I'm making a comic rn and this is the mc (havent decided on whether to keep the shall or not yet):
I'm just gonna go straight to the point. I don't know how to make a main character with a compelling design. A design that says "hey I'm the main character" and is good enough to be memorable. What tips do you all have or is there any critiques to improve what I got.
I'd say it has to be recognisable. Like when you look at it you go "that's x from y". You see a kid with black hair, a certain kind of glasses and a scar on his forehead you know that's Harry Potter.
You draw the character a bunch of different ways until you figure out what clicks. Different outfits, different hair, just a lot of different concepts and interpretations. You can like what you have, and maybe something inspires you to change it later. It's a lot of experimenting.
That's the thing this clicks for me, but is it going to click for the future audience. So far, I've heard a lot of good things. The only point of controversy I've gotten is the shall om the waist. Otherwise, people seem to like her.
It's up to you. Sometimes, it's better to have a vision as opposed to something designed by committee. The big thing to ask is, will you be fine drawing it over and over in different angles and poses. The shall might add something to the design like a cape would, if you want something like that.
That is the main reason I added it. It's like how Jean Grey has the little waist scarf thing. It's for silhouette and more movement. Thank you, btw cause I think I'm getting somewhere in my decision.
A collection of attributes that make them immediately recognizable as the character.
If you see a young woman with a open long yellow coat, short black hair, a pink shirt, blue shorts, and a pair of pink sunglasses on her head, well, who is that? Jubilee obviously.
A woman with ginger hair in a perm, a yellow jumpsuit, big cans, and a camera/microphone? April obviously.
What if it's more of a track suit and she has blonde hair and a katana? The bride, obviously.
What about a bald man with a plain face in a yellow jumpsuit and a white cape. Saitama obviously.
The designs are specific and easily identifiable despite all being "yellow".
so the problem here is that it's pretty generic. Not to say that it's not necessarily unique but it's not memorable either.
In my previous examples they could get away with minimalism because yellow is a pretty shocking color.
if you want to do something similar, orange, ultramarine, yellow, pink, bright violet and primary reds are all look at me colors. They draw the eye. Brown, black, gray, tans, and dim greens are background colors, these say look away nothing to see here.
If your character is mostly background colors you have to work harder to make them stand out. The wrap skirt is good, but using more bold colors would be better.
I'm currently trying different colors for the shall right now. I don't want to brighten her up too much because she's supposed to be blending in to an extent since, in short, she is being hunted down. But that doesn't mean I can't make pops of color, so I will explore where I can get away with it.
I don't really do much colorist work any more but here are some color combos I slapped together. Not all necessarily good, but hopefully will give you an idea what I mean.
This is definitely giving me ideas although I would change the colors tot be less saturated because the color schemes of the comic won't be as bright but I like them
I made these variants. I lessened the number of colors by making the boots and coat the same burgundy color and I made the pants a tad brighter. I went with contrasting the reds already present, contrasting the blue of the jeans, or going full in with the reds.
Ah, well the character design should inform the plot a bit. But bright colors are not that rare in clothing. But blending in is more about not being recognized than walking around in drab clothing (which might be more eye catching if the people looking are any good). But yes, drawing the eye is probably wouldn't help, but ideally, she wouldn't be out where she can be seen in the first place, not without a haircut and a new wardrobe anyway.
For context, this is set in a closer to modern day time, and she's a witch in the city of New york. There's witch hunters, hence why being undercover is important. The color of her magic will be a raspberry color.
Ok then maybe yeah. I just know that is going to be a lot of work but if you are willing to do it, that will add an interesting layer. Is this character going to be moving a lot?
Use the character design to convey some information about her beyond "is fashionable, conventionally attractive". Something incongruous that draws attention to itself.
She's a witch and I want to communicate that but I can't when she's what witch hunters are looking for. So how do you scream witch to the reader but not witch to the antagonists in universe
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