This week's poll was suggested by Afiaki. What aspect of a character's art do you pay the most attention to? What are some iconic characters whose art is very striking?

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: What type of character would you want to be if you were isekaied into a series?
Choices:
Protagonist - votes: 569 (24.5%)
Antagonist - votes: 288 (12.4%)
Side character - votes: 577 (24.8%)
Background character (i.e., not involved in the main plot at all) - votes: 893 (38.4%)
There were 2327 total votes.
The poll ended: April 27th, 2024 8:29am PDT

Probably safer if you're not part of the main plot

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Can't even vote on this one because I think it really depends on artist/genre. Like a lot romance manga go above and beyond on clothing, or vfx that its the thing that literally makes me come back to a recycled trashy plotline. Then a horror/thriller comic might have amazing linework. Colors can be important for US comics, or webcomics in general.

I think Min (민) has great line art. Its dirty and honestly bleeds all over the panels. It make sense though, because most of their stories surround corruption and gang life. Huge fan of early Vasquez (JTHM) for the same reason, heavy ink just bleeds through the thin issue papers.

YUN Ji Woon has the expressive eyes + lips down pat.

TAKAHASHI Tsutomu has great clothing choices. I don't know how to explain it. It looks like regular clothing but I guess oftentimes artist's make mythical clothing and this stuff looks like stuff your family could wear. Shading is approriate and it looks eerie on eerie characters and plain on plain characters. Sometimes that all I want.

Su Wol is great for the opposite reasons. Villains Are Destined to Die shows a mastery in color choice and clothing design.

Do I count mech and robot design in body/figure or clothing? Let's just put KISHIRO Yukito in both categories cause this man can check both off.

What about artist who have simple character designs who go all out with the backgrounds? Character design pops due to the incongruencies too.

I don't know. It doesn't really matter. Its all subjective.

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Internet Lurker At Heart

Eyes, face, or hair are not just the most striking, but also the most important aspect in character design, in my opinion. Even in real life, the first thing we notice about a person is their face. It's the main means of a character's expression and identification. Plus, faces are one of the most complex parts because of the amount of details an artist can work on. It's the most striking aspect, even in characters where facial features have intentionally been simplified, like Saitama in One-Punch Man.

I'm gonna have to go with body/figure.

Coming from a cartooning background, a character's body can tell you a lot about their personality.
For instance, you can tell Bugs Bunny is a screwball even before he opens his mouth, just based on the shape of his torso, and his overall posture/stance.

There's also the concept of drawing human characters to look more like certain animals, and how that can aid in showing their personality. For example, if you want someone to look more menacing, draw them like a cartoon lion ready to pounce on some prey. If you want to draw a cute character, give them the proportions of something like a cartoon rabbit. If you want to draw someone who likes to creep around slowly, you could maybe give them the feel of a snail. These concepts also apply to faces, but I feel like the body and the way they move is just as important.

You can read more about these type of concepts in "The Animator's Survival Guide" by Richard Williams.

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::End of Transmission::

I would say the line art. I voted this way because I assume pose, proportions and intensity are all part of good line art. It's what I notice first, too.

From Tite Kubo at his best, to that one famous cover of Mary-Jane on the Spiderman cover where she's sitting on a couch and (presumably) waiting for Peter to come back safe, to even stick figures.

That's right, stick figures. Anyone can do the basics, but a good artist can make the figures move on the page in a single panel.

The rest of the things the poll mentioned are, in my opinion, tools that help dress the line art package.

Edit: Or would that be body/figure? Quite frankly, I'm not sure which one that goes into because you need good line art to effectively make the poses, proportions and control intensity.

Last edited by LazyReviewer at 9:45 pm, May 3 2024

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I'm a jack of all trades but master of none. Too many jars and not enough hands.