What are some resources for people who want to better get into and analyze character design? I’ve been seeing posts in relation to a franchise I enjoys character design, and unlike a lot of people, I’d like to have my opinion be a bit more informed.
I always struggle to answer this kind of thing because my answer is "read a lot of criticism and maybe get a humanities degree in something."
This is art, so it's not really... there isn't really a handbook for this stuff. Everything in character design is utterly contextual, basically every rule that's true in one place is reversed in another.
I wish there were some books I could recommend, but the trouble is every time I've tried a book claiming to be "about character design" they tend to devolve into art tutorial books, or only speak to one very specific genre, or are more like personal treaties from specific artists outlining their specific approach.
All of these can be useful, to be clear! I'm not saying they're not worthwhile books. But I've yet to find something that addresses what people usually seem to be asking for, which is something like a learner's guide, or a kind of "introduction to character design."
ngl about five minutes away from deciding to write a book on character design myself, at least the very, very basics, it bothers me that somebody smarter than me hasn't done it yet
Most of what you need in order to understand and critique character design, though, you will find in art and literary history and in media studies of various forms. Learning a bit about semiotics is useful, learning a bit about media criticism and critical scholarship is useful.
Character design is a big complicated soup of things, so there's a big complicated list of ingredients that go into it. Read broadly, study broadly, the more things you understand and are familiar with, the more complex your thinking about design can become.
kianamaiart
stormborns
dededos
tangentwithtanner
dailybridgerton
gummygunk
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
pixelskylines
