If you're interested in character design, you've probably seen your share of tips. Some are good advice that should be followed, some are absurd, and some are misguided and pretentious attempts to apply blanket rules to a field with lots of variables.

But there are a few rules that I believe are universal, and that far too many character designers seem to blatantly disregard.

Here are some practical, commonsensical tips you can use to make your characters' appearances feel more real and fit the characters better, without restricting your creative freedom to "their outfit must have X number of colors!" in the process.

Character design tip #1: The character's outfit should fit the situation.

This especially goes for people who design female characters.

OK, it goes for all genders, but fictional women seem to be the most frequent victims of character designers who pretend their creations are smart, strategic people, and then send them into battle moronically and suicidally underdressed.

If your badass supersoldier spy is going undercover at a cocktail party, sure, you can put her in a flattering dress.

But if she's going into battle with her cleavage bared, against opponents who won't be distracted by that sort of thing, you're ignoring the basic storytelling principles of keeping characters in-character and making their decisions plausible just to shoehorn in a bit of extra boobage.

Granted, there are exceptions to every rule. Having a fancy battle dress is practically a requirement for being a magical girl, and their magic powers tend to make up for the disadvantages their wardrobes present, so there is some leeway there.

(Though, come to think of it, I'd love to see a magical girl series where their transformation resulted in armor instead of dresses. That would be a smart, interesting twist.)

Anyway, back to character design tips.

When it comes to armor, if you're thinking of depriving your character of that protection so their movements won't be restricted, bear in mind that a well-constructed suit of armor has approximately the same range of motion as the person inside it.

So while you don't want a stealth-based character who needs to sneak around, slip through small spaces, or blend into crowds clanking around in full plate armor, a character on the battlefield needs a better reason than "I need flexibility" to go unprotected.

Also, if your knight with girl parts is wearing boobplate (a 'breastplate' that cups and emphasizes her boobs separately, as opposed to covering the whole chest in one smooth curve), her blacksmith needs to be fired for being bad at their job and recklessly endangering their customers.

Because boobplate is suicide.

Here are some practical questions you can ask yourself to determine what outfit is appropriate for the character's situation:

1. What is the goal of their outfit?

Are they trying to blend in? Look sexy (for a good in-story reason, NOT a meta-story "sex sells" reason)? Protect themselves in battle? Carry every high-tech spy gadget invented by every sapient species at once, just in case?

Their outfit should reflect this goal.

2. What resources are available to them?

If your character is dirt poor and unwilling to steal, they might not be able to acquire armor or fancy clothing. Unless, of course, they have a benefactor who's willing to help them, whether out of altruism or because it's required for the mission for which they're being hired.

Your character's clothes should reflect their era, their geographical area and its culture and available clothes, and their current and past financial situation.

I mention 'past financial situation' because they might, for example, still have nice clothes that they bought before their finances crashed. Their whole life needs to be taken into account, to the same degree to which their past influences their present.

3. What is the weather like?

Unless they ended up in a location they didn't expect to visit, or the weather changed suddenly, your character should be dressed for it.

Unless their wardrobe comes with built-in thermal regulation, they're innately temperature-resistant, or they need their suit of armor regardless of the climate, it makes no sense for them to have the same type of outfit in a tropical or temperate location and a snow-covered forest. (CoughBlackWidowCough)

When taking the weather into account, be sure to consider how much time the character has to prepare and acquire/pack clothes, whether or not they would see this kind of weather coming, and whether they'd have the resources to get appropriate clothing with the amount of notice they had.

Character design tip #2: The outfit should reflect their personality and abilities.

This is closely related to tip #1, but is distinct enough to warrant its own section.

If a character is cocky, unwise, rebellious, or wants to mentally throw the people around them for a loop, they might deliberately choose to dress in a way that's inappropriate to the situation.

For example, they might enjoy showing up in court with a pair of bunny ears on their head, or striding onto a battlefield shirtless because their healing factor will make up for it and the sight of their wounds healing will demoralize their opponents.

Or they might just charge into battle shirtless because they're way too hot-blooded and reckless to care.

But if a character is very serious and practical and has no superpowers, they should dress accordingly, especially when going into battle.

If a character is very comfortable with her body and sexuality, is too innocent to think much of showing skin, or simply doesn't give a crap what other people think of her, then it makes sense to have her show up in a crop top or revealing dress.

But if she's very shy or modest, or has openly expressed disdain for women who use their sexuality to get ahead in life, then showing her cleavage off will probably be out of character in most situations.

(CoughAerynSunCoughCleavageInBattleCoughWTFCough)

Their past, and the beliefs and coping mechanisms they developed as a result of it, should also play a role in your outfit decisions.

A character who's been sexually abused or assaulted might try to hide their body and attractiveness for fear of getting the wrong kind of attention. Or they might deliberately dress sexy in an attempt to reassert control over their sexuality.

Or they might just continue dressing the way they did before, whatever that way might be.

Once again, it depends on their personality and decisions.

Whatever clothing choices your character makes, the basic rule holds true: it should be in-character, and should fit their beliefs, personality, ability and situation.

Character design tip # 3: The character's body should fit their lifestyle and profession.

Can we talk about Lara Croft's arms? Her skinny little arms, with which she supposedly pulls herself up ledges? This woman should have some serious upper body muscle tone... but in some iterations, she doesn't.

This is an example of what NOT to do when designing a character, and it isn't just the ladies who get hit with it.

While females tend to be more consistently shoehorned into a single, sometimes implausible body type, characters of other genders have also been given this treatment.

Here are some examples of how a character's lifestyle might affect their physical appearance:

If your human character has a highly active lifestyle involving frequent feats of strength, give them the musculature they'd realistically require for the tasks they perform.

(Obviously, supernatural/alien/shapeshifting characters get some leeway here.)

If they frequently get into fights that involve cuts and/or burns, are not perfect at dodging, and don't have the medical technology or superpowers required to swiftly and flawlessly heal wounds, having some scars would be more realistic than their skin being smooth from head to toe.

If they live in a hot climate and are outdoors frequently, they should probably have a tan, unless they have a skin condition or wear clothing that prevents tanning.

For that matter, they should probably also have body parts that aren't tanned, unless they were out there nude.

Depending on their hair type, their hair might also get bleached by the consistent exposure to the sun.

If they use crutches or a manual wheelchair a lot, their arms should show the effects of the muscles being frequently exercised.

When you're designing your character's body, consider where they live, what experiences they've had, and what kind of activities they frequently do.

And for the love of all things holy (or at least, for the sake of plausibility, good-quality storytelling, and not making me roll my eyes at you), don't just design them for sex appeal in a way that makes no sense in light of their lifestyle or their past.

Please. Just don't.

Character design tip #4: Their voices should fit their background.

While watching Tangled and How to Train Your Dragon, I noticed a weird pattern:

The adults spoke with an accent that their children didn't share.

Rapunzel had never heard any voice other than Gothel's since she was a baby, yet for some reason, she never picked up her "mother"s accent.

And while the adult vikings all spoke with a Scottish accent, their children didn't.

This seemed weird and unrealistic enough to break immersion a bit, even in stories where hair glows, horses act like hyper-intelligent dogs, and dragons exist.

TL;DR: Keep your character designs plausible and in-character.

Sure, there are other, more nuanced and advanced facets of character design that someone who's studied the field in more depth could get into.

And even then, there would probably be exceptions to most of the rules they laid out, or rebellious try-hards who would take their "don't do this" as a challenge and find a way to make a maligned design practice work. (CoughProbablyMeCough)

But at the core of the process of designing your character, a simple, universal principle holds true:

Their appearance and wardrobe should make sense in light of their personality, environment and activities.

It's just that simple.

Page 18 of my Undertale fan comic, Just Cause​, is ready!

​Asgore wants to comfort Frisk, but Toriel still doesn't like or trust him, and he's not about to keep walking when her glare tells him to stay put. Not that she really thinks he'd harm Frisk at this point, but old resentments die hard.

Sans, meanwhile, is indulging his habit of "when in doubt, do nothing".

I'll admit, I'm kind of internally gloating about how some of these panels turned out - especially Asgore's puppy eyes and the way he looks from above, how Mettaton turned out (my first really successful metal shading!), and that scene transition at the end. This was my first time drawing Mr. Fabulous Robot With A Surprisingly Complex Sprite, and it took hours, but it was worth it.

Next week, we return to the land of stony-faced Frisk, black-framed panels, and me having way fewer characters' locations to keep track of. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it down to as sane a length as I did with this one.

If you like what I do, and you want to support me as an artist and get cool rewards, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

I recently received a special announcement from another writer: a fellow blogger of A Writer's Path, Ryan Lanz, has announced the launch of his new initiative: A Writer’s Path Writers Club.

After looking at the writing market for years, he noticed a need for a Writers Club of this kind.

​Sure, there are Facebook groups, writers groups, etc., but those are usually just gatherings of writers, and they lack some very important features that many authors need.

Ryan wanted to create a club whose sole purpose is to solve headaches for writers. Here are some of the headaches he's looking to solve:
 

• It’s hard to find reviewers for my book
  
  
• Writing-related service providers (editors, book cover designers, etc.) are expensive
  
  
• I don’t know if my writing is good enough and I need feedback
  
  
• I need more promotion for my book
  
  
• I don’t know if my blurb or summary is good enough
  
  
• Not enough readers know my book exists
  
  
• I don’t know enough about what other successful authors have done to be successful
  
  
• I don’t know if my book cover encourages readers to purchase it

 
The club also offers some fun activities for writers, such as giveaways and contests.
 
Here’s the full list of benefits that are available in the Writers Club:
 

• Discounts from writer-related service providers, such as editors, book cover designers, proofreading services, ghostwriters, social media marketing, book advertising, template design, audio book narration, and more.
  
  
• Contests and giveaways for free services and books.
  
  
• 2 free book promotion posts on A Writer's Path blog every year (example here). Every post generates a social media shout-out of your book to Ryan's Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Tumblr, and Google+ account (total of 12,900 followers). He'll set reminders for himself to notify you when your next post is ready.
  
  
• Exclusive articles not seen on the A Writer's Path blog.
  
  
• Access to free blurb coaching.
  
  
• "Book of the Month" lottery. The winner gets their book featured for a month on the A Writer's Path blog in a tab along the top of every page/post. They'll also get a promotional post featuring their book, summary, cover, and purchase links, which is sent to all 25,000+ subscribers. There is one drawing per month.
  
  
• Help to find you reviewers and critique partners (optional).
  
  
• A free copy of his eBook, The Idea Factory: 1,000 Story Ideas & Writing Prompts to Find Your Next Bestseller. ($2.99 value)
  
  
• Free critique of your book summaries and book covers (optional).
  
  
• Insider tips from published authors in short, bite-sized articles.
  
  
• Links to free books that are normally offered at full price.
  
  
• Opportunities to show off your book to the other members.
  
  
• Exclusive author interviews.

 
Feel free to check out the A Writer's Path Writers Club here.

Page 17 of my Undertale fan comic, Just Cause, is ready! Enjoy!
​

Out of all the monsters on that ledge, Sans currently knows the most about Frisk and their experiences in the Underground, for reasons that will be revealed much later.

While the human’s comment punched their whole inner circle in the gut, their short skeleton buddy comes the closest to understanding its full meaning, so it hit him harder than most. Not that he's going to show it, of course - at least, not as clearly as his more openly emotional brother.

You can see a larger, unshaded version of the ‘flowery princess swordswomen’ battle here, along with a glimpse of the princesses’ backstories.

To support me as an artist, and to get exclusive access to WIPs and advance viewing of completed chapters, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

​Quick note: Since this week's blog post is coming out early, there will be no post on Tuesday. I'll return to my usual blogging schedule next week.

Why does the Star-Lord/Gamora ship bug me so much?

No, it's not just the mind-numbing predictability of the fact that if the protagonist is male, and a physically attractive female happens to be a major member of the cast, they'll most likely get together - especially if they argue with each other.

Heck, this mandatory component of a happy ending doesn't even require that the female is a major character, or even that she's really a character.

She could be the barely-mentioned non-character who gets handed to him like the prize at the bottom of the cereal box as a reward for his heroics, no relationship development needed, as long as the requirement that a happy ending must include romance is fulfilled.

That pet peeve of mine notwithstanding, the bland obviousness of the couple is forgivable. It's a big obstacle to me actually LIKING the ship, but it isn't what makes me wish the ship would sink.

It was two scenes in particular that ruined the Peter/Gamora ship for me.

​Let's look at the first and worst of them:

Peter: (Pulls Gamora into a dance.)

Gamora: What are you doing, Peter?

Peter: Dance with me.

Gamora: I'm not going to dance with you.

Peter: (Ignores what she just said and keeps dancing with her.)

Well, isn't that cute. He loves her so much that he insists on sharing an activity he enjoys with her, even though she just said "no", to prove to himself that they're compatible.

Maybe you're saying, "What's wrong with that?"

First off, imagine if you were standing in a bar, and some guy just grabbed you and started dancing with you. You told him no, which SHOULD be the end of it... but he just keeps dancing with you.

Granted, Peter and Gamora know each other, so it isn't QUITE as creepy as the stranger-in-a-bar scenario. But it doesn't stop there.

After Gamora threatens to kill him if he ever tells anyone about this (in case you were worried that I was going to focus solely on the man's questionable relationship skills), the conversation continues:

Peter: When are we gonna do something about this unspoken thing between us?

Gamora: What unspoken thing?

Peter: This... Cheers, Sam and Diane... a guy and a girl on a TV show who dig each other... but never say it because if they do, the ratings would go down... sort of thing.

Gamora: There's no unspoken thing.

Peter: Well, it's a catch-22, because if you said it, then it would be spoken, and you would be a liar. So, by not saying it... you are telling the truth, and admitting that there is.

Me:​ Um... WHAT. For one thing, that doesn't make sense. How does her saying there is no unspoken thing constitute admitting that there is an unspoken thing?

​Now you're just twisting her words, and refusing to hear anything but what you WANT to hear, no matter how nonsensical.

And, more importantly, SHE JUST SAID NO. And when a woman (or ANY love interest of any gender or lack thereof) says no, that's the part where you back off.

But what if there IS an unspoken thing, and they just don't know or won't admit to it?
​
Sure, you might be noticing something that they're not. Or you could be projecting your own wishes onto them. Or maybe they really aren't interested yet, but will start to feel differently as the relationship evolves.

But no matter which of those scenarios you're looking at, the basic rule holds: when someone says no, ESPECIALLY in the area of romance, you respect their boundaries and their right to make their own decisions, and you back the heck off.

Does Peter do that?

​No.

And not only does he blatantly ignore her "no" twice in quick succession, but now he's trying to twist her words so that no matter what she says or how clearly she says it, her "no" means "yes" to him.

Now picture that happening in the bedroom.

Are you starting to see how creepy this is? Guess what  - it gets worse.

In case you still think this "no"-defying behavior is romantic or at least OK, I've got bad news:

Outside of sugarcoated fictionland, where toxic relationship behavior is played off as harmless and is even romanticized, refusing to accept a love interest's "no" and disrespecting their physical boundaries are actually signs of a potential date rapist.

Now, you might be thinking, "You're blowing this out of proportion. Peter's a good guy. He would never rape Gamora."

And you're right about part of that - of course Peter wouldn't rape Gamora.

For one thing, he isn't that kind of person.

​For another, she's a highly trained killer who would force-feed him his own penis in less time than it would take to say "I've made a tactical error".

And for a third, like I noted above, this is sugarcoated wish-fulfillment fictionland.

In stories like this, the fantasy that "The woman I want doesn't REALLY mean 'no'; she's just playing hard to get, or she doesn't know what she wants, or she doesn't want to be seen as a slut" is treated as an accurate perception, and violating her boundaries by keeping on pushing when she's already said "no" is treated like it's romantic instead of the warning sign that it is.

And that's where the second ship-killing scene comes in: the part where Gamora says "It's just an unspoken thing".

Because it's not like her "no" actually MEANT anything; she was just a confused, frigid woman who didn't know or wouldn't admit that she really was in love with the guy she was telling to back off, right?

If this were an isolated incident with no real-world implications, it wouldn't bother me as much.

Unfortunately, stories like this are symptomatic of a widespread myth that "no means yes", which causes vast amounts of suffering in real-world people, many of whom probably ignored the warning signs of a potential rapist because pop culture had taught them that continuing to push after hearing "no" is romantic, not threatening.

And it doesn't just affect the recipient of the unwanted attention - it also affects well-meaning non-rapist pursuers who think they're doing the right thing by continuing to push, because that's what they were taught.

All that being the case, I was very disappointed in Guardians of the Galaxy for supporting this myth by rewarding Star-Lord for ignoring Gamora's clearly expressed opinions and desires.

In reality, most targets of unwanted pursuit are not trained assassins who could easily fend off a pursuer who's decided to just keep doing what they want regardless of their love interest's wishes.​

For real people, when someone keeps pushing after they've said "no", it isn't sexy or romantic. It's annoying at best, often scary, and at worst, a sign that they're in danger of suffering serious physical and/or psychological harm.

But what about Gamora threatening to kill him? Why does that only warrant a brief mention?

Because anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that threatening to kill people is bad.

You don't need an article from me to tell you that, though there is a disturbing trend in fiction where female violence against males is downplayed, probably because women are still perceived (on an emotional level, if not an intellectual one) as being less potent and dangerous than males.

But when it comes to ignoring a prospective or current partner's "no", many people sincerely believe that that's OK or even good.

This results in soon-to-be victims ignoring the warning signs that they were trained to see as a positive, and non-predators inadvertently making themselves look like potential rapists who should be avoided.

The Guardians franchise seriously needs a scene where someone - preferably Rocket - calls Peter out on his boundary-busting crap.

Partly for the reasons outlined above, and partly because a cranky racoon with terrible relationship skills giving Peter relationship advice is a funny mental image.

Are you sick of seeing stories romanticize suitors who ignore their love interests' desires, opinions, and right to say "no"?

Do you think I'm overreacting?

And have you had experiences where people trampled your boundaries and ignored your "no", and seemed to think they were doing the right thing?

I look forward to your comments.