What is your character design pet peevee?

CelestialNavigator 2016-07-03 23:41:07 UTC #75

@dracomarl - good if only same body type. I once came across a certain piece with an unholy union of Single Beauty Standard AND Same Sex Syndrome. I found it pretty unsettling.

@AnnaLandin - well, we are here exactly for personal opinions.

-> As a person who used to have literally ass-long hair, I can say that most likely it's because hair in this case look highly unrealistic on some subconscious level.
-> Zippers on all the things? googles Kingdome Hearts Oh gods my eyes! I love zippers but this is just too much even for me.
-> Bonus points for colour-coded characters in this case to have a colour-coded everything ever.
-> How? Common sense in clothes does not clash with morality/virginity of a woman.

AnnaLandin 2016-07-04 05:33:32 UTC #76

... I have hair that long. ^_^; I know not everyone has that kind of hair-length, but for me, hair that long isn't unrealistic. As a result, a lot of my characters have long hair!

To clarify my point to those who might have misunderstood; I'm not saying that wearing sensible boots to go fight a dragon is equal to coding a character as virginal and virtuous. What I'm talking about is pretty well exemplified in this image of Mary Marvel:

These women are both the same character; on the left is Mary Marvel when she is morally good. She's wearing all white and gold (white being culturally associated with innocence and virginity), with loose-fit sleeves, more flowing, cotton-y fabric and a more child-like cut to her clothing. On the right is Mary Marvel after she has been corrupted and gone evil; her outfit is now mainly black, and seems to be made of latex or shiny leather, she's got garters, fishnet stockings and shiny leather boots - all of which are often associated with sex and sexualised clothing. The lower half of her outfit is basically sexy lingerie, and the top half isn't much better.

So, this costume change equates moral goodness with child-like innocence and virginal visual cues, and moral evil with sexy lingerie and sexual availability.

This is the most obvious example I can find on short notice, but it's certainly not the only one - it's quite common. I'm really not fond of it.

UzukiCheverie 2016-07-04 05:47:25 UTC #77

that shit-eating face just totally makes it even funnier lol (even though i'm guilty of this to a point)

I would say the typical anime-girl-in-sailor-uniform trope. Also, defining the main character by their bright hair color (usually pink or blue or something weird like that).

Mane 2016-07-04 08:52:33 UTC #78

Already mentioned but yeah, I'll have to agree with the unreasonable cleavage type , and as a fan of Bleach and shonen in general, boy have I had my share of those. Especially on characters that are portrayed as innocent, child like and not sexual personality wise. I am all for fan service, characters like Jessica Rabbit was designed with that in mind, but I don't like it when I see it on characters whose mind set and personality do not go hand in hand with the design they were given (if that makes any sense.)

Also Goku-like hair. The people who first had to create a 3D model of him for the games or figures must have had a field day.

CelestialNavigator 2016-07-04 09:35:52 UTC #79

----> Oh no no no! I meant movement of hair of such length, not the length itself. I mean shorter hair, especially if they happened to be naturally light and thin in texture, sometimes do some weird things. But long hair generally don't since they weight too much to be able to.

AnnaLandin:

These women are both the same character; on the left is Mary Marvel when she is morally good. She's wearing all white and gold (white being culturally associated with innocence and virginity), with loose-fit sleeves, more flowing, cotton-y fabric and a more child-like cut to her clothing. On the right is Mary Marvel after she has been corrupted and gone evil; her outfit is now mainly black, and seems to be made of latex or shiny leather, she's got garters, fishnet stockings and shiny leather boots - all of which are often associated with sex and sexualised clothing. The lower half of her outfit is basically sexy lingerie, and the top half isn't much better.

So, this costume change equates moral goodness with child-like innocence and virginal visual cues, and moral evil with sexy lingerie and sexual availability.

Ah! I see. This is what also bugged me too but from the different point of view - okay, character gone evil and all like that, but why to change obviously comfortable and reasonable clothing style?

Well, I'm not sure about lingerie, but lower half on the second outfit looks more like a built-in garter belt which makes sense since she's wearing stockings. Aside from this I see no logic in what she's wearing.
Speaking of the first outfit - I wouldn't say it's more child-like - from my point of view at least - but it's more rational? Not sure about the right word here.

KSlinger 2016-07-04 10:49:06 UTC #80

The only thing that bothers me about character design is when older characters are made to look like children or children are made to look like adults, especially where romance is involved. I really like and recommend the comic 'The God In The Field' on this site, for example- it's a beautiful comic and the story is one we all know- but I simply cannot follow it because it really creeps me out.

I guess something in me needs to know that where there's romance involved it's two adults, two teens, or an adult and a legal teen (like really legal, I'll have none of that barely a woman/man shit) or whatever-- so long as it's laid out and I know what I'm looking at.

Also really dislike it when girls and boys (like 16/17 years) are made to look like 30?? What's with that?? If you have a character who looks like an adult and behaves like a bratty child it's extremely confusing.

NickRowler 2016-07-04 17:31:48 UTC #81

-Super short skirts that would expose a character's underwear if she bent over. (And I'm not talking about porno comics, I'm talking about the ones where they always conveniently have barely enough skirt to cover their butt)

-way too defined boobs under a shirt which should not define the breasts at all.

Like this.

-Super long legs, like in Sailor Moon

-Buruma (Japanese gym uniform), Japan hasn't used these uniforms for years, yet people still like to put them in their comic because they have some weird fetish or something.

60Six 2016-07-04 17:50:54 UTC #82

This is vague but I think my biggest peeve is when I can simply look at a design and just say "Yeah, you have a Tumblr, don't you?"
I'm not even saying they're bad designs. By all technicalities, they can be great. But I just don't like it when I can tell something is a product of Tumblr (This kind of goes for styles too). Not necessarily bad things by any means, just not my cup of tea.

joannekwan 2016-07-04 17:51:57 UTC #83

Ooh, I wanna see examples because I think I know what you mean …

NickRowler 2016-07-04 18:00:16 UTC #84

So more or less a variation of this?

But with more pastel hair or something

VermillionWorks 2016-07-04 18:05:40 UTC #85

Quite a few people already took the words from my typing fingers.
- Girls dressing sexy when it doesn't fit their personality.
- Some generic anime hairstyles like the "Sasuke" look.
- Character designs that don't fit the era of the story at all.
- Designs with too many details; an overcomplicated design.
...but I guess having crazy designs doesn't necessarily mean it'll kill any chance of popularity. Case and point -

WHAT IN THE NAME OF FRICK IS HAPPENING WITH THIS DESIGN?!

(Seriously though, no offense to Yu-Gi-Oh fans. XD)

....also...
- No effort to give any distinctive features AT ALL. I'm talking when people not only make them all look the same face-wise because of manga style, I've seen people so stuck on a certain look that all of their men or women (I've especially seen this with male manga-style characters) have pretty much the same hairstyle too, or the variations are so slight that only the artist can notice them. Dude, at LEAST give them different hairstyles! I have no hint at who is who!

60Six 2016-07-04 18:51:24 UTC #86

What @NickRowler posted is probably the best example you can post without directly posting a specific person's work which I'd of course never do. :'D
There are just certain outfits, stylized body shapes, and accessories that a lot of people use in their designs that just scream "This character looks like this because I'm active on Tumblr."
Flower crowns are a prime example. Oh how do I hate flower crowns.

JessJackdaw 2016-07-04 19:00:59 UTC #87

@Riko Wait... Flower crowns are a thing? How did that take off? D: I guess it shows that I don't get on Tumblr much.

Jeez, reading through this thread. There are so many clichés I haven't heard of, like the pink hair and heterochromia eyes. Don't know how I've avoided it this long...

Inspector_Spinda 2016-07-04 19:10:59 UTC #88

I do this alot. It is just easy.

Inspector_Spinda 2016-07-04 19:12:49 UTC #89

Not sure I understand what this means

KSlinger 2016-07-04 20:03:14 UTC #90

@Riko Me too, I definitely know this but it's really hard to pin down.

Zanreo 2016-07-04 21:13:29 UTC #91

Anthros aren't always sexualized though? I have several anthro characters and read several anthro comics and calling any of them "sexualized/sexy" would be a long reach.
I will agree through, even as a fan of anthros, that "sexy" furry/anthro characters kinda weird me out, just... leave that off animal-characters please

As for things I hate, I guess overly-saturated SUPER BRIGHT eye-hurting color schemes but that's really more of a coloring issue?

AnnaLandin:

Overtly sexualized clothing design on women where that sexualisation is out of place. If the purpose of your comic is to portray a sexualised atmosphere in general, or plain erotic fiction, or if the woman in question is flirting with someone and/or about to have sex, then sexualized clothing is just fine. When it's a woman existing in a situation or scene where sex would not factor into her thinking at that time, it makes no sense. Women going on an adventure to fight monsters would not wear miniskirts and bikini-tops. A woman in a professional office setting would not be showing off her panties. When a female character's clothing is drawn ONLY because "hurr hurr boobs" in a setting where that would not make sense, it is blindingly obvious and silly, ESPECIALLY if all male characters get to be fully clothed. NOTE: There is a difference between characters wearing shorts skirts or cute clothes, and characters who are overtly sexualised. A girl in a sundress on a summer day = makes sense. A crusading warrior woman in a metal thong = now you're just being silly.

Yes THIS

JessJackdaw 2016-07-04 21:25:22 UTC #92

@Zanreo Oh crap, sorry I meant to say "sexy" anthros. I have absolutely no issue with normal anthropomorphized characters. I went and fixed that. I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I thought all of them were creepy. I draw them all the dang time. XD

Anthros are awesome. ; >

bakasama25 2016-07-04 21:56:29 UTC #93

Buruma? Oh you mean Bloomers. There are a fetish only becouse they're short shorts and skintight. I guess that's why artists keep drawing them.

jennula 2016-07-05 10:22:17 UTC #94

I dunno, many pet peeves I usually counter with "the artist is probably young, I did the exact same things when I was young" (like adding 100 shades of neon in their hair, added wings and tails and whatnot). I think it's a thing you have to go through and explore =) I probably made some really weird design choices back in the day ("he's got to have blue hair!"), but it's a part of learning =) And I'm still a sucker for tails, even though it'sprobably very impractical...but so cute!

But yeah, as @AnnaLandin mentioned, oversexualizing just because you can without any reason and out of a sexualised context is probably what pisses me off nowadays.

And of course the boob sock, which @NickRowler mentioned. Omg whyyy?