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Nov 2022

For me, I always feel that knowing something about a character, like their personality, makes them easier to design.

Like someone who is super proper and uppity would have neat hair and wear expensive clothes. While someone who is a slob would have messy hair and maybe tattered clothes.

What's your character like? Maybe we can give you some more concrete suggestions (or a quick sketch, if I have a free minute) if you post a description.

Usually when i'm stuck on character designs I try to go through a few steps between character explorations to get an idea of their personality and their background and then looking through things like character creators, mood boards, pinterest pages and characters from other media that are similar to the concept i have in mind

that's like i don't really stick on one design at first i kind of experiment with or build on ideas till i settle on something i like. that's why one thing that helps is not expecting to get things perfect on the first try and kind of letting yourself mess around with things until they click. you just have to remember you don't force it it's more that it comes to you (one of those you'll know when it happens)

as for style stuff (like artstyle specifically) never worry to much about it looking just like someone else's. doesn't mean abandon standards but like...don't stress perfection just lets things flow

It sounds from this as though maybe part of the issue you're having with character design is just that your drawing skills are still developing and so even when you do have something in mind, you're struggling to put it on the page as you imagined it.
Probably the best thing you can do is to get out some general books and tutorials on drawing people/anatomy and clothing, and to just generally practice drawing bodies, poses and faces and various basic clothing types (trousers, leggings, skirts, jeans, shorts, hoodies, jackets, t-shirts, buttoned shirts, sneakers, sandals etc.) and hairstyles. Basically, build up the collection of things you can confidently draw so that you can mix and match them to make character designs.

This looks fine as a design for a shy eight year old girl. The simple A-line knee-length skirt and the puffy princess sleeves, along with her nervous expression and loose hair get across a sense of an innocent character, perhaps somebody very proper and feminine, or who has been raised to perform that role. In other words, it's a decent character design, because it's getting across information about the character! :smile_01:

And that's all good character design is. It doesn't have to be the best drawings, or the most detailed or intricate, it just needs to help the viewer tell characters apart and communicate important information about them while being a suitable detail level or style for the medium it was created for (be it 3D animation, a 2d visual novel game, a weekly webcomic or anything else). Basically, just keep working at your anatomy, line quality and perspective, and spend time looking at fashion and historical clothing and trying to expand your knowledge of how to use garments, shapes and colours to broaden your character design vocabulary.

Thank you. That's how I wrote Zareen as well. She's the childhood friend and main character in this story I wrote ages ago called signs of love. Zareen is hard of hearing and has an in the ear hearing aid. She knows sign language and says some words on occasion. Her childhood friend and Love Interest is named Ayo Bello and he loves movies and anime...He's also 8 years old.

its not so hard buddy, in fact its super easy! :blush:

if your making a guy character all you need is:
- cool hairstyle, spiky, wavy sexy hair
- sharp cool eyes
- cool flashy, trendy, modern clothes

if its a girl character:
-make boobies huge

next is... huh? your saying its all been done before? well... umm... maybe you can... uhh... :open_mouth:

shit now i cant think of anything new...

meh just "borrow" not copy ehem popular anime or manga characters and alter them slightly and you have your awesome OC! woohoo! yeeey! šŸ¤£:laughing:

Bruh the character in question is eight

Lol, thanks for the helping advice. I actually do plan on aging my characters up. Lol...so I guess I gotta work on boob drawing sometime. XD

Thanks again everyone for the great advice. It's very helpful and appreciate y'all. Happy Thanksgiving :blush: :smiley: :grinning: :smile:

It did not, I can see how you're trying different things and it's actually great, now this is working on design! :smug_01: if you can, try drawing her in full height more, you will advance quicker and get used to drawing not only the face :slight_smile:

It's pretty normal for drawing ability to fluctuate a bit. Not every drawing I do of a character is my best drawing ever!

Also, if you go into your gallery on your phone, there should be an edit option for photos that will let you crop them down to just the main part of the image. Might be good to try to crop images down to just the drawing before uploading?