RPG character design... sort of

[Hyrule_SwordsMan]

That looks like a single nostril. Also, I don't get cat mouths on humans. The human mouth doesn't curve that way.

What? Cat mouth? I can't see a cat mouth...

[ndchristie]

only touched the face, but i also do want to say i have no idea what's going on from the chest down (arms excluded)

[Hyrule_SwordsMan]

I'm not sure what you guys mean... But i've added some brights to his thorax arms and abdominals.

[Stefano]

Although you already have plenty of nice edits I've also did one myself.

Addressed some squashed anatomy issues by suggesting how I believe squashed muscles should look.
AAing was also addressed, since you did shade your outlines but no AA was applied to it.
The "cat" lips looked really weird and were addressed as well, along with the pointy nose that was almost inexistent.

I can't really draw anime (not really a fan) so the resulting sprite it's somewhat westernish looking. Sorry about that... Despite of that, I hope you can dig something useful out of it.

>>

Cheers,
-Stefano

[Jad]

I will post a post consisting of only subjective taste and no constructive criticism at all:

I do not think that these kind of stylized proportions go well together with a ripped muscle body at all.

At any rate, when making a template for an AVERAGE MAN, why would you make it body-builder-like super-ripped like that? That's not at all the average man.

If you simplify body proportions, why would you go hyper-realistic on the muscles? They're merely confusing the eye. Try to make the blotches of color actually define things as CLEARLY as possible.

Stefano's edit would've been ace if the proportions would've gone together but now he more than ever looks like a meat-sack of potatoes. (that is to say, the execution is fantastic, but it doesn't fit the piece)

What's more, if you try to put real thoughts behind design choices, there's a couple of points to address:

When you add something and take away something else, what will that emphasize?

Imagine we want to make a muscly guy, but we want the muscles to give a feeling of 'What the hell! Muscles!'. What'd we do? If we simplify body proportions, that'll take away focal points for the eyes, meaning that the guy's body more than being a compound of different pieces stuck together now really is a meat-canvas upon which we can project things. Which means that if we give him, say, colorful clothes, they'll show much more. Likewise, when we give him muscles, seeing as he's so simply executed in general, the muscles will stand out even more.

Sorry for the shitty explanation.

What I mean is, look at cute/moe-anime. The designs are supposed to appeal to guys (mostly guys, yes) who get hot over super-cute girls. So what to do? Emphasize smoothness of skin and cute eyes and petite facial attributes - and remove everything else. All facial detail, everything like that. Badam, you have cuteness alien overdose. Yay!

All the same, when you want to draw a MANLY MAN, you often take away eyelashes and pronounced lips because that's feminine. Add manly wrinkles and big chin and -man GET.

And in this case, the guy has almost no bodily proportions, which makes the fact that he has pronounced muscles stick out 200% more.

^ I've rephrased that exact sentence about a hundred times now, so I am confident that you get what I mean.

1. Muscles doesn't fit this template guy. He looks weird

2. Put some thought into the way you stylize. Why? How? What results will it bring?

<3

[Ben2theEdge]

Although you already have plenty of nice edits I've also did one myself.

Addressed some squashed anatomy issues by suggesting how I believe squashed muscles should look.
AAing was also addressed, since you did shade your outlines but no AA was applied to it.
The "cat" lips looked really weird and were addressed as well, along with the pointy nose that was almost inexistent.

I can't really draw anime (not really a fan) so the resulting sprite it's somewhat westernish looking. Sorry about that... Despite of that, I hope you can dig something useful out of it.

>>

Cheers,
-Stefano

Technically, that's nice but it's scaring the crap out of me. If a deformed style is being used it's better to keep it slightly abstract to avoid the Uncanny Valley effect. Otherwise your dreams will be haunted by terrifying pudgy midget people.