Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-12736261-20140708222527/@comment-10734109-20140805034247

Randomness, that's true. It would be much easier to do something with stick people, and if done right it could still work. As shown on the right, I've drawn two different stick figures. The stick figure on the left is simply your average stick figure. It's often drawn when you want to get your drawings done and over with, or when you simply can't draw people. The one on the right, on the other hand, still retains some important artistic principles of drawing characters. He has a more interesting facial expression and position than the left figure, and also has hands and feet (which I consider to be an absolute necessity in all of my drawing styles xD) to allow him to express even more movement and such.

However, if we were to go with either style of stick figure, we would lose something very valuable, which is character differentiation. We could, of course, change up the hairstyles and accessories, but the characters themselves would end up looking very similar. It would be a bit like an anime where every single character has the same body structure and the same face. Then again, we could always change the facial shapes of the characters, as well as their heights and (if we wanted to add them) their noses. Clothes wouldn't be a problem either if we were to give the characters shapes for bodies instead of lines.

Either way, if we make the style too simple it will not be nearly as interesting to look at. It's a bit like looking at a shaded drawing versus an unshaded drawing. Though the shading is a somewhat small addition, it can create a huge impact on the quality of a drawing. Similarly, a comic of stick figures may not be as intriguing to people as a comic of a slightly more complex cartoon style. Even adding some volume to the character's body and a different style of face can create a huge impact on how the character's appearance turns out. As shown in this image, I've thickened the arms, legs, and neck while keeping the head to torso proportions fairly similar. This alone can cause a huge difference in the outcome. Plus, more expressive poses can be created. As for the change in  eyes, this will allow for a larger range of facial expression. Though I have absolutely nothing against small eyes, I often prefer to give my characters large eyes like this. I've found that the pupil to eye whites ratio plays a large role in how an art style comes across as well. The larger the ratio, the more humorous and action-oriented the style appears.



In this example, I used the exact same template while only changing the pupils and nothing else (though I did some minor tweaks to the left one). As you can see, the styles appear completely different and give off a very diverse vibe. While the first one appears more adorable and serious, the second one is more humourous. The first one could fit best in, say, a romance comic while the second would fit best in a comedy or possibly an action adventure with comedic elements.



On another note, since I'm assuming that our story will be mainly a comedy, I would not suggest a more adorable style. Though they're often tempting to use, they do not always fit best in what you're planning. In many comics, I've seen character appeal turn into a main priority in designing. This often results in roughly similar looking characters who are all fairly attractive. I myself struggle with this. However, when creating characters we must realize that not ALL of the characters need to be attractive, and that we should actually strive to make at least a few somewhat unattractive characters. Large noses, chubby bodies, large ears, and pathetically wimpy builds should never be out of the question. This will add much needed diversity to our character designs, and much more recognizability as well. When choosing a style, we should also be concious of how much room there is to improvise. If we can't play around with the style too much, it may not be the best choice. If you want to create a style option, I would highly recommend experimenting with different face shapes, nose shapes, body builds, poses, facial expressions, and ethnicities. The more you find that you can do with these, the better!