Character Reference Sheets: a Visual Guide to Autism - OC, DONUT STEEL!

Balaeniceps Rex said:
Nothing extreme, it's just a fucking mess.
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This is literally your average Ghost fan.
 
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Kuchipatchi said:
On a side note: I've grown to dislike reading characters' profiles because their likes and dislikes are so predictable or are so bland that I don't get a feel for the character's personality. Writing full-fledged sentences about your OCs are much better. Can be TL;DR but it really helps bringing your OC to life.

Name: Kuchipatchi
Likes: Sweets, naps, friends
Dislikes: Spooky stuff, bullies, running out of snacks

But compare it to this:

This is my OC, Kuchipatchi! He likes to eat sweets whenever he gets the chance, even while in class but he eats so much, it puts him in a food coma but he doesn't mind at all. Whenever his friends are around, he likes to share his food with them and spread the joy.

Already, you can get the idea about the character. I could write better but it's only an example.
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On one hand, yes, most furfags can't write worth a damn, and their characters therefore come off as boring. On the other hand, likes and dislikes can be a good starting point for writers who know what they're doing. However, I'm more of an artsperg than a writesperg, since my own writing is still shit, so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.
 
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Oranguru said:
On one hand, yes, most furfags can't write worth a damn, and their characters therefore come off as boring. On the other hand, likes and dislikes can be a good starting point for writers who know what they're doing. However, I'm more of an artsperg than a writesperg, since my own writing is still shit, so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.
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I am a writesperg, and here's the deal.
Likes and dislikes really don't matter too much in the grand scheme of things. Often when you're writing they won't come up too often since with most people, you could know them for years and keep learning about new things they like or dislike because they are often niche or won't come up in conversation, and because people are always changing. Often times likes and dislikes are moreso just for the writer to get a grand scope of who their character is, so that when they show selective parts of that character in writing they have a fully fledged persona.

But yea, pretty much none of these people can write and it's painful. They almost see likes and dislikes as a list of things they need to check off to have in an anecdote or story or whatever when that isn't what they are. It's painful and annoying hearing these people go "iM a WrItEr" and makes me wanna an hero.
 
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sleepdeprived said:
There’s just something about this art style that screams “unhealthy parasocial attachment to a YouTuber that’s probably Markiplier”. I don’t know what it is.
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It's because it absolutely is drawn by a young woman who needs to log off more often, particularly one whose art habits locked in by 2015-16 and will never lose the "cartoony furry art pictures" google search style quirks and the negative aura that lets you know she's definitely drawn yaoishit (probably of LP youtubers, like you said) she's now sorely ashamed of.

More specifically it's the dot-end mouths, that nose style, the unconfidently-human proportions, and the overall approach to color.
Sidenote, that carrd listed is a goldmine. FFS just say you like a lot of characters without injecting tism olympics into it.
 
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Kiwi Kitty said:
I am a writesperg, and here's the deal.
Likes and dislikes really don't matter too much in the grand scheme of things. Often when you're writing they won't come up too often since with most people, you could know them for years and keep learning about new things they like or dislike because they are often niche or won't come up in conversation, and because people are always changing. Often times likes and dislikes are moreso just for the writer to get a grand scope of who their character is, so that when they show selective parts of that character in writing they have a fully fledged persona.

But yea, pretty much none of these people can write and it's painful. They almost see likes and dislikes as a list of things they need to check off to have in an anecdote or story or whatever when that isn't what they are. It's painful and annoying hearing these people go "iM a WrItEr" and makes me wanna an hero.
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I think the issue we can all agree on is when people have generic or common likes/dislikes. For instance: liking friends, food, games, etc.
Disliking bullies, spicy food, cold weather, waking up early and such.

If I had a penny for every time I saw a character that hates bullies...like, I wouldn't have guessed! :o
 
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You’re missing the fact that these characters are the means by which many of these speds communicate with the world. It’s easier for them to project these things onto the character than to carry on a conversation about their own personal preferences. That’s why they get entirely asinine.
 
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Kuchipatchi said:
I think the issue we can all agree on is when people have generic or common likes/dislikes. For instance: liking friends, food, games, etc.
Disliking bullies, spicy food, cold weather, waking up early and such.

If I had a penny for every time I saw a character that hates bullies...like, I wouldn't have guessed! :o
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I agree.
Though, I can excuse such generic and obvious likes/ dislikes if they're taken to the extreme.

Ex: likes food - be an absolute glutton and eat anything they can get their hands on.

Ex 2: dislikes cold weather - this better send them into a complete rage or depressive episode.
 
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dappouROCK said:
I agree.
Though, I can excuse such generic and obvious likes/ dislikes if they're taken to the extreme.

Ex: likes food - be an absolute glutton and eat anything they can get their hands on.

Ex 2: dislikes cold weather - this better send them into a complete rage or depressive episode.
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Honestly, even in writing (now that I've had time to think on this) it's much better to jot down extremes
Cause at the end of the day everyone will dislike a lot of things, vice versa
But you wanna jot down what makes their blood boil or their heart race, cause that's where you actually get good material that makes for compelling scenarios
 
Just once, I'd like to see one of these ugly ass characters love bullies, hypocrites, drivers who merge at the last minute, Juicero, Windows updates that happen at inconvenient times, regressive tax, and people who don't say "thank you" when you hold the door for them.
 
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sleepdeprived said:
Just once, I'd like to see one of these ugly ass characters love bullies, hypocrites, drivers who merge at the last minute, Juicero, Windows updates that happen at inconvenient times, regressive tax, and people who don't say "thank you" when you hold the door for them.
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If I actually had motivation to draw...
 
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Kiryu DIO said:
That's still a thing?
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Nope, liquidated (lol) in 2017 - hey, if you’re going to put all sorts of obviously bad shit that nobody in their right mind would like on your dislikes list, why not go all out, right?

On topic: here are some examples that highlight some of my biggest pet peeves when having to work off of a shitty reference sheet.

The most common offense is shading a fucking reference sheet. What the hell are you supposed to color-pick off of this? Where do you find a usable mid-tone when the airbrushing interferes with color consistency this much? Usually the palette, at least, is safe - this artist chose to go one step beyond and put a chrome gradient and shine effect on theirs, effectively rendering it useless for its sole purpose. Now you can't tell which of the 3-7 shades of blue on there is for what, and you can bet that the client is going to complain about it being the wrong one.

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No back view is also a common offense. All this shit on the page that's completely irrelevant to what I need to get accomplished, and this artist couldn't even be assed to add a back view. I don't know what half of this character looks like. Where does the white of the arms stop? How far onto this character's back do the stripes extend? No clue. Best you can do is draw up a static pose that doesn't extend beyond a 4/4ths-3/4ths frame of view and call it even.

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Where the previous sheet had too much information, this one doesn't have enough. At a minimum for an animal-based character, you need to know what animal it's supposed to be. Is that a dollar bill tucked into her hair? Is it important to this client to have those types and placements of gems be recreated exactly as how they're shown? Is the pentagram on her hip mirrored on the other side? The singular tail diagram is clearly inconsistent with the tails on the character (the single tail only has 3 thorns), what do you do then? The less I have to guess about the fetish fox, the better.

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And some minor gripes for fun:

There's something endearing about this guy clearly starting with the upper body and running out of space for everything else. Even better is that he either couldn't figure out or couldn't be assed to resize the canvas or move the lizardman right to make space for the writing. Bonus points for "age: 25-86".

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It was important enough to this artist to add an asshole reference, but not important enough for anyone having to use this reference to be able to view it right side up, apparently. Bonus points for "slit for slit fucking" in the top right (bottom right?) corner.

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No back view, not even a completed front view, but gotta get that nonbinary pride in. Bonus points for having to point out that the highlight in her eyes is, indeed, white.

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sleepdeprived said:
It was important enough to this artist to add an asshole reference, but not important enough for anyone having to use this reference to be able to view it right side up, apparently. Bonus points for "slit for slit fucking" in the top right (bottom right?) corner.

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Insert one of those rotated phone screen memes.
 
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Jimjamjollyjee said:
(Slight off topic but still on topic)
Not a ref, but a interesting adoptable. By interesting- I mean racist. Chinese adoptable if you can't fucking tell. The fact they used a base gives you insight into the artist's brimming creativity.
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Call me crazy but it's kind of cute. Lose the tits and change tightly fitting clothes though. Other than that it's not the worst design to be put on this thread by a long shot. Also bases aren't an issue if you know how to use them, a lot of furries can't use a base to save their lives but there's the fair few who can and make it work. If you told me that was someone's original art and design I would have believed you, the design and base all flow together imo.
 
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Jimjamjollyjee said:
(Slight off topic but still on topic)
Not a ref, but a interesting adoptable. By interesting- I mean racist. Chinese adoptable if you can't fucking tell. The fact they used a base gives you insight into the artist's brimming creativity.
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What about this makes you accuse it of being racist? It's a perfectly decent design with a chinese motif and I fail to see how anyone except maybe those with stage 5 tumblr retardation could find it as such.
 
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