@kurapikasuki Are Blue haired, dual machine-gun-sword weilding characters acceptable?
Scantily clad warriors without a really good reason as to why they are scantily clad. Aztec warriors may be naked waist up, but knights should be in full armor regardless of gender. Wizards should probably at least have their arms and vital organs covered, and super heroes do not need to be wearing form fitting spandex that only covers their genitals and navel. If a character design has a sleeveless top, have a reason. If a character is wearing a mythril bikini, they better also be wearing something to protect their internal organs or be in a context in which such an outfit makes sense.
To be a bit narcissistic and point to my own character designs for a moment, I tend to dress my characters from neck to ankle in clothes that make sense given their context. In The Bio War, the British super soldiers are wearing British WWII officer uniforms because they are British officers on a recon and damage control mission in Liege, Belgium. The Nazi is wearing an SS uniform and the civilians are wearing casual working class jackets, button-up shirts, and work pants. By the current page, one of the Brits has torn apart the sleeves of her uniform by using one of her abilities, so in the future she will receive a modified combat uniform that has no sleeves, as will the two soldiers with the ability to unhinge many of the bones in their body at will. The character who is about to go super sayan will likely need a drastically modified uniform in the future, but I haven't designed it yet. What I have NOT done is randomly put these characters in spandex and latex uniforms that show off bits of their anatomy that would only be tactically advantageous if the enemy was an army of perverts who were incapacitated by their own dirty thoughts. Also, spandex and latex did not exist in 1941 in the state that they do now, so this would make even less sense.
It's funny, as I wonder if my view/sub count would have increased had I changed my heroine's hair colour to blonde, brown, or even blue instead of pink. I seriously have not been watching much anime in the past 10 years (or browsing deviantart. I've never had any interest in that site), so maybe there's been an influx of pink-haired heroines? Out of all of the anime I've seen in the past, I only remember less than a handful of them having pink hair (although my memory is quite shoddy. Maybe I never noticed). I really feel like I've been living under a rock, and have completely and unintentionally shot myself in the foot here with my design. It's almost to the point where it's kind of embarrassing. Well, too late for me now. I may as well just soldier on and do the best I can.
@CelestialNavigator - Haha, yeah, I get it. I get it. Obviously, I missed a lot then. And to that, you would be saying that missing a lot is an understatement.
@Greg_Dickson The pink hair thing is news to me, but I don't watch very much anime D: I have a character in another story with pale pink hair that I don't have intention of changing. I don't think there's many people who would be immediately put off just by pink hair alone, I think it's when used in combination with a bunch of other anime tropes. I think pink hair is cute, but maybe that's because of my lack of anime consumption.
@CelestialNavigator - That's funny. You know what, though? I'm not actually embarrassed now. It's really just a damn colour, and even though it was a dumb coincidence, I'm just going to own it. I went in with my own ideas and concepts, and even though this is a "Simpsons Did It!"-type scenario, I'm still satisfied with the direction I've went. If it's a massively hated stereotype, then all I can do is work the best with what I've got, and turn it into something that some people can enjoy.
@ Michelle - Thanks, it's nice to know I'm not alone here. To be honest, I've got some other females with other shades of pink hair (such as the heroine's sister's with a dark shade of pink, and someone else with pale pink hair), but then again, I have females with blonde hair, black hair, black and white hair, purple hair, red hair, brown hair, blue hair, and grey hair. I think the only colour I haven't used for a female is green, and I think that would look more out of place than pink.
-braindead characters who seem to only serve the purpose as fap meat for the the fans.
-mary sues/gary stus
-whatever subculture is mainstream use it as a personality trait. I still have war flashbacks of the whole emo thing.
-political strawmen.
-sparkle dogs/animals/furries
-characters that take place in a specific era and don't fit in at all i.e clothing, slang, doing things that a-okay now but probably would get you locked up in the past.
-Character that is more an art piece than an actual character.
-recolors/redesigns of other work.
XD Which really funny to me because my main character is green-haired. But agreed, it IS very out of place!
@ Michelle - Haha, nothing wrong there. I just meant for me making a green haired female just for the sake of having a female with every colour of hair. I do have a green haired male though, which isn't surprising, given the amount of characters that I have.
@Greg_Dickson Yeah don't sweat it. It's just hair. I myself have a character with pink hair and no one's said anything.
Just one thing comes to mind at the moment but it irks me to noooo end: People putting their characters in kimonos/yukatas/judogis and putting the right side of the garment on top when the character is a normal living person. I could possibly live with it if it was done to imply that the character is, you know, dead but this hardly ever is the case. I dunno, if you want to draw traditional clothing of any culture do a little bit of research.
@Greg_Dickson Well, if you think that your work can avert the stereotype, do it then! Make sure that other people who aren't turned away by pink-haired heroines as I am will enjoy every page. So best of luck to you.
I really don't have any real issues with alot of character designs, each character's outfit is made to give them their own identity. Although having cocky character wear alot of red and serious characters wear alot of dark blue is a little generic. (I am guilty of this sometimes) However, this applies basic color theory. You could pick there other character traits and apply a color to it so it differentiates their look.
Another pet peeve of mine (this is for beginner OC designs) where they take an existing character change their color add a small tweak here and there and call it their own. I think this is more of an insult to original creator, if you base them on an existing character that's okay. Besides we all have to start somewhere.
The only reason I've ever drawn it this is way is because my references had it that way but I would have never known why until now. I need to make a note of doing more research on clothing. thanks =]
WebComicChat just finished our talk on character clothing design. We discussed a lot that was said here. You can still look through what they said or join in here.3
You can see what I said here.1
Wish I thought to tell you guys sooner, but there might still be time.