#how to use a character ref

[3hks]

How to "Copy" a Character (Step-by-Step Guide)

Have you ever fallen in love with a specific character's concept? Where you absolutely NEED a similar character in your story, but aren't too sure on how to mimic it? It's quite simple, really, so let's get into it! (Disclaimer: If this qualifies as plagiarism or anything similar, please let me know ASAP and I'll take this down immediately. I do not support plagiarism and I do not wish to be encouraging it, even if indirectly.)

1. LIST EVERYTHING

Once you have your chosen character, list everything you know about them. This especially applies to personality traits, habits, emotions, and thought processes. Make sure to include their negative qualities and any headcanons you have! Circle or highlight any defining characteristics of the character because it may be the same for your fresh one.

2. REMOVING AND REPLACING

Your list should be rather long if you were thorough. Now, strike out anything you don't want to be a part of your new character and include any original features you want to add. This altered list should have pretty much their whole personality and you can work from there!

3. WHEN AND HOW?

Now, let's put the personality to use! Adding onto your list of traits, add when/how they will show. This way, you are able to keep your character's character in check. Starting with the five senses is a good idea, but you can go from there! (This is kind of confusing so let's look at an example! ^^)

NAME

Affectionate: Physical

Relaxed: Verbal (Tone)

Stubborn: Verbal

Fashionable: Physical appearance

Anxious: Mental (Only shows in xxx situations)

Unpredictable: Actions/Physical

Does this make more sense now? There are many different ways of demonstrating one's qualities and to keep things organized, it's a good idea to know how they'll demonstrate it! And if you study your original inspo character, you'll see that they establish certain attributes exclusively by how they talk or act!

4. FINE DETAILS

Alrighty! Finally, let's include all the fine details about your character! This will vary amongst everyone, but there are a couple of things that I highly encourage you include!

Morals

People they're close to

Relationships between the people above

Goals

Love language

Habits

Backstory (This can come later, but it's good to have one at any point)

And lastly, list ALL the differences between your new character and the reference one! Maybe they both show passion but in different ways, or maybe they have separate speech patterns! It's always interesting to see how far you have gone!

See? In all honesty, it's really straightforward and just about breaking the characters down in order to rebuild them in the way you want!

Just an extra note, school has OFFICIALLY started for me! I'll still be uploading once or twice a week, but please stick with me if I'm a bit late! This school year already seems far busier than the one before, so I need to figure out how to re-balance things!

Thank you all so much for 700 followers!! It's crazy in all honesty (I haven't been giving out the best content recently, ik) T~T but I WILL WORK HARDER!

Happy writing~

3hks <3

[humming-fly]

Delighted to discover that the way shadow unlocks new abilities in sxsg is a perfect parallel of the pringles iron maiden

[umblrspectrum]

hi heres art so you pay attention to me now go read the tags

[starscream-is-my-wife]

This is part 1 of a continuation for my other post where LL Megatron gets trapped in the G1 universe, I was thinking about how someone would go insane in this cartoon world and thought "what if Megatron had someone else to accompany him" so, I gave Starscream an existential crisis

Edit: final part is out, I tagged everything as G1 x LL AU!

[the-midgar-blues]

More scans, this time of the Turks!

[kohhomaru]

Did you lock the door on him…?

[artylla]

i'm truly enjoying drawing different paul eras so i thought i should do my favorite one ever:

66 and 67's james paul mccartney

[tapeworrmart]

Self Made (Self Discovery).

Happy Pride Month :)

[jeeaark]

final showdown pt2.

This was one of those battles where I survived it without a single reload. So. This entire scene? Accurate. Embarrassingly Accurate. (except the healy dealy. that's Greygold flair)

Wanted to get to the crown as fast as possible, but had to fly by Emps. Literally stopped next to bud to personally yell/reassure the fool I was gonna save their ass and then risked the opportunity attack.

(which. I forgot to bring my dex 18 gloves and discovered illithidism had shit dex, so....IS FINE. GG IS ALL FOR STARTING A NEW COLLECTION OF FRIENDSHIP SCARS)

BUT SQUID BUDDY MISSED. so. I like to think Enthralled Emps had put some effort into jumping through some rather large logic hoops to miss. Unlike Greygold who put JACK effort into dodging.

I originally intended to leave Emps completely alone, risk the attacks. But. Brain tentacle surprise happened. Right next to the squid. Emps rolled high in initiative.... But not as high as Lae'zel. Game-wise, ✨I panicked✨. Story-wise? I don't think this could have been any more in-character. Albeit, I found myself quadruple checking to make sure knockout mode was ABSOLUTELY on

[electrozeistyking]

Hi, I really like making little personalized references for characters I like when I get into things! I do this to figure out how I wanna draw them, and is a recent-ish development that I haven’t done a lot, but I really like character design and thinking about them! So I made some for Siffrin. How fun!

DO NOTE THAT THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR LATER PARTS OF THE GAME. I did obviously tag it as such for the sake of others and it will be further down, but I figured I’d still warn you just in case. <:3

Now, without further ado, here’s “reference one!”

I’m personally gonna be using this in conjunction with Siffrin’s actual reference sheet (which I refer to as “notes” in mine!!) to make sure he look his best! I also wanted to make sure they’re “in line with canon,” yet still in my style and in a way I can be proud of.

Which isn’t that hard, since I’m usually always proud of my own work. I just like my own stuff. <:3

Due to the brim of his hat allegedly being bean-shaped (teehee), I thought it’d be fun if I carried that over to his torso/body. It’s not noticeable with a cloak in the way, nor when Siffrin’s standing straight up. Basically, the bean shape would only be revealed in certain poses.

(Coming up with that also made me say “Whoops! All beans!” out loud about Siffrin, btw.)

Additionally, I like giving characters is their own set of fangs. One character I draw has a gap between them and the rest of their teeth, one has prominent ones to make them more cat like on purpose — and for Siffrin, I decided to give them rounded ones.

I usually make fangs razor sharp, because I really like big ol chompers like that, so them being round is definitely a very unique thing for Siffrin to have. Well, at least at first.

I’m also a really big fan of certain design elements sticking around after something wild happens to characters… which brings us to “reference two.”

Well, if you’re not gonna be able to find any good references for this version of Siffrin, you might as well make your own, right??

The major thing I wanted to do with this Siffrin was to have him still feel like himself, but also give him somewhat of a unique design in comparison — by playing up elements I noticed during this scene.

Making this Siffrin feel as giant as they are was important to me. I went ahead and made their hat, face, hair and cloak longer. Made their shoulders broader, had them hunch over so they’d practically loom over everyone. Trying to appear smaller while still being an obstacle. Wanting everyone to stay here. Wanting their family.

I noticed that a lot of Siffrin’s hair seemed a lot more angular here, so I felt it crucial to use those shapes, but going a couple steps further and using them for his face as well… primarily his mouth and chin, of course. Which meant replacing those rounded fangs I gave him with a full set of sharper ones.

(I also wanted them to look like they’re too big for Siffrin’s mouth, so two of them — well, four? — will always peek out/fall past their lower lip. It’s like their teeth are not a comfortable fit whatsoever and it makes talking feel weird, but they manage.)

(They stick around after Siffrin “reverts back” or whatever we’re calling it. He never gets his round fangs back, but at least the ones he has now serve as a reminder that he got to the end. Might take some getting used to, though.)

(I also tried making their brows look a bit more angular? Can’t tell if they really come across that way.)

ANYWAY, I THINK I SHOULD STOP HAHAHA. I could go on and on all day, but I got other things to do and I think I’ve already explained enough! Just know that I get a kick out of putting love and care into character thoughts and designs. <:3

[kiwibirdlafayette]

cookin up a season 10 design for this etho guy or somethin or other

inspired by his base vibes and redstone techy-ness :D also netherite slides because its infinitely amusing to me

[sluckythewizard]

FIIIINALLY almost nailed my designs for lizzie and caspian can i get a HEEEELLL YEAAH???? i think these two make a vvery cute duo and i cannt wait to see them again. i also hope they both get hurt reaaaallly really badly. togeter

[windydrawallday]

MARAUDER LOCKDOWN

... Tbh he is more of a "vagrant" but that sounds too low for his reputation IMEAN--

I'm both excited and nervous to show at last a proper reference for my own interpretation of this character 💚 I think it's not a surprise anyway for the ones that know me and my love for him ksdjhfjdsfh

I wanted to do it too so I can work comfortably on my HCs that edge in very OOC territory from the canon (and even some fanon)... and because I admit I have been enjoying sharing short stories and RPs with people again ✨ and activity I missed a lot!

And of course, this interpretation got its own whole backstory that differs from the canon and follows my HCs and concepts around his species, but I'll talk about that in another post (or if someone is curious enough to ask for it coff).

For now! Have more initial sketches from when I was developing him (this is since... 2022 gosh).

First: a time ago I used him for an old (discontinued) post-apocalyptic AU with designs inspired by hunting-scavenging clothing. A friend said he looked like Robin Hood x'D

... I almost didn't change the way I sketch digitally. Anyways. To not let this rot, you can notice I used many design cues from this one!

Then during half of the past year, I did studies of his ROTF toy because I liked how that one kept the weird silhouette of the TFA but aligned to the IDW design too!

And from there I chipped away traits and straightened others until it felt right to me.

BONUS one of the first and fastest sketches I did for him during a conversation with @goobygnarp x'D Thanks to this I not only got the courage to finish the reference but to understand WHAT design cues I wanted to keep and didn't give me too of a headache.

[ Btw that kremzeek is my rascal baby Scintilla ]

[umblrspectrum]

Can we get more of the murder drone x rain world au?

ok

[slickricklj]

Ada Wong + Leon Kennedy - Inspired Change

"Best not to ask who or why. I understood that. Made my peace with it. Until that one night in Raccoon City...changed everything." - Ada Wong

[b4kuch1n]

one string is all that I need