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Drawing your Characters

Wonderland-REMIX
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 15:41:41 GMT

For your characters' references, do you like to draw them, use photos of existing characters/people, or uses games to create a picture for them? Personally, I like to draw mine because I'm picky about details like hair and height. How about you?

Smoppet
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 17:05:54 GMT

I draw my characters out because I feel like that's the only way to specifically get what I want. I don't like the idea of being limited by dollmakers/games, and I personally find it a little weird to use photos of real people (and I'm probably a minority on this mindset but I don't think you should be uploading any copyrighted material to charahub so I rather disagree with faceclaims.)

CareBearKidd
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 18:24:35 GMT

I'm on the same page as Smoppet.

Kchan
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 00:00:40 GMT

I have to agree Smoppet and CareBearKidd I like sketching/doodling my characters better then using celebrities picture or using polyvore or pinterest to find people best for characters.I have a better image of my character when i draw them out!

limeavenue
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 04:13:09 GMT

Most all my characters came from a random sketch I did on homework or during a test or something, so I always end up making a bunch of drawings until I've decided on how I want them to look, and then after that I make their personality, habits, story, etc., and then sometimes change their appearance later. I can't usually ever find a dollmaker that fits my visual for the character and (sort of like Smoppet and CareBearKidd and possibly Kchan[?]) using a real person's photo is sort of creepy to me...

DikkeVetteVlinder
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 08:11:11 GMT

I tend to draw my characters as well. I know a lot of people who won't allow drawings in their RP's for some reason (I have my theories for this, but those are not very polite, so I shall refrain from explaining them) so that makes it a little difficult sometimes, but overall I prefer drawings because of the control I have over how the character will look. I sometimes use photo's as reference if the person on the photo has certain features the way I imagined them for the character, but that's about it.

CareBearKidd
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 13:55:05 GMT

I want to know your theories on it, Dikke uwu If you don't want to share still, that's fine, but it utterly puzzles me when an OP or GM has a strict rule against art in a RP. I RP a lot and rarely run into the rule, but it's frustrating when I do.

DikkeVetteVlinder
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:27:40 GMT

(hope my English is good enough to explain this accurately) Well, what struck me was that on quite some sites I tried out that had certain rules a few things were always the same; first, all the characters' photo's were really pretty people. REALLY pretty people. And also usually people the person behind the character has a thing for. Second; no matter the storyline, romance always seemed to be the plain focus, one way or another. Once a character is taken, the writers tended to avoid all contact with any other characters of the opposite gender. Third; if your character wasn't pretty, you were basically ignored. Such a character really seemed to be considered not worth putting any energy into. Their reasons for not wanting drawn characters, wether those were in manga-style, realism or any other kind of style, were among others that they were 'unable to relate' to the character. Them wanting 'realism' was another one, even though thorough descriptions of a character were usually not accepted either; there HAD to be a picture, so to speak. (Now, of course, not everyone on those sites was like that, I'm mainly talking about the majorty that was.). Now, I could be wrong of course, but I feel like a lot of those writers seek some sort of.. substitute relationship, in a very escapistic way. They want the characters to be hot, to be pleasing to look at and aren't interested in anything that they do not consider datable. They are also very, very quick to ship characters, without so much as checking if the pair would - personality-wise - even make sense. I just think it really has a lot to do with this, with having their characters be together with beautiful other characters. I also think that is the reason why I hardly ever saw characters that were not straight on many forums I've been on; the risk of them not being datable. Bisexual was the only thing that appeared from time to time, unless an RP was specifically about different sexualities, then it was okay. It also sometimes just seems like they don't want to see anything that's simply not modellike looking. Like anything that strays from the underwear models and hollywood stars is deemed ugly and 'unrealistic'. (And trust me, it is very weird when you have a room full of beautiful people and not a single one notices that, despite the odds of so many beautiful people randomly meeting up somewhere.) I think this was pretty rambly and incoherent. Sorry for that, I still find it pretty difficult to explain myself clearly in English, in Dutch it all makes a lot more sense xD I also tried to explain it a politely and objectively as possible, hope that helps

CareBearKidd
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 16:29:45 GMT

Ah, okay. :D You make sense. Those are all issues I can find frequently in RPs. Funnily enough, though, one that I literally just joined a couple days ago had that no-drawing-real-people-necessary rule and a player followed that up by using Gabourey Sidibe--a large black actress who played Precious in Precious--as a character picture. I thought that was pretty freaking cool.

DikkeVetteVlinder
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 17:14:38 GMT

Haha, nice! You don't see a lot of people do that. Well, I don't. But maybe I just RP'd a lot in the wrong places ^^ Personally, I just have the really bad habit of displaying pittbull behaviour when someone only allows photo's but can't tell me why a drawing is so God-awful.

CareBearKidd
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 17:48:32 GMT

I don't blame you--especially when they prefer pictures to a physical description. It's frustrating!

Smoppet
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 17:49:47 GMT

LOL Oh my god, I imagine those people won't allow drawings just because they suck at art themselves. I really don't understand there being any other reason.

DikkeVetteVlinder
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 18:06:27 GMT

@Care; Very frustrating. Bonus points if there are people involved who think a discussion is the same things as a fight when you try to start one in a polite way @Smoppet; I'm not really sure about that, actually. I've seen a lot of people who don't even have the remotest interest in drawing their character. Some even seem to enforce the rule of photo's only because others do it, sometimes.

flightyclouds
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 21:40:39 GMT

@Dikke ehh there are no-drawings-allowed RPs? I've seen the other way around, no-people-allowed, but not that. As for the topic, I prefer to draw my characters, but really wish I were better at it argh. I enjoy the idea of fancasting and will reference photos for certain features I want. In RPs, I'll post drawings/photos in line with what most people on the thread are doing-seems like I'm the minority, but so long as I don't borrow a celebrity's face for official work (ie, if I published and put up a website), I don't see a problem. It's tough to find a reference if your character isn't conventionally pretty though.

DikkeVetteVlinder
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 06:53:46 GMT

Yeah, plenty of 'em, actually. You'd be surprised how many Dutch sites at least (with my English I don't rp on English sites a lot) have such a rule or are at least very reluctant about it.