Can't Draw Your Characters?

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Mark_Young

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Personally, I have very poor artistic talents, yet I like to visualize characters and their weapons, battlesuits, and all manner of armor and weird facial features. Trying to draw them out is a pain and it's really difficult to find someone willing to draw them for me without paying.


So for the past few years, I've been using a program called Heromachine. A good, simple version of it exists here: http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine2/heromachine2.asp


You start by clicking on a pose. Click "complete" (not recommended to use if you have dial-up). On the right-hand side you'll see "Hair" and a drop-down arrow. If you click it, you'll see all of your available options, and the area that says "Standard" will include your sub-options. (Note, I often start by changing the background to a solid white wall.)

You can change the layers on any items, clear single item, clear everything, etc. There's no undo button. It isn't perfect, but it's a good way to at least see things and brainstorm for ideas. This is version 2.5.


If you're good at this type of thing, there's the more "free" version with a great deal more possibilities:
http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine-3-lab/


The same thing, only instead of forcing the items (and body parts) to be set, it allows a "free reign" on the position of the items and the number of items you can have. It will tend to freeze up once in a blue moon, and there's no undo option (yet), so saving the characters every once in awhile is a good idea. In this one, you can also change up the sizes and line colors of the items.

The only thing I don't like about it is that the creator is yet to upload rifles or big guns to the program, but other than that, you can make your characters for visual aid with these two programs.



Here's a few examples this guy did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLjOJrgFuSQ


These examples are pretty geared towards superheroes/villains but you can create Sci-Fi or Fantasy stuff as well.
 

blacbird

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I prefer to let my readers "draw" my characters. That's the way I read stuff, too. Stories I like generate images in my mind of the characters, and the physical descriptions provided by the authors, with some degree of exception, don't matter much. For instance, I have read virtually all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. Wolfe is a physically lethargic fussy fat man with an obsession for yellow shirts. That's about all the description we get. I have no difficulty filling in the details of this fat man from my own experience with people, or people I've seen in movies, etc. I always think of him as Sidney Greenstreet, the wonderful villainous character actor from the 1930s-1940s, the villain in Bogart's Maltese Falcon. But that's me engaging as reader. Which strikes me as exactly what any writer should strive for, to get the reader to make that imagination commitment to the story. Over-describing is a good way to kill that engagement, as far as I'm concerned. I want my readers actively engaged.



If I had any readers, that is.

caw
 

Mark_Young

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I prefer to let my readers "draw" my characters. That's the way I read stuff, too. Stories I like generate images in my mind of the characters, and the physical descriptions provided by the authors, with some degree of exception, don't matter much. For instance, I have read virtually all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. Wolfe is a physically lethargic fussy fat man with an obsession for yellow shirts. That's about all the description we get. I have no difficulty filling in the details of this fat man from my own experience with people, or people I've seen in movies, etc. I always think of him as Sidney Greenstreet, the wonderful villainous character actor from the 1930s-1940s, the villain in Bogart's Maltese Falcon. But that's me engaging as reader. Which strikes me as exactly what any writer should strive for, to get the reader to make that imagination commitment to the story. Over-describing is a good way to kill that engagement, as far as I'm concerned. I want my readers actively engaged.



If I had any readers, that is.

caw



This program is purely for the writer's benefit. Just to get a solid idea and for brainstorming (when you just want to let out on ideas and pull random things together). Some details you don't really want to leave up to imagination because it could lead to confusion.
 

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It struck me that you have a million accessories but only two bodies per gender. Sp unless you character is an idealised hero type it won't be much good....
 

kaitie

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I've used Heromachine before. :D It's fun to play with haha. I really, really wish I could draw, though. I occasionally get lucky, but not often, and I've got the best image in my head for a group shot. Hell...I'd pay a real artist to do it.
 

Z0Marley

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I wish I could draw too. I've paid about 4 different artists way too much money and haven't ended up with one sketch I liked. After the first couple critiques, I just say screw it.

I'd use this if they had an anime version. I'd be in heaven.
 

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I story board with little drawing ,not that good but good enough for me.I would not give up on the idea of drawing yourself,it is a mater of learning technique and practise. You can also trace and transfer images. A book I have found useful is How to draw comics the Marvel way by Stan Lee and John Buscema.
 

Mark_Young

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I story board with little drawing ,not that good but good enough for me.I would not give up on the idea of drawing yourself,it is a mater of learning technique and practise. You can also trace and transfer images. A book I have found useful is How to draw comics the Marvel way by Stan Lee and John Buscema.

I've got that book, but it still helps me not. Art tends to be that area that is almost impossible to learn. You have to have some sort of natural tendency to it in some way. Also, learning art is a painstaking process that often takes years to get through. Over the past 7 years, I've upgraded from only tracing hard lines to being able to create very basic digital images on my own with a guided format for reference.
 

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Art tends to be that area that is almost impossible to learn. .


Not many skills come straight out of a box,but if your determined you can always improve the skill you have,however bad you think it may be.You start by doing the best you can,even if it's just drawing stick men,and try to improve in any way you can,bit by bit you can get better.
 

Mark_Young

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Not many skills come straight out of a box,but if your determined you can always improve the skill you have,however bad you think it may be.You start by doing the best you can,even if it's just drawing stick men,and try to improve in any way you can,bit by bit you can get better.

There's still certain aspects about this that simply cannot be grasped by everyone.


Maybe it's because you're a jack-of-all-trades or something. But there are non-artistic people out there who just can't follow or do certain things because their minds are not geared for it.

You can see it in music playing. Some musicians (like my best friend) can just walk up to a piano. Without any instruction or sheet music, he'll use his instincts and intuition to compose works by Yanni or his favorite, the Titanic theme. He didn't ever learn how to use the piano, he just goes up there and does it. Same for a guitar.

But if you gave him a sheet of music, he'd look at it as if it were an alien language. He has a hard time following it and can't understand it. However, if you play the song for him a few times, he'll do something called "play by ear." In this way, he can also make his own music by a very quick and efficient trial by error. He makes up songs all the time.


My mother can play the piano. But only by memory. She can read sheet music but has to learn the song in parts. She can't make her own songs and she can't copy someone else's own music without being able to study it.

But nobody can learn to do what my best friend does. It's part of him as a person, he simply has a knack for certain musical instruments. He never learned anything, he can just do.

By the same token, there are some people who just can't draw and never will be able to draw (or even harder: paint). The best you can get is tracing or copying another piece of art. It doesn't make that person any less talented, just different.



I understand some concepts behind art, but I'm not going to waste another 7 years on a talent I don't have when I have Heromachine at my fingertips right now. I can covert real art into a realistic sketch, and I can learn about shading effects from different tools trying recreate someone's face. I can trace somebody's simple line art and make it better. But that's the extend of what I can do and what I'll ever do. Because I am incapable of imaging something in my head and putting it down on paper with free hand. I will never be able to do it because it's part of a concept you can't learn.


All Heromachine does is put things in perspective and allows someone who isn't artistically gifted to visualize a concept or idea in their heads without expending years of research, practice, and copying different elements from different pieces of art to try and draw their idea on paper.
 

Canotila

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Art tends to be that area that is almost impossible to learn. You have to have some sort of natural tendency to it in some way.

I want to begin by saying I did read your later post, but this statement grates on me. Every artist out there works damn hard to be able to create the things they do. That's like saying some writers are just born able to write, and are bound to be genius successes. People do have talents they are born with, but that does NOT take away the need for thousands of hours of practice. And it doesn't mean that just because someone was born with more talent than you, that you could never ever perform at their level. You might have to work harder for it, but that's the way things are. No matter who you are, there will always be someone better. That doesn't make something not worth doing. And no matter what, you can always work hard and perform at a higher level than you personally were previously able.

As I was growing up, people assumed I was born with some mystical art talent and would say, "You're so lucky! I could never do that!" That always ticked me off. I am NOT lucky. I worked hard for it. When they were all writing notes in class, I was drawing the kids around me in the margins of my paper. When I wanted to draw a background for a picture and realized I couldn't, I didn't throw my hands in the air and say, "well, I guess little Johnny's picture looks better than mine, I'll concentrate on something else." Instead I spent weeks and months and years practicing landscapes, figures, glass, water, etc.

Art doesn't even have to be photo realistic. It can be sculpture, textiles, etc. I work in a community art studio where a lot of adults with your attitude bring their children for classes and workshops. After a few visits they get coaxed by staff into trying out batik, or different forms of sculpture (luminaria, giant puppets, etc.) and I am constantly blown away at the quality of work they produce out of nowhere (and so are they!).

It does make perfect sense for someone to not want to devote years of their life to refining a craft that they have little personal use for or don't enjoy, when they could be writing, or playing basketball, or whatever else they like better though. :) I'm terrible at sports. I could definitely get better if I practiced, but I don't want to! And there's no shame in that. But please, don't minimize the amount of work that goes into developing any skill. It's an insult to all those who do spend the time on it.
 

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I was guilty of that for a long time. I always knew I could write, but I was unprepared for all the time and work that goes into it. Whoever said it's 99% perspiration was dead right

I'm a believer now.
 

Mark_Young

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To put it simply, I don't believe in the "clean slate" principle where everyone starts at 0 and anyone has the potential to do anything. But that doesn't mean everyone is born an expert.

My comment about art being impossible to learn was geared at myself. But I never said it couldn't be learned; in fact I even said it could be learned after a long period of time (just as you said).

What I did say was that there are some aspects of art that cannot be learned [by some people]. If you look around the Internet on "How to Draw..." and insert what you like, you don't get a real "how to"; you get someone drawing an example and giving a few tips about what they're doing. You either understand what they're doing, or don't.


I will never be able to just think of an image in my head and put it down on paper with all the colors available. I will never be able to compose my own music that I make up. I will never be able to count or calculate numbers on instinct. My gifts and talents aren't there. But I can learn how to lead an orchestra, and I can learn how to trace the outline of an image and freehand the rest in better condition than what I see. I can learn how to move numbers around in my head very quickly with shortcuts.

You can fit a powerful scope on a machinegun. You can give it a longer barrel. You can stabilize it with a bipod. You can upgrade it to shoot single-fire. So yes, you can take a machinegun and turn it into a long-range support weapon. But at heart, it isn't a sniper rifle and just can't do some things a sniper rifle can do. Vice versa.



So, for those of us who aren't artistically inclined, or simply if someone wants to brainstorm or get random ideas for inspiration, there's Heromachine.
 

Miss Plum

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Mark Young, I'm with you. I hire artists. No point trying to teach a pig to sing.
 

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Hi

I`m here. I write and draw. I illustrate my own picture books. Fantasy characters and super heroes are probably some of the most enjoyable characters to draw.

The hero machine is pretty interesting. I never heard of a site where you can build characters and place designs on book covers. The amour designs are beautiful. You can come up with some interesting characters.
 

ottomadenedamotto

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It also never hurts to post on deviantart (even if their forums are ridiculous) to see if anyone's interested in drawing your character for free or a small (usually about $10-20) commission.
 

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--firstly I would like to apologize to the person who first posted this. this is so off-topic, but I would like to add that I have used that... for lack of better word... "hero app" before and it is quite useful, especially cranking out random combinations to make characters!

As I was growing up, people assumed I was born with some mystical art talent and would say, "You're so lucky! I could never do that!" That always ticked me off. I am NOT lucky. I worked hard for it. When they were all writing notes in class, I was drawing the kids around me in the margins of my paper. When I wanted to draw a background for a picture and realized I couldn't, I didn't throw my hands in the air and say, "well, I guess little Johnny's picture looks better than mine, I'll concentrate on something else." Instead I spent weeks and months and years practicing landscapes, figures, glass, water, etc.

hi. uh wow. story of my life :) I've had this discussion with one of my friends before and admitted that I don't believe at all in the "talent" that other people think. I think that people start out with an affinity for something and that turns into a keenness and desire to do that something and work at it. art is like writing, tedious and enjoyable.



also.

It also never hurts to post on deviantart (even if their forums are ridiculous) to see if anyone's interested in drawing your character for free or a small (usually about $10-20) commission.

haha ok being an artist who hangs out a lot to get jobs there, I would like to put out some advice for people considering deviantArt forums for character art. there are artists on tab under the "job services", usually who charge about $10 a character; most of them for that price are meh, a few are decent. if you're going to post in the "job offers" looking for an artist, it usually helps if you put your price range out there first instead of finding an artist you like and finding out that they charge $45. if you want free sketches, always post in the "projects" forum because if you say so in job offers right away you're going to get lots of grumbling [and shunning] from students and more experienced artists.
 
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