#design process

[goatlilly]

May I ask, how do you come up with your designs? Because I'm SOOO bad at character design and I would really use some tips

Hey, sorry, I sort of answered the wrong ask when I first posted this. (My bad.)

For most of the designs I just took the character’s personalities, my knowledge of kid fashion/children in general, and their Akkuma designs and went from there—For example, Princess Ladybug is a mixture of her Puppeteer design, a ladybug dress that my five-year-old sister has, and the idea that she likes magical girls and just wants to be one. :)

Hope that helps.

*Edit

I realize I should probably talk about my process for the adult designs some, since those are a bit more complex. Let’s go one by one:

Lady Luck—Her design was probably harder than any of the others, because I had to balance a lot of different ideas—I wanted her to look mature, competent and inviting, while also incorporating some more Chinese elements into the design. In her case, I sort of started with one design and worked off of it until it reached a point where I was happy with it. Here’s each of those in order (top left to bottom right.)

Elements of each made it into the final design.

Matagot—This was a lot easier, since all I had to do was work off of his canon design for the most part. The trick was making him look more like an antihero than a villain, since his canon design is at the height of his corruption. Really, all I changed from the first version of the design was to have his hair showing. Made him a bit more inviting. Here’s some bonus concept art from back when I was feeling out his character:

Not gonna lie, I still kind of vibe with the hair covered version, but I had to go with what felt right. If you want to see my first posted design for him, click here.

Vixen—So she was actually one I knew almost immediately what I wanted for. She only took a couple passes before I was happy with her. Basically I knew I wanted her to look like a mature version of Alya, with a sort of professional look mixed with a playful nature. Once I had the first sketches done, it was just a matter of streamlining the design.

Queen Bee—Audrey was easy—She just kinda came into existence pretty much perfect the first time. I just thought Chloe but older, and there she was. A couple tweaks to her original design and she was ready to go.

Venadrone—Easiest design by far. I don’t think I even changed anything from my first pass. I was just thinking I needed him to look a little like a bumbling fool while also trying to imitate Queen Bee��s charisma and commanding personality. Like a peon, basically. So yeah.

Bombshell—Here’s where I got stuck. I knew what vibes I wanted, (Reckless and Iconic, like a big name streamer but if they were a superhero,) but I was having trouble translating that into an actual character design. The first rendition was passable, but it wasn’t really giving enough sass for me, and it felt way to tame for a hero named Bombshell.

So I had to sleep on it for a while. Then I finally figured out what vibes I was going for—Deadpool vibes. That made everything so much easier. I just referenced a bunch of images of Deadpool and Deathstroke, then Incorporated it into a new design. It took a couple passes for me to get it right still, but the end result landed close enough to what I wanted that I was ready to post it.

That last one was almost the final design, but the chest part was too thin and looked too much like a snake, so I redid it one last time.

Violeon—Not as hard as I expected him to be. Honestly, his design came pretty naturally to me. (It helped that I had previously worked on a Chat Noir/Butterfly fusion design as a concept.) really I just took Gabriel’s design, made it more childish and… Adrienish I guess? And I had what I wanted more or less.

Anyways, the final result is good.

Foulette—this one took a bit longer, not because the concept was hard to come up with (Once I thought Swan Lake tragic heroine the design for that pretty much made itself,) but because I was struggling to balance the colors. Color balancing is easier in some ways with traditional art than digital art thanks to having a more unified and limited pallet to work with, but that doesn’t mean color placement is easy. In particular I wasn’t sure if I wanted her to be lighter or darker. So yeah. Anyways, here’s how that went.

Eventually my design landed closest to the last image. I tried giving that version light blue gloves at one point, but in the end I decided dark was the way to go.

Gorgana—She was pretty darn easy once I had enough references to work off of—it was just a matter of compiling a bunch of the right ones—snake fangs, that one KDA rapper girl’s light up mask (can’t remember her name, but it was from their first music video “Popstars,”) and couple of killer gorgon ladies and a whole bunch of rocker fashion from before I was alive. After that the rest was just simplifying all that into a super-suit, and there she was. :)

So… yeah. Hopefully that’s more helpful than with the Minnie’s. For most of them it really was as simple as my first instinct mixed with messing around. Those guys are so much easier to draw.

[mrvelocipede]

me: Hm, I have an idea for a textured stitch pattern I could use on a sock. A nice, basic sock with some texture, yep.

me: The beginning of the round makes a jog in my repeating texture, which annoys me. I could add a narrow vertical stripe, just a couple of stitches, ribbing maybe, to make the break in the pattern look like an intentional design feature. It's still pretty simple, though.

me: Actually this vertical stripe should be a little wider, more of a decorative panel, so I can put some cable-y things on it.

me: Now I need to decide how to end the textured section, and make a transition into plain stockinette for the foot.

me: plain stockinette is boring, I think it needs a little border just before the toe.

an outside observer, looking at my nearly-finished sock: This looks like it was constructed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini to be installed in the Vatican.

[desktopdinosaur]

Chocolate themed horror sans!

This was a fun design idea I cooked up @erineas for valentines- and uh it’s past that now- but I’m still gonna post this!

The top image is the final design along with his store- and than the design process/ variations in order of creation

I don’t think he’d actually wear his current outfits when he’s working at his store but instead wears it when he’s baking at home for his special valentines ;)

I tried to mix the horror and chocolate theme by making some of the patterns look like red jam/blood but uh that was pretty hard- I defiantly struggled with his shoes the most- still not super satisfied with them but meh- how often do I draw shoes anyways

[h0use-fly]

What’s your process for coming up with OCs? I struggle with it so much even though I really want little guys and characters to play around with!!

okay to start off i am not a professional and have noooo clue what i’m doing

i skip the lines and sketches i KNOW that sound dumbness but trust

i block out shapes i find attractive and throw in bits of everything i like at the moment (changes from day to day) these are probs o some of my best examples of that, especially the 2nd ^^

[puto-maia]

the design process for the interpretation of shadow's logo. it may not look like it but it took awhile to get the final design HAHAHA

thank u nyoomiz @nyoomian for trusting me with ur child

first time posting my graphic design art on my digi art accs 🤗 I'll try to post more process pics in the future

[icbrothers]

As the polls all came back inconclusive, thanks need to be given to @hollymcruvie for pointing out that instead of running more polls, I could just create two vampires - a gothic lolita criminal Malkavian, and a trad goth reporter Gangrel.

I worked out all their stats, and started with the Gangrel design first. Modern trad goth styles are interesting, but they felt far too pristine and feminine for the character I had in mind, so I looked at old photographs from the Batcave for some more varied inspiration. The 80s had a lot of very androgynous styling which I love so I gave Michael a more mature, angular face, and clothes that were less romantic and closer to goth's post-punk roots. I like the idea of this character embracing a scrappier, darker, more androgynous style after they left their life in front of a camera behind.

My copy of Vampire: the Masquerade is a second edition copy from 1992 with some really fun 90's comic book style art in it, which I had a go at emulating in my own style through experiments with screentone and solid shadows. It was a lot of fun - I better get going with vampire #2!

[total-convergence]

Xaposting older drawings

Sketches:

Beak brainstorm ↑

Wing brainstorm ↑

[riftiee]

Finished up this project for one of my finals-

Riftiee’s (Unprofessional) Guide To Character Design!

Individual parts:

[that-guy-sleepy-miles]

Red King Design Notes

I got a single request to explain Red King's design, so I'm going feral! This will have notes based on AU lore (events), 'lore' (character relationships), and things I noticed in the show! (This one is for you, @daikon-dimes <3)

Let's start from the top and move down!

‎Red King's horns!

Firstly, her "Proud Horns"! The color is a deep-red version of DBK's old horn color, and the shape is based on Princess Iron Fan's bull-horn hairstyle!

And then her "Transportation Horns". These are a slightly darker color than the Proud Horns and their shape is based on PIF's hair and also vaguely based on DBK's horns.

That actually brings us to...

Bangs like Mama and Red King's tiara!

Okay, horn lore:

Red King had eaten a monk and then took a killer fucking nap—like she CONKED OUT—and she woke up with big ol bull horns (magical power expression* has to go somewhere, and she's not really using it or feeling anything right then) and she was like "oh, dude, what the fuck", and then freaks out because she can't balance herself anymore

After being freaked out for a while, she demanded that the nearest bull clone get her a mirror.

She looks at herself in the mirror (she's learned how to balance at this point, good for her), she touches her horns, and she goes,

"Heh. Like Mother's hair."

And, even though she and her mother are in the middle of essentially a Cold War, she finds her mother's old tiara and puts her hair around her horns like her mom's… decorative hairstyle? whatever we'd call that. like the way her mom serves massive cunt 25/8—because she loves her mom more than anything else. (No matter how much of a raging ******* PIF is being. God, why is she like that sometimes???)

(The Eternal Fire design has sidebangs that are reminiscent of PIF's but more silky and flowy.)

Bull Fam Huadian and Bindi

The Eternal Slumber design has a huadian (a form of traditional Chinese ornamental forehead makeup, which is located between the eyebrows and sometimes on the cheeks, the temples, and the dimples) shaped like the Demon Bull family crest instead of the traditional flower petals. This is because of the idea that Red Son's "red dot" is a huadian, which I've seen floating around quite a bit, but I'm 99% sure it's a bindi.

It's in the right spot for a bindi and the wrong spot for a huadian, it looks like a bindi and doesn't look like a huadian—it's a bindi. I don't know if this is still going on (people thinking it's a huadian/saying it's a huadian/drawing it as a huadian), but it's a bindi. It's a bindi guys.

(Because of Red Son's tendency for overly expressive downturned eyebrows and the inconsistency of hand-drawn animation, it's hard to tell, but the "red dot" is seemingly intended to be slightly above and between his eyebrows, not high above on his forehead. You can tell on screenshots where it's on his forehead that it's in the wrong spot, it's actually really fun.)

Also, the people on the wiki call it a "forehead dot" and I'm so...

Anyway, in her Eternal Fire design, Red King's bindi returns! This is because her time with MK has "reignited her inferno", and she is returning to herself! With her bindi! Welcome back, pookie bear!!!

and on the note of her "reigniting her inferno", her Eternal Fire design has the same eyebrow makeup as the Red Son minifig!

Her Samadhi Ring

In the Red King AU, Red Son is allowed to keep his/her ring of Samadhi for a number of reasons. Importantly, DBK and PIF let Red Son their ring because it is their power—Red Son was born with the Samadhi Fire, and it's an expression of their power. They are a family obsessed with power for a good while, so in the Red King AU, DBK and PIF felt it cruel to strip their only child of their power and of the remainder of it. The thought also was that, as the creator of the fire, Red Son would have the most incentive to keep the ring safe. They'd certainly never lose it, like some people.

(Fun fact, this means that DBK's nose ring is the other way around like it was in his younger years. That's just a really silly detail, but like... they match <3)

Red King's Hair Highlights (and Their Relation to Red Son’s Magic Expression and the Samadhi Fire)

(By the way, the Eternal Slumber design has more chaotic shines because her hair isn't brushed, and the Eternal Fire design has more uniform/put-together shines because her hair is being taken care of.)

Red King has shiny hair, and that's not just to look cool. To explain why, I had to make a giant post about the LEGO Monkie Kid Magic System. I go in-depth about Red Son at the end of that post, but I'll give a TLDR here:

Red Son has a wholly unique form of expressing magic among demons, gods, dragons, descendants, reincarnations, and everything in-between (the in-between being Red Son himself, MK, Wukong, and Macaque [Red Son is half-god, half-demon; MK was intended to be a mystic monkey but got his genetics messed with; Wukong and Macaque are mystic monkeys outside of any of the 10 species, they just need to be noted here [Their magic is completely conventional, they're just crazy strong]). His body, and specifically his hair, is directly connected to his magic in a way that's different from other characters for reasons we can only speculate.

Because Red King is stronger than Red Son (and has a link to the Samadhi Fire), she has many large hair highlights! Generally, they're condensed into one or two large shapes, but smaller highlights around a large shape are also acceptable. :]

Outfits

Eternal Slumber wears zhong yi (middle clothes), a longer version of Red Son's robe from season 3, and Red Son's sandals from season 3. (I call those house shoes but the model sheet says sandals.)

Zhong yi were worn under normal clothing in Hanfu, and often worn to bed. Some posts about zhong yi: 1, 2, 3. Because Red King is... well... sleeping often but in a regal way, she wears zhong yi instead of modern sleepwear. Her robe is also longer to evoke the fact that it is a robe and she is a king.

Eternal Fire wears a sleeveless version of Red Son's coat with a gold trim. This gold trim is actually because of something on Red Son's page on the Monkie Kid Wiki! Okay, so, I'm so autistic that part of my LMK Special Interest (it's been 4 years, so this is officially a special interest) actually extends to the Wiki... and on Red Son's Wiki page, there is something so fun!!

On Red Son's Minifigure–show comparison, the screenshot used to compare contains a coloring error! Red Son's collar is actually his skin tone! And I LOVE THAT. NOBODY TELL THEM. IF YOU ARE A WIKI EDITOR AND YOU'RE READING THIS, DON'T FIX IT!!!

I love coloring errors and I love mistakes. Not only is there the original coloring error (the mark of a human being; someone worked on this scene and they made a mistake and now we can see it and see them! It's as if their memory is saying hello, and that's why I love coloring errors), but someone else missed it, and now it has been used to represent this character's design as a whole (a SECOND human being!! Hello!! You've been here, and you didn't catch something, and now I'll always remember you were here!).

And that's why I don't want it to be fixed. I know it should be fixed, and I know the Wiki is a source of knowledge, but I also just... love people so much... and I decided to remember the coloring error by giving Red King's coat a gold trim. <3 (I was going to keep it to the collar like the coloring error, but it didn't look good.)

Other notes:

She's wearing armbands like she did when she was a baby because the Eternal Fire design is her "returning to herself."

The ballroom gloves are just sexy like that. Make MK go Looney Tunes. (And the wristbands are for the same purpose.)

S H A N T S

Uhhh that's it! Thank you!! <3 <3 <3 <3!!

[vrawliney]

Character design I did for our game "Sons of Odin".

[wolfatemybaby]

I FUCKING HATE THIS TWAT I HAD AN ENTIRE OTHER FUCKING DESIGN SCRAPPED BECAUSE IT WASNT HERMES AND WAS JUST SOME BIRD BITCH WHY WAS HE SUCH A STRUGGLE HE'S LIKE THE ZENDAYA OF EPIC WHERE NO ONE CAN CAPTURE HIM RIGHT

Anyways: Learning from my mistakes with the first rendition design that I’m gatekeeping (I can be persuaded to show it off) (you have to pry it off my cold dead body): I gave him a less twisty pose, making him easier to read. He’s also flitting over the ground.

Originally he was only going to have the poncho, a golden winged helmet and a scarf but that looked like shit. Removing the scarf and helm, I replaced them with: Cut out harem pants, a cap, satchel, and little jewellery. My clone forced me to add the staff, which was needed. I also added wheat to his cap because of his mom.

My clone recommended the use of purple but I didn't know how to incorporate it so I just made him in his entirety, purple! The orange is a call back to his old design. The dark tones remind me of the underworld and how he guides the souls.

I went through too many variations of greens for his poncho. It was either too bright or blended in with his skin. The triangle pattern was pitched by Saxon/My twin/Design shareholder (I’m calling you that now).

Also, I kind of based him off of Weird Al. No idea why, just had the urge.

[lions-and-men-musical]

the evolution of Helen in Lions & Men! The first drawing is from September 27, 2023 & the last is from September 28, 2024

[wormdramafever]

Since today is Leo's birthday, I want to point out something about his design.

Leo the liopleurodon is a scrapped character of what became Goodbye Volcano High, a game about teen gay dinos. The designs of the main cast went through several iterations and changes, as the art director explained in a twitter thread she made (wich can be read on thumblr with image descriptions here).

Earlier designs looked slightly more "animalistic", with longer beaks/muzzles/wathever, but it was eventually decided it looked awkward on most angles, so they were made shorter.

Leo was cut BEFORE this change took place, wich is why all the art of him have a notably long beak. Had he made it to the final phase, he would most likely get a shorter beak.

And he kind of DID get a final design recently. The cooperative behind the game, KO_OP, has been doing a charity fundraiser in wich they offer art in exchange of donations to families in Palestine and Lebanon. Among the artists involved is the aforementioned art director, and among the requests she got one of them (by the guy who made the GVH mod for Vampire Survivors btw) is of none other than Leo, and look:

Notice the shorter beak? This is the closest to an official canon Leo for now. I like to think he is still in the game, just offscreen. Or better yet, he's the one holding the camera!

[eldritch-alicedoll]

I crave it out of a foam board…….my back hurt 😂

Being old is tough

[averagecontentenjoyer121]

This is the way I design Greek gods

For the main gods I look into what they represent, like the animals, plants, and concepts.

I look into the myths and develop a character in my mind.

Then I take that character and make them in a way to convey how I perceive them.

Like Lemos would have more sharp edges to convey her dangerous nature.

Then I’d add elements from their animals, plants, and whatever else, and give them clothes that fit their character to me.

Like maybe Hera would have a veil like @irunaki’s design

And I have a defining trait for the gods in that they have the spiked Greek crown or Roman Corona

Then there’s the titans, you know the gods before the gods.

I have a similar design process to the gods because they’re still gods too

General design trait is that they’re big like 10-15 ft tall, also the gods are like 8-10ft.

Finally the primordials I go for a more lovecrafrian design because they’re more vague or large concepts like darkness or the Earth

And Chaos is literally just the universe

Also I add inspiration from other fiction if I think it fits the god, like my Ares is REALLY inspired by Warhammer 40k because in the far future there is only war