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A character study of a knight character from my personal project

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Character Design Tips and Advice

So I made a thread on Twitter last week about character design, and a lot of people seemed to find it helpful, so if it’s at all helpful here too I’m going to try and replicate it. 

If you’re a character designer and want to add your own advice on top of this, PLEASE feel free, this is just basics. 

I’m going to use my own art for this. 

First off, it’s preferable if poses are in ¾ view, even for the back view. This gives as much information as possible, you tend to see as much of a figure as possible. 

Front-views tend to show none of the sides, so if you want to do that, a side and/or backview is usually necessary. 

Usually it’s best to keep to 3 colors. One of them usually being an accent color. This doesn’t include hair/skin/eye color unless they’re an unnatural tone. 

This first image is before I learned this rule, and the colors were very busy. 

The second here is after limiting the colors.  You can have multiple values of the same color(light blue and dark blue only count as 1) but it’s best to not have them shift in hue.

Think of the characters as having a triangle, square, and circle hierarchy. Every concept is made of these shapes. Triangles are usually associated with evil, edgy or dangerous characters. Circle with soft or friendly characters, square with strong sturdy characters.

Usually one design will have a majority of two shapes so it can look like 80% circle, 20% square OR 60% triangle, 40% square etc. For example, this character is maybe 80% circle, 20% square, gives off a friendly and sturdy feeling.

You can also use these shapes to move your eye to a focal point in a concept(dryad girl) here I had a lot of triangle shapes pointing down to draw your eye through the design and give it unity!

Going off that, using focal points using contrast in color, detail density, textures can help a lot too. This character is extremely busy and noisy, your eye has a hard time resting anywhere.

This one, the detail is mostly on the face and chest, and since the accent color is also there, your eyes are drawn to those spots.

Focus on the silhouette. Is your character recognizable or unique in their silhouette alone? Think of games like Overwatch, League of Legends, Apex how all those characters are recognizable just from their silhouettes. 

Depending on the tone/client sometimes more grounded, realistic character designs are preferable. Games like Last of Us, Uncharted, Tomb Raider all have great designs, but focus more on realism and storytelling over heroics.

Overall think of character design as something that provides information. It’s less about making a drawing that’s super detailed or with interesting lighting, but it’s about making a reference for someone else(or yourself!) 

Think of what this will be used for. If it’s for a 3D modeler, what information will they need to understand the design for multiple angles, what details need to be clarified? 

If it’s for comics, what are touchstones you can use to make this character stand out and be recognized in every panel? How can you simplify it to be drawn 100 different times? 

Have fun!

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A little portrait study of a fantasy character, since I’m a sucker for painting elves. Like, c’mon.

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Starting things off with some old Fable forests! 🌲🌲🌲

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Coming across a mysterious ruin in the middle of a plagued forest, what could go wrong?

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Autumn is coming ♡

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Grasp

Inspired by the Pillars of Creation star cluster

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[ Arrow of Light ]

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As we have a DELUGE of artists coming here from Twitter, please, I beg of y’all: if you like someone’s art? Reblog it. Don’t just like it. its the best thing you can do for artists short of throwing money at our posts/kofi’s/patreons etc.

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Happy Anniversary Arcane! Can’t wait till you wreck our hearts in season 2

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Happy Anniversary to Arcane! This is an older piece, but I’m trying to catch up on tumblr posts and thought this was a good occasion? Here’s Jinx, because I just want her to be happy 🥲