Character Design.

[Dburkhead]

How do people handle the issue of character design, meeting the twin challenges of making sure that each character is not only consistent, but also distinctive.

Scott McDaniel, in his Comics Tutorial suggests an approach that I have found useful for me: use real people as models. Some of the people he used in the Nightwing comic are Matt Dillon, Clint Eastwood, James B. Sikking, Reggie White, and Dennis Farina.

I've used a similar procedure as a starting point for my characters in Cold Servings although the designs have morphed pretty far from the original. I doubt anyone could even guess the models on which the various characters were based. (NB: Don't try guessing about the burglars in the first fight scene--they were invented on the fly an, IMO, they look it.)

[Ryuko]

I do use real people, but in my designs I always make sure to include one or two specific keys to make them recognizable. Things that are different from person to person in real life. For instance, eye shape, (which I do have a problem differentiating...) nose shape, the shape of the eyebrows and the hairstyle. Face shape as well. Face shape is a big one.

[Sortelli]

For a more cartoony style, start with a basic shape that is somewhat evocative of the character's personality.

Duke's got a square head because he's a square-jawed action hero thug. Megan has an oval. M'Lady has a heart-shaped face. Lord Elf has an inverted triangle, flat on top with a pointy nebbish chin. Nimoy has a similar shape as Lord Elf's but he has a strong chin and a more pronounced scowl. Lilith started with an oval face like Megan's in the beginning but I gave her much more prominent cheeks to accomodate a bigger mouth and fuller lips.

It can still be applied to a more realistic drawing style.

Give kindly, matronly women round heads and soft features. Squares are good for brutish characters, ovals for average folk. Big foreheads/receeding hairlines for thinkers.

Squish a conniving character's eyes close together and give him a pinched little nose. Slick car dealers get a thin mustache and a jutting chin to accent their tight, toothy smile.

Villains always look good with big bald dome heads.

Weak, ineffectual or just plain geeky men get overbites and small chins.

Old men get big rounded noses and earlobes.

Apart from that. . . if you are going to base your character designs on famous people (not a bad idea at all, really) then you could try looking up some charactures of those celebrities and look at the features the artist exaggerates for an idea of what you need to make prominent on a character that you want to look like Clint Eastwood.

Don't be afraid to be crazy at first--the human brain is hardwired to see faces in just about everything, so doodle out really bizarre combinations of features that match what you want the reader to think of when they see the character, and then refine the look from there.

[Christwriter]

I kinda use a double edged method to do it, a la Stephen King. I let the story determine the characters, but I let the characters determine the story. And I have a set of rules I try to follow to keep either one from getting out of hand.

The best character development comes from triumph and failure--or rather, a formula of failure and triumph. And the best STORIES come from the same: failure and triumph (name one movie where the hero does not have a "failure moment" thirty minutes before it ends). The story determines what characters you need: the hero or heroine(s), the supporting cast, the antagonist(s) and the extras. But the characters also determine the story if the characters are done right.

Basing a character off real life will help, but I don't think that will make the caracter as good as they could be, because the character will always be idealized. One example of this is the "Mary Sue" character, basically an idealization of yourself. If you want to be this way, your character will be this way. Almost ALL characters are an idealization of yourself, but a Mary Sue takes it beyond reason. She does everything perfect, gets out of every scrape, beats the bad guys even when she shouldn't have. She has no character flaws. She will see through the bad guy in the Handsome Boyfriend disguise. She will know how to use the Amazing Magical Powers she has suddenly been gifted with. She will sing perfect suprano. She will be able to handle life if she suddenly loses that voice.

The best way I know to judge if you've got the character right or not is if writing her gives you a headache. I deliberately made sure my character Lucille cannot fight hand-to-hand combat, for example. Not a big flaw, but I've got three major story-telling headaches because she's also a stubborn, do-it-myself-and-stay-out-of-my-way character, and she WILL walk into a fist-fight when her trainer, her partner, her boyfriend and herself all know she can't handle it. Can I make it so that she won't? No, because that's not in her nature. Giving a character a crippling flaw they have to overcome (triumph over) is a very good way to advance the character, because not only will it show their personality but it will make it just that much more dramatic. There's three or four comics where I am bored to death during fight scenes because I know the character will win.

To contrast, I stayed up all night reading a Stephen King novel, because Mordred was chasing Roland, and all he had left was his left-hand gun, Patrick the painter and Oy the Billy-bumbler, Roland was low on ammo and he was asleep. Or the other night I stayed up because Honor Harrington, who had lost her left arm, had the artificial eye and nerves of her face burned out by the Peeps, was about to shoot out with the cream of the Peep Navy in outdated prison transports and shot-to-crap, half depleated warships, crewed by POWs who had been beached for decades.

They DO win, but you don't know for SURE that they'll win because there were times before where they didn't. Character development is based off the failures they've had, and the changes they've had to make in themselves to surmount the same, or a similar but greater problem.

Hope that makes sense

CW

[Jackhass]

Well, since my characters are cartoony animals, sometimes it's kind of hard to base them on real people (although elements of certain real life people are brought into them).

Basically I just start with a basic idea of what I want them to look like then fill a couple sketchbook pages coming up with variations on that basic idea. Once I get one I like, I then hammer down the specifics of how to draw them...of course the characters continue to morph and change as I draw them in the comic.

[Dutch!]

I've been smacked about a few times for some of my character visual designs but I'm sticking to my guns.

All of the kids have the same basic shape to their heads - rounded with the same button noses, little boxy eyes and simple mouths. The most distinctive features of my characters are obviously the big, rounded ears (but they don't stick out like wingnuts), but not many people actually seem to have noticed that it's only for the kids. The adults all have small, normal sized ears instead. Even Wendy, although she's a kid, she's a spirit instead and has small ears.

Otherwise, I like to play with hair and eyebrows to differentiate the characters. Didn't work so much when it was pretty much all black and white, but when I shifted to shading the pictures as I am now they stand out better. Casper's hair is as neat as he can get it with a spiked fringe at front and a few licks standing up at either end, Cody's is a straight flattish and curled spike, Grace has two pig tails because they contrast to her rough and tumble attitude, Brylcreem has glasses and no eyes and slicked hair...they each have different shaped eyebrows as well.

Bascially, just have fun with the different ways you can alter little features and see what you can come up with.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend the big round ears though.

[TheBladeRoden2]

I have a hard time keeping character's faces in continuitive perportion. So I can't rely on that to make character's recognizable. One thing I learned from Office Space, it's all about flair. Take the basic character design, then add stuff on him. Little trinkets that represent their personality. Or do it the other way around, add flair, then make the personality fit it.

[Ida]

Most of my characters have the same body and head shape (I use two different styles for heads), and while I try to give different characters different faces (Mariam has thick eyebrows and small eyes, Jennifer has only one eyelash, and so on) that isn't enough to keep them apart when I deform them all the time. So instead, I focus a lot on making them different in the more superficial aspects. I try to give all characters a unique hairstyle and their own colors (I try not to use the same hair color twice, and all of the main characters have their own skin tone), as well as a personal style of dress. This is something I haven't seen very much in other webcomics, but I thinka lot of a character's personality can be shown by dressing them distinctly. lisa, for example, is a geek and keeps to herself in school, so she sticks to simple turtlenecks and jeans, while Emme, who is childish and energetic wears bright colors, skirts and glittery stuff. Likewise, Mariam likes 'ethnic' and New Age-styles fashion while Jennifer wears button-down shirts and business-style jackets.

Of course, unique hairstyles and weird hair colors better with anime-like art. For a realistic comic like yours, though, you can still work a bit with it. Try no to re-use the same color for several main characters - give everybody their own unique hair- skin- and eyecolors. And as for hairstyles - though I suck at drawing it, don't forget that short haircuts for men are not just short haircuts for men. You might want to look at pictures of celeberties, or even in a barber's catalogue, for ideas. Last, the clothes style thing: While the police of course will wear police uniforms, there is no reason not to give your main character clothes that reflect his personality. This can be as simple as slogan T-shirts or sticking entirely to button-down shirts (or plaid ones, for the lumberjack attitude. ), or you might work out a distinct wardrobe for a character. And anyhow, sitting down and thinking 'what would my character wear' might teach you more about that character and help define him further, which is always good.

And finally, don't forget CW's advice, because the most important part of creating a character should be giving them a distinct personality.

[RemusShepherd]

I have a hard time keeping character's faces in continuitive perportion. So I can't rely on that to make character's recognizable. One thing I learned from Office Space, it's all about flair. Take the basic character design, then add stuff on him. Little trinkets that represent their personality. Or do it the other way around, add flair, then make the personality fit it.

I use this approach also. I just don't have a good eye for faces (or proportion in general), and I have trouble drawing a character the same way twice. So I come up with a general shape, then use 'add-ons' to give each character a distinct look. It's a cop-out, I know.

[-Rain-]

In my case, it depends on the story, mostly. The main female character is a member of a tribe where everyone has dark skin and blue-ish eyes, no corporal hair, and some features of the black people such as thick lips and wider noses.

Her mother, on the contrary, wasn't born in the same place, so I made her quite opposite to the rest: longer and thin nose, small mouth, light skin, blonde hair, brown eyes...I did use an actor to inspire me for the outsider boy, but, in the end, he doesn't really look like the model.

So, mostly, I had the story first and the character sketches came afterwards...being a comic in color helps, too.

[Dominic]

For characters, I'll often start with a type...I want a politician, a thief, a king, a beggar....that fits the demands of the story, and then build the character from there. Various things inside and outside the story then determine what the character looks like, what their backstory is, etc. Sometimes I'll have a secondary tale that I want to tell with a character, and sometimes I will base them on somebody real provided I already know something about them. In almost every case, I will know the story behind a character, whether it gets told or not, as that determines how they act in the main story.
Movies and such are a good source of inspiration, but you don't want to be too obvious about it, or you'll run into issues of copyright and of being called a hack. I find old movies (ca. 1940's) are best for character inspiration without fear of being too easily called on it. If I use a modern character/actor in a story, I'll modify the look somewhat. For example, the original inspiration for the look of Simon Pariah was Christopher Walken's character in "The Prophecy" movies, but his appearance has changed quite a bit from that original idea.

[Jen_Babcock]

I just try to make each character have their own distinct silhouette.