#character design tutorial

This post was created as part of the Coloso Supporters event. I received no financial compensation; I was only given free access to the following course for review purposes.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

It's time to do some character design! Yippee!!

Before starting the exercise, Anh showcased multiple examples of professional character design works that illustrate the core principles covered in previous lessons.

©️ Art of Prem - https://theartofprem.com

Exaggerating features allows the character designer to convey emotions, personality, and backstory through a character's appearance. A design should allow the audience to be able to get a rough sense of who the character is and what they're about. This is achieved through colors, shape language, silhouette, poses, and attitude.

Anh suggests approaching character design starting from the character's personality first. This will be useful for the upcoming exercise: creating our own character design using everything we've learned so far.

She shows an example using her own work. I decided to use the same prompt as hers - a 19 y/o mage using plants and potions to heal people - and started researching designs for my own character.

I want a character who is cheerful and passionate about her craft. She likes reading and is full of energy. She can be messy or mischievous at times, and is outwardly confident but a bit shy with strangers.

I came up with 3 potential designs. I didn't like my first attempt, as she looked way too young to be 19 asdfhjdl. My second attempt was much better in that regard, but she didn't read as "a mage" at a glance. I built on her attitude and worked on a more cheerful and mage-like design for my third attempt, which ended up being the one I settled on.

After cleaning up the sketch, Anh gives another assignment: drawing more poses for this character that convey her personality and the type of attitude she would have as a character in an animated show.

Time for adding colors to the design! Here too, I try to use my new knowledge about color language and color theory.

This is the final result after adding the last highlights and details:

What do you think? :D

Colors and Character Design

Oooo good question! And perfect timing too-I’ve been updating the Key Art for my OCs and just finished the first two characters, who coincidentally are perfect for this as examples! I would use Anthea and COTL for this, but for color symbolism especially, using OCs rather than game characters with pre-set colors (aka Red for the Lamb’s cloak, White for Baal, Black for Aym, ect.) would be a lot better since while I can interpret the game designer's reasons they're not exact.

Picking Colors

Now, how do I pick colors? Typically I prefer jewel-tones for my palettes, so vibrant but not oversaturated, and somewhat dark but not muddy. I just like how they look for the most part. 

 Typically when working with a character, I usually set two things down first in their lineart-their skin tone and their hair color. The reason for that is its a LOT easier to pick colors when you know WHAT they’re going against because color is relative (meaning whatever colors are next to each other will slightly influence how they’re perceived as a whole), or at least in this case its easier. I typically know what skin tone my characters are going to have since I’ve had most of my main OCs for a decade now, though even if it's not a set in stone color I still at least place one down first then adjust down the line, like with Anthea and Narinder’s cameo in my Christmas piece I originally had their skin set as this olive-undertone one before warming their colors up after messing around for a bit with their clothes. 

Skintone is kinda really important to have the colors match (Or match with multiple skintones if its say, a uniform everyone wears for example) to avoid issues. It both helps the character look nice in their outfit, and avoids a Nasica and the Valley of the Wind situation where your character's pants are a bit too close to their skin color and make some poses awkward. 

(See how Nasica’s pants are a light cream color but her skin is a very light peach? Depending on the quality of the film scan/shot they can appear identical and make it look like she's wearing a short dress and nothing underneath)

Anyway, with Chrysa and Leo, who you'll see shortly, their characters have been with me for a decade, so whenever I redesign/update their looks I kind of already have a set skin/hair for them. Chrysa’s meant to be very pale with red hair, while Leo has a warm tan and brown hair. I also never use pure white for eyes whites/teeth, and instead lower the opacity down to like 70-80 to let the skin tint it a little, this is just to help keep it from being too sharp. After skintone and hair are down, it’s onto Theme Color. 

Theme Colors

It’s very common in media for certain characters to have a ‘theme’ color, so a color they’re always wearing/associated with. Sonic the Hedgehog is blue, Toriel is purple, and Steven Universe is pink. Now this isn’t always the case, the girls from the 90s version of Sailor Moon for example wear a bunch of colors like most people do for every-day looks, but in character design if your character primarily has one outfit it’s good to pick a main color, and especially one that matches them.

Colors have meanings both positive and negative beyond just the chart above (and there are a lot of different takes that can even vary from culture to culture), like how Red is passion/anger in the west, but in China represents joy and prosperity. Your character doesn’t have to match every one of those meanings for them to use that color though. For Chrysa and Leo here:

Chrysa: Purple meaning Royalty, Mystery, and Compassion   Chyrsa’s a princess who’s been exiled and disgraced since she was born, she has a whole lot of mystery surrounding her purpose in life and just what she is (as she has magic and abilities most mortals typically don’t-which spoiler alert she is only alive as the the result of some godly intervention via a pact between the Goddess of Death and a dishonest queen), and her greatest strength is her kindness and compassion towards others regardless of who they are. She also has a sub-theme color in pink (so her secondary color) because of its association with youth, since Chrysa's isolation left her rather not so much naive but unaware of the outside world, which gives a lot of her morals and beliefs this youthful optimism. Leo: Green meaning Nature, Growth, and Selfishness  Leo’s the healer of the party who is more knowledgeable of the world around them both in regards to the kingdom they’re in (as he was raised by his mother a nomadic healer and traveled alongside her), and in regards to being more aware of the fae most mortals overlook. He’s got this unassuming look where his clothes don’t fit him right and a boyish face that makes it clear he’s got some growing up left to do when combined with his attitude, and especially at first Leo is rather selfish with others, often keeping his travel experience to himself when the party struggles in hopes they’ll give up their quest. (mainly due to having little faith left in their situations improving, kid's a huge pessimist)

Those are Chrysa and Leo’s basics, but that’s not all I was thinking about with their colors. While you can just leave it at that, I do have more reasons why I picked the shades/placements I did. Connecting the colors to where they’re placed on the design and why something is the way it is can be super important too. Heck, even where the outfit came from in-lore can be important too sometimes.  So congrats, you’re getting a mini character design lecture too I guess? Really this is me just taking the excuse to talk about the little things I did with my OCs’ designs here lol, but its somewhat relevant so trust me. Also as usual you can see more of OC stuff here @illustratemuse

Also I was gonna go into Leo too, but to not go on for long we'll just look at Chrysa's today.

Symbolism and Connections to Design

For Chrysa her entire character centers around being ‘inbetween’ life and death. As a girl raised in isolation not really wanted by anyone after her mother died in childbirth, she never had the chance to ‘live’ when all she wondered was why she hadn’t ‘died’. Chrysa basically has no opinion on if she lives or dies, and just wants someone to straight up tell her what to do since she doesn't know what either fully mean. (Just what does life have to hold? Just what peace does death offer?) Thus her colors I specifically chose based off twilight, that time between day (life) and night (death).

She’s also meant to resemble both a nun (as the story follows her becoming a Priestess of Death and the nun appearance is a quick shorthand glance for ‘oh she’s the priestess of this adventure party’ to the audience) and a bride crossed with a mourner-that bride part because another element of her character is how a lot of people place her mother's image over her, down to even misremembering her mother’s slightly sharper and at times angrier face to instead being as soft and gentle as Chrysa’s. And what is often viewed as pure in regards to woman? Being a bride-whose dress can easily be recolored into a mourner's if you change the fabric from white to black. Her mother’s death haunts her despite her having little emotional connection to the woman, and thus that’s how she’s dressed, a pure white bridal gown beneath a mourner's garb for a mother she never knew.

Now Chrysa isn’t a bride and is not getting married, but that imagery is still there since for a lot of the story it’s other people giving Chrysa her outfits, so it's like they're trying to recreate either that image of Chrysa's mother on her wedding day or her funeral, though I used the darker purples mostly since again the twilight nod as well as simply to make her look more vibrant, especially with her hair. Were Chrysa's outfit actually black she'd stick out too much when placed alongside her party.

Chrysa’s colors are very dark clothing-wise, so we're naturally drawn to her pale face and bright, vibrant red hair. Red like her mother’s blood. Red and curled like the threads of life she cuts as a priestess. So bright and alive unlike the rest of her appearance, yet covered by the only actual black garment on her, the veil. (which note that it’s not pure black but instead a very dark purple-I recommend using a dark version of a color that appears black since it helps match nicer). For the veil, Chrysa’s outfit was from her maternal aunt who becomes her mentor as the only other Priestess of Death, a woman who tries to pretend that she sees only Chrysa and not the sister she lost. And yet what does she give her niece upon first meeting? A veil. And what was Chrysa’s mother’s hair? Long, black, and straight. Chrysa’s key defining trait, the one thing people cannot place her mother’s image over, the trait they cannot soften/alter in memories, was her hair, yet here it is covered in a way that still gives Chrysa her mother’s silhouette/hides that red. 

Extra

Another little note is that if two or more characters are meant to go together check their colors side by side and adjust as needed! I usually line everyone up like this at the end to check them all over. Also at least for me, I have certain color types for certain materials that are the same for ALL characters in a cast. In my OC cast, metals like gold, silver, and iron are the same, as well as anything that’s white cotton or linen, since it helps unify the group. You can do leather too, but since leather can be dyed or colored you can honestly mess with its appearance to, that’s what I do where I tint the leather to match the theme color.

Conclusion

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You can see my process unfold in real time by joining any tier of my patreon discord. Which doesn't even have to go through patreon! If you want, you can just pay me $20 and let you in for a year (and then lose track and probably keep you anyway)

Here's a preview using comet! (nevermind the preview thing I wrote you a whole lecture lol)

initial sketches in 2021:

Revisited in 2022 and 2023

I was constantly asking which design was the weakest, why, and how to fix it. Whenever I tested without the magical comet behind it, people could only guess who comet was by process of elimination.

I didn't want to rely on throwing icons into the design. I wanted each one to communicate through shape and silhouette alone. It would be like drawing a little cherub with a bow and arrow floating along with cupid. If you have to include a nametag to communicate, your design can be improved.

So I tried a few different strategies to say "comet" before I realized I could twist the antlers into any shape I wanted. I was worried I would have to discard the drawing and restart from scratch! Which is what I did for rudolph about 6 times before I had a breakthrough.

Then I gave my patrons a brief lesson in antlers to explain where and why I was placing the tines. When I stray from the caribou structure, I do so knowingly in order to achieve something that cannot be achieved within the caribou shape, like dancer's tutu. Know the rules before you break them. My goal is to make animal nerds (myself chief among them) happy when they see species-specific anatomy instead of cop outs.

I tried a few things before figuring out antlers could become comet

Another thing that often caribou have is an unsymmetrical "spork" that comes forward off only one antler. I figured this out by looking at hundreds of reindeer pictures and saving them to my reference folder. A few of my designs have this, that's what the little spiral is in the final comet antler design.

When I put comet in my lineup, I realized that the antlers I drew were way more stylized, chunky, and "tribal" than the others. I had already changed the proportions on one of my designs to match, so then I had to hack away at the basic comet rack to make it look natural.

I already knew that comet's colors would be easy because a basic reindeer already Has the big comet on the shoulder. But here's a peak at all the reindeer images I posted for my patrons to look at.

As you can see below, I chose reindeer markings for all my designs instead of other deer or animals. Even vixen is tied to actually possible reindeer patterns rather than copy-pasting a fox. Almost all of my designs have light-colored anklets on dark colored legs, which is very common with caribou of any color. This is the sort of thing no one tells you; you have to observe it yourself.

Ft cupid's early design! I was continually testing out my reindeer silhouettes and colors on new people, taking their feedback, and fixing what wasn't clicking.

I know I could have made vixen sexy and curvy to play into a recognizable trope, but I really wanted them to be scary and fox-like. Sometimes you gotta do what you want and not what you think will appeal to audiences. Reindeer Days is a purposeful exercise in audience resonance. Most of my art is 100% me and what I feel like doing with no regards to anyone else. So it was a fun challenge!

My patrons also got to see me making fun of corporate designs for recognizably/cliches at the expense of literally anything good

One of these is going to get a lot more "that must be vixen!" results from people who aren't constantly thinking about animal colors, markings, hunting strategies, and teeth.

And one rocks.

Vixen changed the least from the initial 2021 concept!

A Vixen is a female fox. In english slang, it means a cunning, fierce human woman, and sometimes sexually attractive or promiscuous. Quite often an insult to someone because she won't date you!

But to me, a vixen is an animal. A predator.

When designing to reference something, I like to hit it at multiple angles, referencing obscure trivia about something to delight and educate. This is done by researching a topic deeply, far below surface level and beyond what you think you need to make your design. Or in my case its just knowing a bunch of animal trivia already.

After researching/dredging your knowledge, sit there and Think. Don't draw anything. Come up with several ideas and then throw them all in at once for the ultimate trivia design.

Trivia about red foxes:

They have Long bushy tails

They have teeth that include large sharp canines, flat incisors, triangular premolars, and chunky molars with points on them that slide scissor-like with the molars above to cut meat via chewing

They hunt rodents in burrows under the snow by jumping into the air, arcing, and slamming down with their face through the snow

They are orange

They have a dark vertical stripe on their snout

They have black legs, with the backs and bottoms being orange

Translated into the design:

Pose based on a fox jumping, about to land in the snow

Antlers twisted to resemble teeth

Long (for a reindeer) bushy tail

black mark on snout

Some adjustment to the pose to be at the top of the arc and flow better.

Tinkering with the design to make it recognizable but not 100% copypasta fox

I was finally happy with a design that absolutely showed "fox" while still being creative and plausibly caribou shaped. This would absolutely communicate who it is! I thought!

The most obvious one of the bunch! After all, everyone knows what a vixen is!

Nope! No they do not

Want to be part of the design process, help me with WIPs months before everyone else, see exclusive doodles every day, and join a funky little community?

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Connect your discord to your patreon and join any tier to automatically get added to the server. Not a fan of patreon or monthly subscriptions? message me here, on ko-fi, or via email (shirecorn.art@ gmail.com) and ask if you can pay $20 to get put in the server for at least a year and longer if we work it out later!

This was supposed to be a preview to get you to pay me but instead I wrote an entire lecture for free because I can't help myself.

Want to thank me for the free info? Tag me when you use what you learned! Comment and give feedback! If I could pay rent with attention I would never need anything else in life.

You can also thank me by tipping my ko-fi! I use it to buy pens since I die if I have caffeine. But could you imagine??

My clothing design inspiration board! It has a bunch of different types of clothes, accessories, patterns, and the like!

As a bonus, below the read more are some clothing/costume design advice primarily for character design purposes!

These are (sorta) recreations of notes—made for the general ideas section—which are currently impossible to find (though the advice below has more thoughts.) never mind guys i found them so now this post is gonna be a bit disjointed cause im just gonna slap in any unique advice from there. on top of the fact this has been sitting in my drafts for 3 thousand years. so, if this is hard to understand tell me and i will make a new version with a more unified and serious writing style.

first two-and-a-half advice were written yesterday who knows how long ago on pinterest, thats why they sound so informal. actually the whole post is so informal wow

There's a bit of a disucssion on how to add blush to characters with melanin on twitter and I kinda lowkey got tired of people pretending there's only two options. Of course my guide doesn't capture all of them but here are the ones I actually can formulate opinions on!

Here's the alt text:

This is mostly my personal opinion. It's not the law on adding blush to character's with melanin as we don't blush at all. Blood doesn't show through melanin so it's harder to capture things like light scattering and blush. However it's still desired to portray blushing! This is a quick guide on how I feel about a few stylistic choices people make to add blush or blush effects!

Outlined simple circles are one one of my favorites! They're not really at all realistic but follow the same stylisitc rules as anger marks like this which I believe makes them passable and more universal!

Smooth Pink Blush is my least favorite approach. I probably didn't really try to do it justice but most people don't really try applying light pink make up for blush from what I've seen. Make up is realtively a good reference "realistic approach for the hypothetical". I'm sure there are situations where it works, but I've never seen a case where it looks particular good.

(I'm being nice about this one btw.)

Darker Brown Blush is fine! It can sometimes go very wrong if you use desaturated browns however and it does not give the same impression as a blush. Remember that blushes are caused by a blood in the face. It's good! But if not executed correctly it can sometimes not work all that well.

Other than outlined circles/ovals I enjoy the approach of red-browns being used for blush. It keeps in mind what blushes are caused by while also keeping in mind that melanin would probably act more as a filter. Makes things look a little more lively than number 3!

Univesal best option , these can be light pink. You've won the lottery if you do this.