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Aug 2020

Character from front and from back in their most common outfit (for some reasons a nude or underwear version is also often included? Why?), their significant personal belongings and maybe a few examples of various facial expressions seems like the first and most important things to include into a reference sheet, but, what else might be included there additionally?

In a hypothetical scenario of your doing a commission art for somebody, and they send you a character ref, what would you want to be there besides what I already mentioned?
What if character in that commission isn't human or humanoid? What would you need?
I have one idea to put in an isometric exaggerated shape of the face to better convey how my characters are different from each other.

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    Aug '20
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    Sep '20
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I can only think of some particular details in zoom, like scars or small tattoos, maybe clothes embroidery. If they are not human it could be bottom of paws or shape of the tongue.

On mine I have blobs of colours (you could do neat squares etc. but my refs are just seen by me), without shading so I can eyedropper tool the colours. I have costume details (I copy and paste the logo and warp it shhhh) and any markings etc. too.

And my bad guy has that many jewels I have a page JUST for his outfit bits and bobs. Haha!

(not the ref pic, but just to show you what I mean. He's a pain in the butt to draw!) :joy:

Just seeing all the jewelry on him makes me want to cry. So much detail!

RE: Nude references - I have those. It's a reference for the character's exact proportions under their clothes. My first comic I didn't do that and I suffered a lot because my character kept changing sizes between panels since I only had a reference of him in his common outfit, i.e. a bulky over-sized sweater (and in those panels he wasn't yet wearing it).

IMO if you're an artist/writer all-in-one-combo deal, then the best reference sheet is the one that covers your weaknesses - everything else is a waste of time (i.e. time you should be spending on your pages instead, lol). Mine is proportions, so I just have that, plus just really old art and sketches that still contain the bits of character I'm using. I used to do expression/head references as well, but then I realized wait I'm actually not bad at winging those, so I stopped. I wing the alternative outfits as well.

If you're for whatever reason working as part of a team, then you need the whole kit and caboodle. Front, 3/4, side, back whole body; head and expressions + alt outfits (to portray the character's personality); nude figure (again, for proportions); close-ups of any details (both front and from 3/4+ the side, if they're 3D details).

Don't mind me reading this up as I'm doing a ref sheet atm :eyes:

Well yeah but why are they always so... detailed?

Many ref sheets are being done specifically because the author wants to see their OC nude and will probably use it for ordering NSFW artworks =)
I would never draw naked OC for my own ref sheet, unless it's really important somehow, don't see any need :thinking:

Yeah, I never understood that either. It's like wanting to see your offspring's sextape, it's weird and uncomfortable, to me at least. I know people sometimes create OCs purely for sexing them...

It depends to what end you are using the character ref for.
Hiring an assistant to work on your comic with you? Go for the whole shebang.
Commissioning an artist for a character portrait? A bust shot or two will do.
Basically include as much detail in your ref that you want your hired artist to produce for you.

Some of my favorite refs to work with are just docs plastered with outfit inspirations and celebrity face-claims. I feel it gives me a bit more leeway than using refs drawn by other artists because I debate with myself whether to stick closer with those artistic styles or not.

As for non-human beings, the more refs from various angles the better, particularly if they're super detailed like Bloodborne bosses and whatnot.

Well, this thread is for establishing what "the whole shebang" is. As in, what details are important and what aren't, since if I'll throw in EVERYTHING I have thought of on the characters, it'll quickly morph from a reference sheet into reference rulebook. =D
Plus I'd probably start giving of impression of some weirdo obsessive-compulsive basement dweller that will rage a storm if you'll use slightly wrong shade of color, i.e. a customer to run away from.

I suppose then that's really up to you to decide! Like is it important to Matt Groening that Bart has exactly 9 hair spikes? If yes, then he'd make a little note of it near the head on the reference sheet.
Consistency is important if multiple people are producing one product, but you can definitely be a bit looser with the rules if you're just collecting art of your characters and you want the individual artist's hand to shine through~

Personally, as an artist, it weirds me out when a character is drawn with one level of detail in one body part, and then like, no detail in another. I don't have much of an uncanny valley but something like that just trips up my heebie-jeebies something fierce. For example, I hate that anime will often not draw nipples even on male characters. Holy hell, it just looks so uncanny and wrong. They're JUST nipples. Barring surgery or accident, EVERYONE has at least two.

I can understand putting briefs on your characters since you a) may need to share the ref professionally and b) briefs vs junk hanging out doesn't make much difference when the characters are clothed so they provide the same level of reference. But if the rest of the body isn't detailed, it's pretty weird.

Depending on the story, it may also occasionally be useful (i.e. if you often portray the character wearing nothing (it doesn't have to be sexual, either), or wearing skin-tight clothing, like superheroes). It usually probably won't be, but there are fringe cases.

21 days later

Okay, lemme revive this thread a bit. I'm now redrawing charsheet refs for my characters. While they will mostly be for personal use, I want them to be useful if I'd decide to commission some art to other people, or for people that would want to make fanart (ha, as if).
So for example here's a couple of charsheets:
2
1

Imagine if I'd be commissioning you, is there any stuff missing that you would like to know about the character in order to draw them better\more accurate?

I try to keep mine simple since I mainly use it for color picking. I think one of my more detailed refs was for my character Flav since there's a lot of 'functions' to him. My references for my comic in-development are also a little more detailed since they were originally part of a pitch. My general rule is plain background, no/non intrusive shading, and to try to keep clutter to a minimum. This is just a design preference but I also try to limit my color choices to below 10, preferably within the 5-7 range just so they aren't a nightmare to animate or put in comics.


I guess it depends on what you're planning on using the reference for. With animation, you need to get really specific on various details to keep character consistency. I've seen character reference sheets for animation that are several pages long and have small details pointed out specifically to keep that character looking the same from frame to frame (like this character always has three hair spikes that point downwards and in front of the left eye).

I would imagine it would roughly be the same for artists working collaboratively or a comic project with multiple artists. Maybe not as much details as the animation sheet, but still enough to keep a relative sense of character consistency between artists.

Most character sheets I've seen have a character turnaround, which show a full-body character at three or four different viewpoints (usually 3/4, front view, side view, and back view) to get a good idea of what the character would look like at different angles.

Here's a character reference sheet I have broken down for my character. Most of the stuff there is more or less for my own personal benefit. A lot of it is notes for me to personally keep character consistency from comic panel to comic panel (particularly for a character who has a fair amount of spots. I've found spots are kind of a bitch to keep consistency on).