Jul 2016
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Greg_Dickson
Jul '16
CelestialNavigator

@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.

indagold
Jul '16

-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.

Michelle
Jul '16

XD Which really funny to me because my main character is green-haired. But agreed, it IS very out of place!

Greg_Dickson
Jul '16

@ 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.

Iaikaa
Jul '16

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.

CelestialNavigator
Jul '16
Greg_Dickson

@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.

Kura
Jul '16
Iaikaa

Honestly I'm surprised this happens as much as it does... this is stuff they teach you in grade school.

kazukitakamura126
Jul '16

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.

El_Psy_Congroo
Jul '16
Iaikaa

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 =]

aspiderjonny
Jul '16

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.

JessJackdaw
Jul '16
1
nessiefynn

@nessiefynn

....I think I have a problem. D: I have a color addiction I need to get counselling for. I'll talk to my doctor about it.

Oh man, what peeves do I have? Well, a lot has been said already, but I guess wings that make no sense with the clothing design is a weird one for me. Like imagine trying to flap big wings with tiny slits in your clothes. Those feathery suckers would get a serious rash so quick, and probably ruin the base of the wings. Oh man, how do you even stay airborne like that?

Jeez, and I'm sorry if this is your favorite thing, but sexy anthros. Sexualized animals are so creepy to me. Sometimes it works, like with SheDwarf's Muscle Hawk, because it's meant to be silly and all the character designs are just as crazy. It just suits the world. Those that are designed to be fanservice like when it's a wolf head with a six pack with a huge package. Oh gosh, please no. Please....seriously, get it away.

JessJackdaw
Jul '16
1

Ahaha, I don't know how they could get brighter. I'm curious as to what could be worse... I don't think I've come across a comic yet that has absolutely blinded me. Either, I'm stupid lucky or color blind. Probably the latter. XD

Edit: Thought of another pet peeve. Not sure if this is a character design or a style thing, but characters that are always drawn in the same perspective. Something akin to Family Guy where the characters are all in the 3/4 view. In animation it's a cheap way to mass produce things, but in comics especially, it makes no sense. You see it all the time in the old strip comics. I never quite understood it.

dracomarl
Jul '16

@CelestialNavigator Fun fact, actually, in regards to your number two. The reason why superheros are traditionally drawn with underwear on the outside of their pants is because of the limited capabilities of color printing back in the day. They couldn't print in a great amount of detail, as printers there put down one layer at a time (black, yellow, red, blue, not necessarily in that order) and so the edges didn't always line up, which meant that if a character had a lot of detail on them, it would get blurred in a good number of issues. However, they still needed to have some color and lines to break up the overall jumpsuit design, so they popped a pair of panties over everybody's pants and boom, you've got a bit of design interest and color and line work all in a neat little package.

Now my main character design pet peeve is seeing sci-fi designs that don't have any explanation or visual cues as to how they work. To me, Sci-fi is meant to show a reality in which a theoretical/probable part of science (like wormholes in interstellar) is available to people and what this might mean to the fictional society, or how it might affect how society evolves and how the characters deal. So if, say, you've got a character that can summon up fire in their hands, I want to know HOW. I don't want handwavium, I want to either see tubes and a fuel tank, or some explaination as to how and why they can do what they can do.

I also really dislike it when all the characters in a series conform to a single standard of beauty. Big boobs and trim eyebrows for ladies, tall, buff, and not partiuclarly emotional for men, that sort of thing. It's boring to me.

Lastly, I really, really hate it when no thought is put into the colors and values used, especially when those things are super saturated. I want things to be separated according to some manner of design, be it shadows or the opposite hue, because otherwise I get lost in the design. Either that, or my eyes get burnt out via too many saturated colors.

El_Psy_Congroo
Jul '16

In regards to the sci-fi thing, I think that there are different sub genres and that a preference for one doesn't make the other flawed or have bad design per se. What you might prefer is whats called hard sci-fi which tends to be a lot more technical in terms of explaining the world. Michael Crichton's techno-thrillers (Jurassic Park, Prey, Andromeda Strain, etc) are an example. But I think there's plenty of room for "black box" sci fi where you don't have to know how it works to enjoy it. Steins: Gate and Star Trek are good examples of this.

CelestialNavigator
Jul '16

@JessJackdaw - do you want to talk about it? )))

Speaking of anthros - I don't mind them if people do them without putting much accent on the sex. but there this awkward situation when people treat fur like skin - I immediately start thinking about these naked cats/dogs. Just no.

@dracomarl - Oh, I didn't knew that. Finally someone gave a proper explanation.

Oh! This one is a big offender but in my case it's a question of worldbuilding rather than purely of design.

Under certain circumstances Single Beauty Standard would make sense in sci-fi setting if explained properly, but when last time we saw it with any kind of explanation aside from "author can draw one two body types, each for each sex"?

@El_Psy_Congroo - Gate as in Stargate Atlantis?

shaneoid77
Jul '16

They aren't 'underpants'. They're trunks. The original design for 'trunks over tights' was based on the strongman outfits popular in the Victorian era.