Drawing Your Characters

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T. Trian

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Ever since we first started writing together, me and K. Trian have drawn all our main characters (and some side characters as well), put them on a big piece of cardboard, and put it right above our computer's monitor so that we have the pictures there all the time when we're writing. I've found it somehow helps me stay in touch with a given character's nature, the pictures remind me of their size/shape/clothing/any gear that's particular to a certain character etc. And seeing your MCs is also inspiring.

Granted, neither of us is that good (K. Trian is still a notch better than I am) but we've found it's a lot of fun to draw the characters.

So, anybody else here do this?
 

dpaterso

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Yup, sure do. I change my desktop pic so it's related to whatever story I'm working on.

There was a recent thread in Science Fiction/Fantasy discussion forum, Drawing of your MC?, where several members posted their character art.

-Derek
 

T. Trian

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Heh, we do the desktop thing too: now that we're putting finishing touches on a sci-fi novel, our desktop is a big picture of a black hole and space around it.

And thanks for the link! I'll just need to work up the courage to scan some of my own... well, crap.
icon11.gif
 

neilfriske

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I find that whatever im working I listen to completely different music, but as for drawing them I've only done that once with the 100k fantasy story I was working on, and even then it was just out of boredom. That's an interesting idea though, using them as a reference.
 

Melanie Dawn

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Surprisingly I haven't yet..maybe because I am a comic book artist first and have drawn so much, writing is like taking a break for me.
 

Gale Haut

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I actually prefer using head shots of popular actors or people of people I know/knew. Though the characters are never the same, really. I have drawn characters, but I rarely use them as a reference.
 

T. Trian

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I actually prefer using head shots of popular actors or people of people I know/knew.

We do that too. Usually we have some general idea of how a character looks and then we try to find pictures of real people who are as close to what we've envisioned as possible but, well, at least in my case firstly my skills don't allow very good replications of the real people, and secondly we usually change little things here and there (a bigger or smaller nose, different shape eyes, stuff like that).

That's for faces. For bodies we often do try to get as close to some picture as possible. Since we have 18 WIPs and each story has at least 4 MCs and some "bigger" side characters, we've ended up drawing dozens and dozens of pictures and, oddly enough, I've noticed that I'm actually getting better at drawing. Little by little, baby steps and all that jazz but it's nice to look at a drawing I made five years ago and realize I can do better now.

I don't know why but guys are really easy to draw for me (meaning I get them pretty close to what I picture in my mind) whereas I often have to draw a female MC over and over again before I'm satisfied with how she looks. Then again, I find drawing women much more interesting, especially their bodies. Maybe that's because I'm a guy and when I was a kid (like 6-12yo), I drew pretty much just men so I have much more practice with them and being a guy I have a better grasp of the male physique but learning to draw women/girls is, well, fun (even if I cringe when I look at some of my older doodles).

By the way, this reminds me of what a Finnish karateka once said to me: I can't remember what we were talking about but he said that my problem is that I do many things (train martial arts, swim, jog, write, play guitar, drums etc. etc) and I want to be good at all of them. Which has led to me being a (very low-level) jack of all trades but a master of none. I think I've inherited some of my dad's perfectionism and I'm something of a control freak when it comes to my art so my dream is to one day be good enough at drawing that I could draw our characters well enough that the drawings could be published.

Any of you folks have any education in drawing/painting/whatever? I used to go to art classes as a kid and when I was 13-15 I was in a class with emphasis on visual arts. Now I'm just bummed that I didn't draw anything when I was 16-24: if I'd drawn even one picture a day, I would be so much better now. Oh well, at least practicing is fun.
icon6.gif
 

Six Alaric

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Yep. One of my main projects began as a graphic novel so the characters were designed visually before I'd fleshed much of their actual 'character' out. I still picture them the same as my illustrations when I write.

Tried sketching a few of the guys from my other WIP. It's kind of hit and miss getting them to match up with what I see in my head, but I agree that it's helpful for keeping in touch with a character. Creating maps/models of the settings has also come in handy for similar reasons.
 

RedWombat

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Surprisingly I haven't yet..maybe because I am a comic book artist first and have drawn so much, writing is like taking a break for me.

Nothing weird about that at all. I made a living solely on art for years and years--still do illustrated children's books--and any project of mine that I'm not the illustrator for, I haven't the faintest interest in illustrating. I don't even picture the characters in my head. They're a collection of words and a point of view.

Shoemaker's children go barefoot and all that.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Any of you folks have any education in drawing/painting/whatever? I used to go to art classes as a kid and when I was 13-15 I was in a class with emphasis on visual arts. Now I'm just bummed that I didn't draw anything when I was 16-24: if I'd drawn even one picture a day, I would be so much better now. Oh well, at least practicing is fun.
icon6.gif

I went to art school, got a degree. It was helpful, although I'd like to point out that I didn't take any art classes in high school and I didn't start art school until I was 22.

Rather than regretting not doing a drawing a day in the past, it's probably better to just keep at it and train your eye and hand. It sounds like you're doing well at that.
 

Tepelus

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I took an art class every year between 7-12 grade in school, my Junior year I went to Lansing Community College for their commercial art program for Voc-Ed. That was, oh, almost twenty years ago. After high school I painted a little with oils and dabbled with inks and pencils, graphite and colored, but a few years after high school went by, my drawing practice fell off the map. Every once in a while I would sketch something, most of the time I never finished anything. Last year I picked up the pencil again after several years of not having drawn much of anything worth mentioning and I was surprised by how well the drawing turned out. It was a portrait of my boyfriend. I drew a couple other things then put the pencil down again. This past year I've drawn something here, something there, and the last few weeks I've made the most work since high school. I used to draw something almost everyday, and I miss that. Right now I'm working on a portrait of Oscar Wilde and it's turning out really well. I am better now than I was a few years ago, and I have hardly practiced at all. Perhaps I see my subjects differently now than I had back then and I have better control of the pencil even without much practice. I have a DeviantArt account with a few of my latest works on there. In a few days I should finish my Wilde drawing and I'll post him on my DA account then.
 

Calliea

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Totally!

Drawing your characters gives my writing a whole new taste. I see them, I feel them, and many times I take inspiration from the drawings. When I couldn't draw in the past, I found pictures online that resembled my characters and went with those. Art goes great with writing, just like music it can be an inspiration.

But yes, drawing your own characters has that grand advantage that it makes them more real, at least to me.

The problems start when you fail to draw them how you actually see them and it torments you and you start to redo and redraw and fix and and and and then you don't have time to write, because you're stuck fixing their eyebrows shape :D Happens to me... :c
 

Persei

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Actually, I use the Sim builder from The Sims 3. My drawing skills are horrible, but I can visualize my characters just fine... In my imagination it feels more real, but creating my characters is a good time killer.
 

Tezzirax

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This is one of my two MC's from my NaNoWriMo novel:
sherakk_400.jpg


just a quick sketch to get some of her anatomy ironed out, she expresses a lot through the flaring and wiggling of her fans on the sides of her head.
 

T. Trian

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Rather than regretting not doing a drawing a day in the past, it's probably better to just keep at it and train your eye and hand. It sounds like you're doing well at that.

Oh, absolutely. Sometimes it's actually quite cringe-inducing to look at my older scribblings but, alas, I feel it's one of the best ways to see one's improvement in a concrete way.


In a few days I should finish my Wilde drawing and I'll post him on my DA account then.

I'll definitely be looking out for that; you got some really cool drawings.


The problems start when you fail to draw them how you actually see them and it torments you and you start to redo and redraw and fix and and and and then you don't have time to write, because you're stuck fixing their eyebrows shape :D Happens to me... :c

Hah, don't get me started! :D I've drawn a few of my characters over and over and over again and when I finally "get it" and think I succeeded in drawing the character accurately enough, time passes, my eye gets a little sharper and then it's into the bin with the picture and I'm back at the drawing board (literally).


ETA: Tezzirax, you did a great job with that!
 

Calliea

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Hah, don't get me started! :D I've drawn a few of my characters over and over and over again and when I finally "get it" and think I succeeded in drawing the character accurately enough, time passes, my eye gets a little sharper and then it's into the bin with the picture and I'm back at the drawing board (literally).

The worst case from what I've seen is when I flip the picture, see the mistakes, etc, etc, get to work, keep fixing something around an eye and nose and mouth for 2h and then flip the picture again and realize that the previous version was actually a LOT better.

Now that's deprecating XD Everything's good as long as there is PROGRESS, but when regress happens, a painters hell begins :D

I think this one of my character drawings was the closest to making me happy for a long while: http://a-rien.deviantart.com/art/Solace-of-Understanding-198853560?q=gallery%3Aa-rien%2F11037567&qo=7

But now that I look at it I don't like that face at all anymore :D The nose is flat, the lips are dinosaury... I will have to fix it all to make her look sweeter and gentlier.

GAH WHY DID I LOOK AT IT AGAIN?! :D



Also, the dragon above is pro. I love them lizards, but could never draw one properly, so kudos! :)
 

Melanie Dawn

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my MC for my romance novel..yes that's a tattoo.
(About 45 minutes an hour to an hour worth of work-quickie)

Daphne001_zps1be021e9-1_zps28975cbf.jpg
 

Rachel Udin

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I finally fixed her Sari to Maharashtrian. Which should make it come in line with: http://www.4to40.com/histor/print.asp?p=Kushan_Period_130B.C._-_A.D._185

Which is my research on the matter. She is wearing a Maharashtrian sari using Mooga silk. (You have no idea how much I researched that.)

Katha necklace with a jewel and a pair of sandals. I'm not sure how the Sandals go since she's not supposed to kill anything for vanity. I do know she's not wearing a shirt underneath because it's against the religion at the time.

I put a ton of research into this picture.
 

SBibb

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Yep, I definitely enjoy drawing my characters. Recently I've taken to doodling them. Though I haven't posted many of the drawings on deviantart, I've done some photomanipulation regarding the story.

http://sbibb.deviantart.com/gallery/33738370

That has some of the art I've done based on Distant Horizon (During college I was able to get one of my friends to model as the MC, so that was fun. :-D ). At some point I want to start posting the actual sketches, once I get a bit better at them. I've recently taken to playing with prismacolor markers, so I'll see if I have any of those ready to show soon. :)
 

Rachel Udin

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http://goldsheep.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=scraps#/d5o60ee

Working my way through Rapunzel, though not my character... (I drew the individual eyelashes though they don't show up at that size... Oh and I've been drawing a ton of Asian characters, so I had to retrain myself to draw Caucasian... which was a strange experience.

I want it to be on par with: http://goldsheep.deviantart.com/art/Emperor-and-Feng-Huang-309884432 and http://goldsheep.deviantart.com/gallery/25526793#/dxy2oi

Still don't understand the need for stock photos... reference, yes, stock photos, no.
 

ArachnePhobia

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I'm not a great artist, but I did sketch the heroes of my last novel. From left to right, that's Mr. Astacus, Tyler Calhoun, and Kippyflip the killer chinchilla.

ThreeHeroes_zpsc50c6558.jpg
 
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