Character design sheet questions

[Griffin McPherson]

As I’ve been working on character designs for the CBpro class I’ve been wondering about do’s and dont’s of character design sheets.

Character design sheets are pretty much always characters on a white background. Does it have to be this way? Could it be a mid tone, can it be colored or do art directors just want to see characters on a white background?

Should they just be line drawings? Should the characters be filled in with a different tone to separate them from the background? Should one of them be colored? Should all of them be colored? Should we do close up headshots/expressions? Should we have the basic design sheet as well as a pose sheet in our portfolio or is this redundant?

I sort of feel like I’m overthinking here but at the same time there are so many unspoken rules in the art industry so I feel like I have to ask a lot of questions. Thanks for any tips you may have!

[Heather Boyd]

@griffin I think you might be overthinking it. I think in some respects it will depend on style. I'd find the character designers you admire the most -see what they do in terms of variety and then experiment (create a style or look you want and stay consistent). It's a general good rule to follow I think.

[Griffin McPherson]

@heather-boyd I definitely feel like I still struggle with consistent looking characters. Thanks for the advice, sometimes just having someone confirm that I’m overthinking is helpful haha

[Heather Boyd]

@griffin I am still figuring things out so my consistency is a bit not there yet. It's hard to get into a set pattern while you're still working things out.

[kayleenartlover]

@griffin I've seen stuff on instagram and pinterest, some from character design challenges, some as just concept art of characters and environment like rocks and bushes and whatever, but in a variety of the type of layout.
It depends on what you want to do with it I guess. If you want to make a single portrait of a full character, you could do a black background and have the character be lit in whatever tone of lighting. Black backgrounds usually work best for characters that have their own light source they are either holding or have flames for hair or glow in some way.
You could do a turnaround sheet of full character and focus on thinking of the design as something that could easily translate into a 3D model, and I would do in white so there is no light source, just flat colors that can be changed by environment/setting but look consistent.
You could do a bunch of heads/face expressions or poses with the emotions that convey what the character's personality is like, which could be any color but maybe not dark/black.
Grey is best for letting highlights pop as well as shadows. Same with colors that aren't super saturated. Color theory can affect the pallet you use so starting with grey would be best if you want the character to be colored.

[Adam Thornton 0]

@griffin Hi Griffin, good question!

Re your point about struggling with consistent looking characters, do you mean consistent design for the same character - so the viewer can tell it's the same character across multiple images? Or do you mean consistency in your style?

If it's the latter, I've found that just using the same features on a couple of anatomical points can enhance consistency. For example, Marco Bucci often paints his children with thin limbs and almost rugby-ball shaped heads. Even that shows consistency/recognisability of design, yet allows him to push the design in other anatomical areas to make for variety/interest.

Not sure if that helps.

Best wishes,
Adam