Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 13 hours ago
How to begin with character design:
Characters are just people. If there was a story about your life, you’d be a character in it. In your own mind, consider this question: what sort of details would you want your designer to define you by? What do you want people to think about you? How do you indicate to a stranger that that’s what they should think?
The reason to design a character well is so that the character feels “real.” This doesn’t mean that they feel like someone who could “really happen;” Superman is a good character design. By “real,” I mean “tangible.” Think about what makes your friends, or family, or classmates tangible. Tangible means able to be experienced. How do you recognise the people you know? How do you know what they’re like, even when they’re not talking?
For sighted people, a lot of what makes others tangible is the things we see when we look at them. It’s the same for a character on a page. What do you see when you look at someone? You see Kevin when you look at Kevin—but what if you’re not allowed to call him Kevin? How do you describe him so that someone can find him without calling out “Hey Kevin!”
Maybe Kevin is tall. Okay. But how is he tall? Does he stand up straight? Does he bend down a bit to get on everybody else’s level? Is he wide? Is he the same width all the way down? Does his hair go higher than his head? Does it go wider? Does it hang down below it?
The tall guy with the long hair who stoops to the side a bit, whose torso is wider than his legs. Will that help you find Kevin if there are a lot of other guys who look that way as well?
What if Kevin likes anime. How will we know that? We might say “Hey, anime lover!” and see which of the stooping tall guys turn round. But what if we aren’t able to speak? Look to see if any of those guys has merch on his bag or a character shirt—hey, a couple do! What if we know that Kevin has chronic insomnia that gives him eye bags and a sunny personality that means he’s always smiling, that he loves air-drumming and remembering to hydrate, and we also know that Kevin has freckles and barely any eyebrows? Doesn’t that make him easier to find? If someone described Kevin to you with all that info—a tall, wide-torso’d guy who stoops to the side and has long hair, freckles, not much eyebrow to speak of, a constant smile and eyebags, a your-favourite-anime shirt and an air-drumming habit and always has a bottle of water poking out of his pocket or bag—wouldn’t he feel more tangible than if someone just said “I know a guy called Kevin”?
How to begin with character design:
Characters are just people. If there was a story about your life, you’d be a character in it. In your own mind, consider this question: what sort of details would you want your designer to define you by? What do you want people to think about you? How do you indicate to a stranger that that’s what they should think?
The reason to design a character well is so that the character feels “real.” This doesn’t mean that they feel like someone who could “really happen;” Superman is a good character design. By “real,” I mean “tangible.” Think about what makes your friends, or family, or classmates tangible. Tangible means able to be experienced. How do you recognise the people you know? How do you know what they’re like, even when they’re not talking?
For sighted people, a lot of what makes others tangible is the things we see when we look at them. It’s the same for a character on a page. What do you see when you look at someone? You see Kevin when you look at Kevin—but what if you’re not allowed to call him Kevin? How do you describe him so that someone can find him without calling out “Hey Kevin!”
Maybe Kevin is tall. Okay. But how is he tall? Does he stand up straight? Does he bend down a bit to get on everybody else’s level? Is he wide? Is he the same width all the way down? Does his hair go higher than his head? Does it go wider? Does it hang down below it?
The tall guy with the long hair who stoops to the side a bit, whose torso is wider than his legs. Will that help you find Kevin if there are a lot of other guys who look that way as well?
What if Kevin likes anime. How will we know that? We might say “Hey, anime lover!” and see which of the stooping tall guys turn round. But what if we aren’t able to speak? Look to see if any of those guys has merch on his bag or a character shirt—hey, a couple do! What if we know that Kevin has chronic insomnia that gives him eye bags and a sunny personality that means he’s always smiling, that he loves air-drumming and remembering to hydrate, and we also know that Kevin has freckles and barely any eyebrows? Doesn’t that make him easier to find? If someone described Kevin to you with all that info—a tall, wide-torso’d guy who stoops to the side and has long hair, freckles, not much eyebrow to speak of, a constant smile and eyebags, a your-favourite-anime shirt and an air-drumming habit and always has a bottle of water poking out of his pocket or bag—wouldn’t he feel more tangible than if someone just said “I know a guy called Kevin”?
