One of my favorite things that I get to do is to create new characters. For me, I LOVE to make people or creatures with personalities, goals, and ambitions out of nothing and see them interact within my own world. However, that is not always an easy task. It is hard to decide what a character who doesn't exist will look like or do within a story. There are a few tricks I have come up with over the years that have helped me design new characters.
1. What Is Their Personality And Do You Want To Abide By It?
When you are developing your characters and what they look like, personality can play a big part in what they look like. Wild and crazy characters can have equally wild and crazy clothes while more calm and reserved characters can have a more conservative look. If your character is the nervous type, their appearance may represent this through an oversized sweater or long hair covering part of their face. Similarly, if your character is calm and collected, they may choose to wear calm and cooler colors on their person. However, you don't always have to abide by this. Perhaps you want to subvert the expectation of your audience by having a wilder character have a calming appearance. Personality can be a great stepping stone in choosing how you want your character to appear.
2. What Service Do They Provide The Plot?
If your character provides a certain service to the plot, then their appearance may reflect this as well. Is your character a hero or a villain? What kind of occupation does your character have? What are your character's goals in relation to your storyline? The answers to these questions can determine if your character physically appears approachable, suave, or even completely uncollected. Determining the character's service in your own story is a great way to decide what they might look like.
3. What Statement Are You Trying To Make?
Are you trying to make a certain statement with your chosen character? Is there a particular moral you are trying to get across to your audience? If there is then you definitely should take that into account in your character's design. Is your character meant to be mimicking a real-life person or representative of a real life situation? Then you should definitely take care when designing your characters to make sure that treat the situation with the appropriate amount of dignity and respect it deserves.
4. What Relationships Do They Have With Other Characters?
What kind of relationships do your characters have with one another? Are they friends or enemies? Is your character a father or a mother? Does your character have a significant other? These are all great questions to ask because they might just influence how you decide to design your character. For example, if your character is related to another one of your characters you may want to show a similarity in appearance in their design. Overall, it is a good idea to consider just how your characters are related to each other and what kind of relationships they have with one another.
5. What Do You Want The Audience To Feel About You Character?
This one is the most important in my opinion. When you design a character, you always have to keep the audience in mind. Would a typical person find your character's design appealing? What feeling do you want the audience to get from your character? Do you want the audience to feel like your character is approachable or prefers to be alone? Do you want your character to appear fun and spontaneous or cool and collected? The way your audience perceives your character should play a large part in how you design them.
