you or anyone. u__u

Nah you didn't! If anything, I appreciate your understanding. Honestly, before my girlfriend, I would have probably hopped right on conversations poking fun at it. But the day she realized she liked it she literally came to me almost crying because she felt so bad? She felt like a freak and like there was something wrong with her. And that was such an eye opening moment for me because it made me realize "why should she feel like this?" She's not gonna go around leaving creepy comments, she's not gonna look at people and go "god I wanna eat them." She might just draw it occasionally or favorite some vore pieces and that's about it. Why should she feel ashamed of that? She's not hurting anyone.
And that's kinda how I feel about all unusual kinks. You're right, everyone has every right to find kinks weird or disgusting. One of my friends just confessed they like omorashi, which is something that can literally make me gag, but unless they come over and piss on my couch or something then? Uh, whatever. I might unfollow if they draw it a lot or something, but it's their account to do what they want with and it's not like they wouldn't tag/warn for content like that.
Unless it's something that could be potentially dangerous like pedophilia or non-con, whatever? That's how I've always viewed it. :'D

Moooost people aren't showing their mom their Tumblr and DeviantArt. You're correct in saying there's always a chance IRL family and friends could find it, but they could just as easily (probably more easily) find someone's nudes on Tumblr, and that's not really shamed beyond maybe...slut shaming. Maybe considered dumb, but nobody's really making fun of them.
They aren't really gonna find other artists of that fetish if they don't post them publicly, but really even then it's still not that hard to avoid? Like yeah, you might see it on the front page of DeviantArt or in your favorite tag on Tumblr, but you'll find plenty of other garbage in those places too. That's not exclusive to weird fetishes. If you stumble upon a page that has a lot of it, simply click away, just like you would for the page of an artist with a style you don't like.
You're right in saying you're at risk of getting mean comments whenever someone posts something "weird" online, but I don't understand the benefits of being the one making the mean comments.

By the way, I feel bad for getting this thread off topic, so in attempts to throw it back on track, here's some more great character design advice:
If your villain has some animal to represent them, it must be something considered evil, like a snake. Respectively, heroes should be something like a lion.

'Anatomy isn't important, just being creative is important'

Wrong. My anatomy class was the best thing that ever happened to me. I thought it was silly because I was drawing cartoons. But honestly you can't be a good character artist on any level without a basic understand of the human body. Bottom line.

Remember, if you are making a protagonist for an anime-inspired work, the protagonist has to look like the anime equivalent of your average joe (i.e Kirito from SAO, that guy from School Days)

• The side characters are more important because they’re your MC’s support. Without them, your main character would be nothing. So make sure to use all your time designing supporting characters. They must look cooler than the MC!
• When designing your characters, feel free to trace the designs you like from other characters in other famous works within your medium. Then mash the designs together. (Please don’t ever do this. )
• When you design a bloodthirsty villain, make them a 5 year old girl. It’s more sinister if she looks like she’s from Glitter Force.

Glitter, belts, ribbons and spice, I call upon the 90's for bad character advice.

A character's visual appearance must not only embrace but give away 100% of their personality, because readers don't want to spend time figuring out who they are. A magical girl should only wear one colour in her whole outfit, preferably pink, avoid 'cool' colours because they are not as feminine, but it's ok if it's a tough tomboy character or a bookworm. You can further emphasize their personality by giving them Japanese names that directly mean their colour or elemental power! Try "Hikari", for a light themed or yellow magical girl, "Midori" for your tough green tomboy or "Sakura" for a pink/ love themed main character.

A main hero should have big spiky hair, it makes him visually distinct from the whole cast because we see many main protagonists that look this way. If you want your audience to fall in love with him, you can consider drawing him one of two ways. Maybe he is fighting for the love of his life, who is a maid, because a soft feminine maid makes the audience feel very sympathetic. Make sure to draw her a lot with her hands clasped around her chest, which will show that she's innocent and pure. He should look stoic and uninterested, but he actually isn't, you just can't tell past the constipated face because his life is really hard because the maid keeps getting captured and he's ready to retire and become a jaded alcoholic, the sequel. The other way I suggest is to make him really cool and happy and friendly, this is great if you don't want pretend he has a personality.

Villains need to show they are obviously villains, otherwise readers might be confused. Put some hard jagged edges and tatters in their clothes because villains are allergic to looking good. Unless he is rich, though. In that case make him look like a handsome prince but with a sinister smile, so you know he is up to no good. If you want to emphasize his character more, give him a tesla cybertruck and an instagram influencer entourage. You know he is lonely and miserable this way, because the models are being paid to be there.

"blindly follow trends and do what everyone else is doing when it comes to characters design"