#god i love designing cool outfits

[baskeigh-ball]

@rateater2000​ you. i like the way you think >:)

now all four of them be stylin (they’re not completely the same, if that’s what you were expecting, but I wanted to give them a little ✨flair✨)

#i had to give donnie some kind of dragon detail. like its unacceptable NOT to #and leos lightning detail is more greek-reminiscent than chinese or japanese like the others but...cmon. its too perfect #last but not least mikey gets multiple color privileges #leo got a crumb with his yellow accent but beyond that? just mikey #rottmnt #mutant manhunt au #god i love designing cool outfits #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #kinda rottmnt raph? #my art

[wyvernity]

been thinking about the sinnohtrio lately......plus misc other stuff

also, casual ko-fi drop!! get something in this sketchy style starting at $10 woop woop

#finally decided to do a commission test run u_u #pokemon #trainer lyra #trainer kris #trainer dawn #trainer lucas #rival barry #rival silver #ayalumi #hisuian zorua #luxio #timeskip tag #rkgk #anyway it's sinnoh time !!! #still figuring out their designs and lore but this works for now #god's specialest little guys & their very normal bestfriend who they would kill/die for. up to interpretation who is killing/dying #dawn is the platinum protag who meets giratina and becomes champion #distortion world affected her way more than compared to cynthia and cyrus since she's still a developing kid. but hey cool ghost hair! #4-5 yrs later lucas gets blasted to hisui..lost his memory for the three years he's there and when arceus sends him back he's just like Man #the entire time barry is CHILLING PLAYING HAVING FUN #and forever worried abt his friends ): dawn & lucas are soo nonchalant about what happened to them it's a bit concerning to everyone else #design comments umm the only thing that matters is that they still have their og scarves 👍 #and i guesss these are spring/summer outfits. winter dawn gets leggings and big coat ok. she already has too much yin energy #btw i use the cleanse tag as the direct opposition to the spell tag even tho that's probably not a real thing LOL) #oh yea barry wears the tower master ribbon 24/7. tower tycoon in training and won't shut up about it (i love him) #character dynamics i will talk abt that in another post if i feel like it... these days i just want to go replay pla aughh

[welcometoteyvat]

[leaks] kaeya’s skin is looking good but I’m also eyeing the supposed lion dancer boy

#genshin impact leaks #genshin leaks #but please mihoyo stop making characters with white hair and blue patterns i need his design to be better than fo.calors #like the premise would be so good!!!! but i hope they don't screw up the implementation...... OTL #if the leak is true and this character really exists then i hope he's like. at least has majority red outfit. red <3333 #white accents would be cool but please make it good oh my god #i also would like him to have a lot of baubles or at least round elements and large round accessories bc i think thats my first impression o #of the words 'lion dance' #and i hope he's lively and not like a refined young gentleman (we already have that and he's named xing.qiu) or a tsundere KFJDSKFJDSK #whatever its not like genshin will hear what im saying and just design it exactly like this. but on god if i dont like his design.... #the premise is so cool don't screw up the execution guys #back to kae.ya's skin i love his green accents peacock theme REAL #if this is a nod to khaenriah being close to sumeru thats cool i wish they didn't orientalize the actual sumeru cast tho #maybe he should meet up with them for the outfit story or something #de.hya and can.dace taking him shopping would be kind of sweet honestly #ramblings!

[jewishdainix]

Ok a few things i noticed about the new aurora page:

Tynan's speach is really giving me "I am the serphant that shall poisen the sky and boil the sea!" energy, also his wings are almost completly destroyed by vd's void energy thing.

Tess and Dainix both seem to be trying to kickstart their powers again, Erin is still electricuting himself and Alinua and Falst are just kind if there. And Kendal is about to stab himself im guessing for powerup purposes.

#Im really hoping that after this at least like kendal and erin get an outfit chage #at least a little #i mean #kendal's shirt has been througly burned off and Erin's istn to far from the same happening to it. #i kind of hope the vd eye stays because that would make for a cool design but if not i at least hope he gets an outfit change that adds #in some vd element or something #mina reads aurora #god i love this comic so much #cant wait for wednesday lol

[1980ssunflower]

The most sopping wet men of all time 🥺🥰💖💙

#the loves of my life 🥰💖💙 #I <3 pathetic men #theyre both so sopping wet in their own ways even if ryan tries to act all cool lol #god aouhga oooo #i was thinking abt them again yesterday and cried again cause THEY MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME #also i really want to draw them hating on eddie cause they are SOOOO JEALOUS AND POSSESSIVE #THEY DONT WANT TO SHARE ME AND IM WELL AWARE OF THAT #and i know min is absolutely SEETHING w rage abt eddie and wants to fucking strangle him LMAO #anyways aoughh need to be wrapped up in their arms need to press soft kisses all over their faces #i want to memorize every little detail of their faces and bodies like theyre just so gorgeous <33 #kissies them #i also wanted to try to draw us in some glamrock outfits #them in the same outfits that one crewmember drew and to design one of my s/i too based off them #AND ALBUM COVERS I WANT TO DESIGN US ALBUM COVERS FOR CCJ #AOAUGHHH HOLDING THEM KISSING THEM I LOVE MY HUSBANDS MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF #ot3: ❤rhyme💛easy💙 #tape entry circa 1980

[netherdevil]

cosplaying glen sounds so fun(ny) bru but iam not making a fucking SHARPIE BATH

#NOT TO MENTION HIS CLOTHES LMFAO #Oh when i get the money i am so making stia inspired outfits BUT GOOD GOD THEY ARE JUST. SO INTRICATE #not to mention im not so brave that I'd wear reflective and or holographic clothing #the silver for stia vanguard's clothing and armor is like. Just reflective or mirror like but i like coloring it as holographic #For funsies #In my lil comic i made of glen giving me the vanguard's uniform he mentioned that they were reflective to reflect heat #Now. That is obviously made up by me and could be scientifically false but i would love to somehow add that into the design too AJCHSJ #There has to be a reason everyone is wearing that THICK ASS CLOTHING IN A VOLCANIC REGION #I mean maybe it gets a little cold with the cooling units in the camp #that is not enough logic for my brain. THAT CANT BE THE ONLY REASON YOU SEE THEM OUTSIDE CAMP ALL THE TIME!!! #another thing glen wore is that rappy outfit (???) which is funny but i think id die of heatstroke if i wore that #and another is the recent new years piece they released with him and kanui wearing those cool outfits that came out #that honestly?? seems like it'd be really easy to make. (lying through my teeth) #NOT MAKE BUT THE DESIGN IS SIMPLE OKAY #i know with cloth like that you can't get uber specific with what you want or need but i would do my best #I'm passionate about making stuff i just like designing even if it's bad😼:3 #i am not good with clothes or style KÀKAKAKAKAKA but i try

[butchratchettruther]

Dnd is also super fun because it allows me to put out all my art student juices without actually having to go through the excruciating process of actually being an art student

#Butterfly themed death goddess who smells of rotting fruit and has a butterfly over her face with the eyespots where her eyes are? Check #Messing around with symbolism of agriculture and death? Check #Giving everyone cool themed outfits? Check #1920s steampunk vibe? Check #I’m loving just chucking what I enjoy in there #There’s historical fashion with the 1920s setting and some of the gods outfits #There’s a touch of textiles #There’s robots #There’s my weird relationship with religion #There’s character design that actually links to historical accuracy #There’s meaningful and layered names #And there’s me being my true goth self and messing around with death symbolism

[raijinhasverybigpecs]

you know i was going to let [games company] off the hook for being Horny with ishtar but... shes fun! love that she’s tall lol

(and yeah im a hater whatever etc etc but she could’ve been more cunt. i still really like her BUT so many fan concepts have big flowing hair and that could’ve been a good way to set her apart from the others)

#was gonna do the neith... 2 joke but thats lazy and not really true #although in a better world this is really just how neith would be designed today lol #honestly they should swap outfits #i still never love the athena one whole thigh out thing but i get it i get it #god she's got a complex ass design though #looks like a final fantasy character #which is in line with tiamat i suppose #anyways good job ! y'all didn't take the most obvious bait and the design is so much better for it #also whats with the complex ass boot situation. feels like all the new gods have a bunch of straps on their shoes #oh and her kits is cool #its fun seeing all the ways that old gods can be upcycled into new ones #although i hate that 1 #just keep the sylvanus basics they're cool #also remember that guy talking about the intentionality of god designs and how he used artemis vs hachiman #and he was like artemis is a focused design while hachiman is a jack of all trades and therefore boring and a worse design? #ishtar says hi lol

[shapelytimber]

Y2kunt darth maul going to the club with the gals (gn). He was 22 in sw1, he should've been at the club

[COMMISSIONS] - [PRINT] (Promo code UJABTZ still available until 11/19 <3)

Process below (and a quick recap of all the other people in the room (+ rambling because it's my favorite thing to do gkgkflflk)) vvv

Do I think Maul would have a friend group ? No. But it's time to open our hearts and and free ourselves from the shackles of common sense.

Anyway starting from the left, the togruta woman was a design I created nearly... 3 years ago ?? In my first fanart for the fic serie "how to..." (I think I named her Narla).

In the bg is my sw barbie ! In hommage to someone who said on my last maul drawing "I think Maul deserves barbie as a friend" (something along those lines-) and I think they are right so here she is !

And the last person is... The death stick guy from the second film gkgkfkoffk I could not resist not including him idkw. He seems to enjoy going to the club ? That's enough for me ! (Don't think of the timeline, for the love of god nobody think of the timeline-)

When I was doing sketches for this, I thought about one crutial detail I could not comprehensively include in the final image, so here it is : Maul and my togruta lady chose each other's outfits. He picked something he thought looked cool, she picked pink.

PS : the longer I was working on this piece the more Darth Maul was looking like a mean lesbian lhlgkgofok anyway if you want to interpret this image as trans mean lesbian Maul I won't stop you <3 (join me and my evil advisor in this delightful vision)

PSS : my only exposure to maul was though sw1, and half of the book 'maul lockdown' (that I remember nothing about-). I barely know this man, he is just the weird guy from sw I like to draw. (I obviously know other things about him, but only through fandom(tumblr))

#always put the most effort in the stupidest shits #it's not really at the club but I think doing makeup in a bathroom was more fun to draw #I did like 50% of this drawing and the rambling when I was sick gkfkfkflfk I think it shows- #darth maul #y2k aesthetic #star wars maul #maul #togruta #twilek #sith lord #star wars #star wars fanart #star wars prequels #togruta oc #twilek oc #elan selsabagno #art #my art #digital art #illustration #fanart #star wars sapphic au

[oxygenunavailable]

Marble Sky Character Color Analysis:

By me.

I don’t know if anyone has pointed any of this out yet but here I go:


I love how, in the colored ref sheets, the protagonists: Ward, Oscar, Holly and Iris, have cool tones. Blues and violets. This indicates calm, colectivness. Peace and passion.

In more detail, blues for the humans makes a lot of sense. Earth is the blue planet, not because of gas,( Neptune, Uranus) but because it’s 75% water. Water is the source of life, as far as we know. Blue also represents our sky. Our big, blue sky, versus the “marble sky” implanted by the Marmors. Blue also commonly represents freedom, imagination, sensitivity and serenity.

Holly and Iris are purple. Purple is the color of magic, royalty, creativity, wealth and pride. Teegardinians pride themselves in their spirituality, connection and peace. And their planet clearly was very peaceful, open and full. They have magic from their god(s?), wealth (food), and clearly have some sort of leadership (royalty). Their creativity is their different abilities gifted to them, individually. This entire thing especially applies to Holly and Iris, not just the teegardinians as a whole, as they are both most likely higher up or more “in charge”, whether because of their spiritual connection or lineage.

Next are the marmors. Their species has more range in color and character design.

Contrasting to the human’s blue, Eclipta, being the leader of the antagonists (for now) is super bright and warm. (Yellow, orange, red) it represents violence, energy and impulse. Her outline and outfit are sharp and angular. Dangerous. Her entire being, It stands out more. She’s the main one to listen and turn to, so she’s the first one you see.

Sculptor is different, however. They have green. It’s a cool tone, sure but not one associated with the humans. Green is the representation of nature, growth, renewal. I believe Sculptor is less focused on just the violence, unlike Eclipta, and more on the growth of their species. they obviously are okay with the violence, and enjoys it. But it’s not just for the fun, it’s so the Marmors stay on top, where they belong. (Ain also has a lot of dark green in their outfit.)

Shepard is white and grey. Neutral. No color. He looks whatever colors light is brighter, and right now, it the blazing red tHiNg is in his chest, coloring his intentions? Perhaps? Or just completely empty of emotion, he just… is.

For my grand finale, ALCOR!!

This bitty boy is also very cool toned on the skin. This could easily symbolize his connection with Oscar, and perhaps as we see him grow, he’ll join in the fight against the Marmors. His armor, however, still has that warmer brown, because as of right now, he’s still with the Marmors.

Anyways, I could be just talking about nothing. But here this is I guess.

#marble sky comic #marble sky #somerandomdudelmao #colors #analysis #i love this #cass #im going to bed now #peace out

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

For @orange-artist ‘s ASL god AU DTIYS! (congrats on the milestone!)

This was really fun, I absolutely love drawing ethereal designs

Additional notes 👇

So i adjusted the original designs ... a bit... To draw in my style means that i have to make everything extra, sorry.

Ace:

I like the base design for Ace a lot! i looked at other posts to get more context to these outfits and i say this draping billowy pants design that i liked a lot more, so I used that instead of the ones he has in the picture.

I love his cute little star crown, i think it looks dope as hell. I wanted to bring it to other parts of him too, so I gave him an arm cuff with it, too! If i had drawn the front of him, you would also see that crown design around his waist as a belt, too.

i originally had him in a pose similar to the one he has in the original, but after i sketched out the other two poses i found he looked a little two flat, so i brought his hand out to the foreground.

I like the choice for his hair to gradient out to look like a comet! I had a lot of trouble trying to make it look Just Right, but i think I nailed it

Luffy:

I didn't change much about his design, I really just made him a little more yellow than he was before. Its hard to improve an already banger design. He's my ethereal silly guy...

I really love the idea of Luffy's scars looking like gold, that's really cool.

I wish I could've added that cold crown he has around his head, but i didn't know how to without it looking sloppy so i had to leave it out.

Sabo:

I changed so much about Sabo's design, i would like to send out a formal apology for it, I admit I went a little too ham. I had already completed the picture before i went back to look at the original post and saw the comments about how Sabo was supposed to look... discreet...... I... Did Not Make Him Discreet. In The Slightest. :DDD ehe

I needed help for Sabo's pose because i was having so much trouble with the hand, i called upon my good website friend JustSketchMe to get it right. I had this idea for the pose because i wanted the claw to look like a crescent moon, I think it looks pretty good.

I would've given him normal snakebite piercings too but i felt that the ring piercings looked more Crescent-like, so i went with that.

Moon belt. i want that moon belt. I have no outfits it would go with. but i still want it.

I love Sabo's whispies that he has in the original design, but when I put them in the art i had, it cluttered up the piece too much and I had to get rid of them. A moment of silence for the fallen whispies...

Noticing now I forgot Sabo's Cane..... oops.

General:

I shaded Luffy to be lighted by the sun, Sabo the moon, but i made Ace be the light for himself. There's some deep meaning to that, but I cant think of one right now.

I had a lot of fun drawing this, i hope i was failthful enough to the original designs even though i changed everything a lot :)

Drinking game: take a shot everytime I used the word "I", take a double shot each time i forgot to capitalize it, too. You will be Dead by the end of the post, though.

#my art #monkey d. luffy #sabo #asl brothers #one piece fan art #portgas d. ace #sabo the revolutionary #OP god au #asl au #@orange-artist #DTIYS

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

Gaara is truly the Character of All Time

-Introduced as main antagonist in a tournament arc, the terrifying bloodthirsty ninja from a strange desert village who kills without remorse and has survived every mission without getting a scratch on him

-He's 12

-Character design 10/10 he has bright fucking brick red hair, literal raccoon eyes, a face tattoo that says "Love" and carries that weird ass gourd; between the fun elements and the interesting tie-ins to Tanuki Lore, I have never seen a more charming design in my life tbqh

-Immediately more emo and chuuni than Noted Emo Heartthrob Sasuke Uchiha by virtue of reciting weird poetry after killing a guy in cold blood

-We get his tragic backstory and by fucking GOD is it sad. I cry just thinking about it. Literally everything about it is just horrible and devastating.

-Talk No Jutsu at end of the tournament arc, Gaara realizes that he should, in fact, go to therapy and immediately decides to turn his life around

-The first thing he decides to do is apologize to his siblings <3

-Shows up a handful of arcs later with a cool new outfit and becomes friends with the kid he literally tried to murder and nearly permanently crippled in one of the best fights of the entire series

-Liam O Brian's English dub of Gaara is Stellar ya know what. The raspiness of the original appearance morphing into the Deepest Voice That Any Kid Has Ever Had Ever was a genuinely hilarious choice

-Has the only good filler arcs in the old show; he's such a good character that the entire show molds itself and rises to meet him

-Post timeskip he is Desert Ninja President at the ripe old age of 15 and is extremely good at it because he's the weirdest little nerd with no social skills (on account of his tragic backstory) and diligently applies himself to doing paperwork and going to meetings

-Has a fanclub in the village mostly of girls his own age that he never seems to talk to?? Or realize have crushes on him?? Oblivious king we love him.

-Dies in one of the most genuinely moving scenes. Comes back like 20 episodes of fighting later because where would we be without him honestly?

-Becomes Super General Ninja President of the Grand Army of whatever where he accomplishes such feats as forgiving his asshole father and emotionally healing from his childhood trauma, stopping a meteor, and nearly dying a second time.

-Collects cacti as a hobby

-Has the only good sequel series arc where it's revealed that in addition to continuing to serve as Desert Ninja President, he's decided to adopt a couple of orphan ninja kids so that he can break the cycle of parental neglect and stupidity that created his tragic backstory in the first place.

#naruto #sabaku no gaara #gaara

[deconstructthesoup]

Okay, now that all of the Bad Kids have their new art out... I can finally freak out/gush over/analyze it, because I didn't have the energy to do posts for every single one.

GUYS

Fig!!! My girl!!! The mismatched shoelaces! The bass guitar from Gorthalax! The phoenix feather earring for Ayda! The fishnet! The classic leather jacket/gray band shirt/red pleated skirt combo! The fingerless gloves! THE CHAIN WALLET!

KRISTEN IS BUTCH. Let me repeat that---KRISTEN! IS! BUTCH! And she's wearing the yellow jumpsuit that we saw in her figurine but she still has the purple in her backpack and her staff and her TIE-DIE SPORTS BRA! And she's got a new hairstyle! And a rainbow bracelet AND a lesbian bracelet! THE TEDDY BEAR! THE ICE CREAM SANDWICHES!

RIZ HAS AN UNDERCUT AND GLASSES AND HE KEPT HIS TATTOOS!!!! We've got the briefcase! We've got the angelic weapons! We've got the sword of shadows! We've got GADGETS! WE EVEN HAVE ARO/ACE RINGS! He looks so cool and nifty and crafty and BADASS! My boy has grown!

Gorgug. Oh my god, I can FEEL the "going into a worry" energy radiating from this. But he's got the axe! He's got artificer goggles and tools and a rucksack! He's FINALLY got the emo ripped jeans that he always deserved! He looks so sweet and huggable and perfect! AND HE HAS THE BIG HEADPHONES STILL!

ADAINE. My god. I love this girl so much and her art is perfect. She has patches on her jacket! We can see the cool design on her shirt! She's got high-fantasy boots and belts and she's got her new arcane sword! BOGGY IS THERE! And she looks so lovely and cool and her hair, oh my god, her hair is perfect! I'm so proud of her!

And lastly, the man, the myth, the LEGEND. Fabian looks perfect. Everything from the sword to the sheet to the expression to the tap shoes is spot-on. And his outfit? He's got harem pants! He's got a stylish shirt! He's got wraps around his hands! He's doing a dance move! Man-bun Fabian is now officially canon!

(Also, I'm never gonna shut up about how the Bad Kids are now all spellcasters, and almost all of them are different than how they were in freshman year because that's how growing up works! Fig's ditched College of Whispers as she learns to be truer to herself and has claimed the coolness of College of Lore, and she's got some warlock action to be closer to her dad! Kristen's a Twilight Domain cleric instead of the Life Domain, and I remember being so excited when that became official because that domain is so freaking cool! Riz is an Arcane Trickster, just! Like! Penny! Gorgug's an artificer as well as a barbarian, which is one of my favorite classes, and it looks like he's leaning even further into it! And we can't forget Fabian double-classing as a College of Swords bard! It's so beautiful! It's amazing! Maybe we'll get Adaine doing a martial multiclass to round out the "we're doing different things!" ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE!)

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fig faeth #fabian seacaster #adaine abernant #adaine o'shaughnessey #riz gukgak #gorgug thistlespring #kristen applebees #i'm never gonna shut up about this art #it's healed me i swear to god it's perfect

[kozachenko]

I swear to god, Zanmu has just been on my mind recently, she's taking over my fucking brain please send help

Artist's Note:

Why is it that everytime I do a drawing of Zanmu I always make the canvas size fucking huge and it ends up being a living nightmare to fucking export. I swear to god I had to go from 1200 DPI to 600 to 350.

Exporting hell aside, I loved working on this piece. With Zanmu's design, I wanted to combine all the design details that I love and have seen in other people's drawings of Zanmu and give them my own personal touches. First of all, her sleeves were inspired by @amemenojaku's design for Zanmu, and I absolutley love that detail because not only does it make her feel more regal, it also can be a callback to Satori and old hell, and also gives me the idea that Satori's fashion sense was inspired by Zanmu because IRL a lot of historical fashion was inspired by what the nobles were wearing at the time, and since Satori was around since when Old Hell used to be Hell, she probably took some wardrobe inspo from her (or it could be my headcanon that Satori could've been Zanmu's royal advisor or she was in her court or something but that theory is kinda grasping at strings from other headcanons I have, but that's for a different post). Also, the eye makeup she has was inspired by @jothelion's drawings of Zanmu, and like, I fucking love that detail because it just adds so much like omg I just love it sm.

And now for the design details I put in. I gave Zanmu tassel earrings because I think they'd look great on her. I also really like to exaggerate her hair and really try to make it look wild, as well as having little grey hairs here and there. I also try to add some wrinkles to the corners of her eyes, but TBH I don't know how visible that detail is, since the image is pretty fucking big. I also really exaggerated the tassles/strings on her outfit, since I really wanted to play around with the potential flow they could have. Also, big fan of giving Zanmu longer sleeves and pants. IDK why but I just like how it flows better. Also big fan of making her taller, idk why a lot of fanart makes her short. Also, I placed her horns closer to the front of her head as I just think placing horns in that position looks cool.

Also, if you're wondering about the halo, I took some inspiration from a few of Caravaggio's paintings where he often depicts saints with this very thin halo around the top of their heads. I just liked that detail a lot so I thought I'd include it.

Fun fact, I was originally gonna make the four skeletons Chiyari, Biten, Enoko, and Hisami but I didn't like the prospect of having to draw four more characters, so I chose to replace them with skeletons (if you wanna get silly with it, Zanmu got Hisami to kidnap Aya, set up some skeletons with bones from her bone collection and told her to take a picture of her).

I kinda gave up on Zanmu's feet and the one skeleton's hands (as if drawing hands normally is hard enough but NOPE, HAD TO MAKE IT LIVING HELL FOR MYSELF BY MAKING IT A SKELETON) and the quality of the image may suffer because of how much I had to fucking compress it (Zanmu's presence alone was enough to make the computer lose all of it's desire and motivation to export the drawing of her lmao), but I have been hacking at this piece for a while now, plus I need to learn when to call it quits when it comes to drawings). Also as I was fixing up the hands there was one spot where I forgot to clean up with the sketch and I can't fucking unsee that now and it's going to fucking bother me until I fix it but fixing it requires going back and putting my computer through hell so yeah.

So yeah, that's about all I have to say with this drawing, it was fun but also a nightmare lol

#art #touhou project #fanart #touhou fanart #touhou 19 #unfinished dream of all living ghost #zanmu nippaku #touhou #東方project #東方

[orpheusilver]

i think the common issue that creates boring dnd player characters is like. the fixation on backstory over character conflict. like if you think abt the typical "heres my super cool guy with a super cool design and a dark tragic backstory they dont want to talk about theyre so tortured and mysterious" its like. sure that might be an interesting secondary character for an animated series but thats not what this is.

like 1. nobody is going to see that cool design unless you painted a mini so youre just gonna be that guy who spends 5 minutes of session 1 describing your outfit; 2. none of the other players want to spend ages trying to interrogate backstory out of someone who seems like they dont want to share, they want to find a fight and flex their awesome build, so unless your dm pulls your 15 page backstory document into the main quest its all gonna be irrelevant anyway; and 3. trauma does not an interesting character make! not unless you can roleplay the effects of that trauma in a compelling manner!

imo its a wayyyy better method to come up with a Fucked Up Kinda Guy, complete with quirks and flaws and affectations and sure maybe a voice if thats your vibe, they dont need to be special or unique just fucking engaging to play beside, and THEN reverse engineer the backstory based on what would make someone be like that and usually its something fucked up and traumatic anyway bc thats how existing works. like dont get me wrong theres definitely merit to establishing your place in the setting but like. in taz balance absolutely no part of their written backstories did as much for the early group dynamic as "magnus rushes in" and "taako is good out here"

^ actually new different point based on that. if you show up with a blank slate guy then play off against the other characters! if you have a whole guy do it anyway! if someone is playing it safe then play impulsive or vice versa, if someone else has the same highest stat as you then get weirdly competitive, if someone plays dubious morals then be the ethical voice calling them out on it, there is no reason for your party to always be in agreement and if they are then disagree! be a dick about it! stories thrive on conflict so fucking make some, just please for the love of god do Anything that makes them behave differently than you with an ability

#source: i have played with some truly terrible pcs and they all had fascinating backstories

[mauesartetc]

A while back I got a comment that demonstrated a misconception as to what the character design process actually entails, and I thought it had real "teachable moment" potential. So let me make this perfectly clear:

Drawing a character is NOT the same as designing one.

Let's say I wanted to draw a guy. No backstory, no defined personality traits or preferences, no details about his current life, just doodling some random, generic guy who popped into my head.

That's just a drawing.

But what if I decided to flesh him out more? What if I wanted his appearance to reflect his lifestyle and inner life as well? Here's where the note-taking comes in.

And now for the visual research:

I thought the bodybuilding angle would provide a fun contrast with this guy's profession. The mental image of a huge, burly dude working on a clock or watch with tiny, precise movements just makes me smile. Perhaps I could give him small, nimble hands that would suit his line of work.

Now that I have a better idea of how Mikhail's face and body will look, it's time to establish a pose.

Of course, I never expected to employ all the personality traits I started out with inside this single pose; those were just a jumping-off point. No one drawing will ever be able to encapsulate every single facet of a character, unless they're extraordinarily flat and generic (see also: random guy I doodled at the start of this post). If I wanted to write a story with this guy, I'd have to figure out how all the traits play off each other and how they'd cause him to react to different situations. There would be a lot more note-taking and development involved, but for the sake of keeping this post (somewhat) brief, let's just focus on visuals for now.

On to color!

I decided to give Mikhail a carnation in his pocket (for its round shape), specifically a red one, which represents deep love and an aching heart. Thus, the flower needed to maintain its red color for the symbolism to come through.

For some reason I initially pictured this guy wearing a pink shirt (perhaps as an offshoot of the "romantic" angle), but I wanted to try some different colors inspired by the 70s catalog pages I found. I ended up really liking the contrast of the cool blue shirt with the warm red pants, and that option made it into my top three as a result. I lined them up next to each other to compare them, and in the end, blue won out over pink. I think it also reflects the "colder", more cerebral, less-emotional parts of his personality well (namely "systematic", "stern", and "callous"- one from each column!). Just goes to show that you shouldn't get too attached to your first draft, as better ideas are just around the corner.

I then lightened the blue of the shirt so it wouldn't compete so much with the rest of the outfit, and wouldn't be quite as loud and "in your face". Mikhail strikes me as a bit of an introvert, so the calmer, quieter blue is a better fit. I added a darker belt and watchband and de-saturated the flower just a bit to make the values feel more balanced, and I think we've got it!

Let's see the final result!

Y'all, I was not expecting this process to make me emotional, but there's something special about fully realizing a little guy you've spent hours working on. All of a sudden you look at him and go, "Oh my god, there he is. That's him." This man wasn't even a twinkle in my eye a couple weeks ago and now I'd protect him with my life.

And the thing is, the only reason I'm calling this design "done" for now is that I basically just brought it into existence to make a point. But if this dude were attached to a larger story, he'd be nowhere near finished. I'd have to make a ton more iterations and go a lot more in depth with my research than I did (especially with the Armenian cultural stuff). Overall, though, I hope this quick project properly highlighted the difference between a single drawing and a more fleshed-out character.

Later!

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