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Forums » Art & Creativity » Not Just a Pretty Face - Character Descriptions

It's always nice being able to create or get a good visual representation of your character, but how are your skills at describing your character? It's a useful skill on its own, and it can also be helpful when making commissions to be able to better communicate your idea to the artist.

Me? I'm not very good at it. (I'm not very good at picturing things, either, but a muscle only gets stronger with use!) So who wants to join me in working on our descriptive abilities? :D

I'll be trying to compile useful resources in this thread, from examples to considerations. If you know a good resource, please share it! And I'll also encourage folks to post specific characters they'd like help with and to help each other. (If things get too messy, we can consider a guild to allow people their own focused threads to workshop characters through. For now, let's just try this.)

Things to think about...

Overall body
  • Large? Small? Huge? Medium? A little on the small side?
  • Tall? Short? Can you get specific?
  • Muscular? Frail? Wiry? Lanky? Body builder buff?
  • Apple shape? Pear? Hour glass? Inverted triangle?
  • What about specific parts? Width of shoulders, waist, hips? Large, hard-knuckles hands? Small, dainty feet? Calloused knees? Cracked heels?

Head
  • Large head? Small? Tall? Round?
  • Eye color and shape? Are they wide or narrow set? Eyelashes?
  • What about the eyebrows?
  • Long, thin nose? Broad with wide nostrils? Short and upturned?
  • Mouth shape? Any irregular teeth? Is the top lip larger than the bottom?

The thing to avoid is writing something off as "average." Everyone is just a tiny bit different. You don't necessarily have to describe every little feature, but the more you can, the better!

As an example, here's a quick description of me from the shoulders up. (I request no comments are made about my appearance, positive or negative; just focus on the level of detail.)

Real Novalyyn
My overall frame is a little on the small side of average, but I have a long, narrow neck that makes my shoulders appear wider than they really are. My head is also small enough that finding hats that fit is tricky, and my face is taller than it is wide. Sometimes I use hair products to fluff up my short pixie-cut, dark brown hair to make my head look a little more properly sized and reduce how far my side-swung ears appear to stick out from my head. When I push my hair up enough, a couple permanent creases can be seen across my forehead. I have strong, dark eyebrows that are naturally smooth enough to appear manicured, and have just a few stray hairs in the middle that commonly go unnoticed. The color of my eyes is difficult to discern, seeming sometimes grey, hazel, or others in different lighting. Like my brows, my eyelashes are long and dark, and simply curling them is enough to make one suspect I have fake lashes on. Glasses usually obscure the mildly discolored bags that are perpetually beneath my eyes. My narrow, slightly upturned nose is vertically a bit short but sticks out just a little long, and is flanked by high cheekbones that only stick out in harsh lighting. My lips, often coated in various colors of lipstick, have a notable cupid's bow and corners that turn slightly down when fully relaxed, but can easily be pulled into a faint smile. My upper lip and small chin have hair that is a little darker and thicker than is commonly considered attractive for a female, but most easily overlook it even when I don't shave it down. When I grin, my teeth are the common off-white color most share, and the front two are just a little too long while my bottom canines sit a little turned in place.


So... can you describe your character with that level of detail?
I kinda wanna give this a shot, I'll use my more well known character as a cheat lol.

Kuro Sakunranbo

I'll start from the head down.
She's got about an average sized head, being more round at the top going down into a more angular jaw with slightly gaunt cheeks and high cheek bones. She has large round eyes that are a mismatch of colors, one being a deep ocean blue while the other is just a loss of pigment in her iris causing a blood red color form her veins in her eyes. Her natural hair is a beautiful black color that cascades down her back with the mutation of red bangs. She has a kinda small nose thats not up turned or down turned, a nice even middle with a narrow bridge and small nostrils. She has a wide and more full lower lip with a slightly thinner and smal upper lip that has a rounded cupids bow. She has a slender neck that isnt too long that leads down to slightly smaller than average shoulder width. She has a more lean and athletic body type, her body built more for speed and stealth than brute power. Her arms are of proportionate length for her body that lead down to slightly thin hands with long fingers that have long sharp nails that she does her best to keep trimmed. She has a decent curve to her body, not an overly noticeable curve but enough that you can tell she's definitely a woman with C-cup sized breasts. She has long legs that have lean muscle tone to them that lead down to odd looking feet. Another genetic mutation, she has no toenails and her feet are more shaped like a duck's feet with long toes that have webbing inbetween them for better swimming.
Zelphyr Topic Starter

And boom, you have a character that can't be represented by just any person given the right colors. :)

Side note: lack of pigment in human eyes actually tends to result in a blue color from light refraction rather than the pink or red common in animals. I think it has something to do with the size of the eye and the lens. Learning about that actually prompted me to adjust the color of one of my characters' eyes, since she's albino. Buuut it's not like we keep to strict science in RPs!

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