/loomis/ - loomis

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I'd be real glad to help. 
When it comes to designs, it's best not to make them too complicated in their silhouette, but then you're free to go all out on the details as long as they don't stick out too much. One artist that is a constant source of inspiration to me is Araki. The core idea around a design is to make sure your character: 
>Has its personality quite literally worn on their sleeves 
>With a very simple composition: you can boil down Jotaro's physical features in a stylized manner and you could still understand who that character is 
>Full of added details, all of which have hidden meaning or are just plain cool: his double belts are a call back to part 2, his insignia, even his shoes, none of them are needed to call out the character but they end up making his design cooler 

A way to make sure you're heading the right way is to add things together, look at the whole composition and think: "what can I remove from this character and still make him feel the same?" Also, Araki's designs are pretty cool because they abandon the idea that you need to make sure to have a striking color palette, but that is only because he had to print them in B&W, still it made him create some unique and long lasting characters.

>>37
"what can I remove from this character and still make him feel the same?"That sounds like real good advice. Thanks anon. So, Jenny Wakeman from the silly cartoon network show and Drossel von Flugel are probably the two most popular robowaifus for the guys. Any ideas about them anon? They certainly fit the 'simplicity' bill IMO. I think most of us have a specific character from anime that we have in mind. IIRC our 'Robowaifu References' thread is mostly characters from these shows. I figure artists like to go out and make something new and exciting because that's what you artists do, but us engineers are probably a bit dull in that area heheh. Ofc, we are robowaifu, so only female designs are going to be useful to us basically.Thanks for the offer of help anon.

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>>38
Well, I'm no expert and other drawanons are probably much better than me on this.
But the thing about Jenny at least is that she was drawn "with purpose", so to speak. Being used in an animated show, they had to make her design as simple as possible, so that animators wouldn't have to go too off model in their drawings. When you go for something that will be 3D modeled, or that is static or sculpted or whatever, you can afford to add so much more details, like in the case of Drossel. Mangas and comics are a bit of a tricky one because it really depends on the priorities of the artist, i.e. with JJBA, most of the scenes are about the main cast doing cool things rather than a coherent, long story, and most of it is episodic too, so Araki can afford making things even a bit off model as long as they look as cool as possible. Take instead something like European Comics a la Asterix or the Italian Mickey Mouse ones, where they have tons of panels, need to be coherent in their continuity and a lot of scenes happen on the same background, so the artist needs to make sure that they're as simple as they can get.
And when I say simple, I mean that in "a child can make a convincing attempt at redrawing the character", which is different from simplistic, which is "derivative, lazy or uninspired". A simplistic character design is the stuff that comes up in Family Guy or that Loudmouth abomination. Basically:
>Simple is readable, iconic, most of the times in a colour theory sense, easy to redraw and even easier to modify into different styles and easy to draw period, conveys meaning that is mostly universal
>Simplistic is boring, inoffensive, mundane, requires its own style to be recognizable instead of being separated from it, easy to draw but not as easy to get the details quite right
Note that simplistic isn't necessarily a bad thing. For one thing, you don't need to make every character look iconic, think about scenes with tons of background characters or some one-time-only person like a clerk or a butcher. You can use stereotypes or make something bland that fits the style but that cannot be redrawn from memory if it saves time.

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>>38
But I went off a tangent there, back on topic:
I don't think you should make a composite of what you guys are posting. Don't get me wrong, it's great to take inspiration from various characters that you already like, but think of it like this, a derivative character has a derivative personality. If you just take bits you like from a character without giving them purpose, you just end up making those abominations you see on deviantart. I've worked on a couple of board tans with other anons and we were pretty content with their final designs, so my experience is limited, but here goes.

So rule #1: Establish her Personality/Character
Is she lively or is she pensive? Is she nerdy or is she street smart? Is she robotic even in her emotions or is she's got the ghost in the shell? What does she stand for and what is the purpose of the character - as in, if it represents your board /robowaifu/, what sort of person or ideal is it representing? Entrepreneurism? Engineering? Sexual Deviancy?
These seem like really silly questions for something that doesn't even exist yet, but believe me, you sorely need them more than reference pictures, in the beginning.
The only assumption I'm making is that you're trying to make a Gynoid, if only because that seems to be the most logical conclusion given your board's topic.
Her traits must be something she quite literally wears, in her hair, her clothes, her tools and even her expression. Which brings me to:

Rule #2: Use universal stereotypes and symbols
It's easy to think "I just want to make Jenny 2.0", but copying doesn't mean understanding. Jenny's "hair" for example is very expressive: it's angular, signifying "edge" and strength, but it also points wherever she's moving it, which is a way to enforce her mood. Curly Brace here for example has a typical "paint brush hair" that signifies freedom and liveliness. It's hard to put it into words, it's very subjective and describing it always makes you look like a faggot ponce, but if you look at character designs for iconic guys, you notice these similarities.
But it's not limited to that, obviously. If you make a moody character, you may want to paint it in "cool" colors like blue, cyan and dark green, if you want it devious purples, blacks and brown are pretty good, if you want someone that is very analytical then grayish hues are the go-to. Nothing is set in stone though, so always exercise your own emotions when dealing with character designs.
Is she a girly kind of character? Then she surely needs frilly details, stuff made to resemble hearts, flowers and cats. Is she longing for freedom? She needs butterflies, stars and "aerodynamic features" because saying windy makes it look like she passes gas. Is she crass? Then she needs facial features that make her look crazy like small pupils, or a strong grin, or shark teeth, you name it.

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>>38
Rule #3: Take a step back and ASK FOR CRITIQUE ON YOUR DESIGNS
I cannot stress this enough, it doesn't matter if you think your art is the greatest in the universe or if you think your ideas all suck and are garbage and shit. You NEED other people to evaluate your art, period. The artist is entitled to his vision, not to his quality. Keep in mind, there's plenty of assholes who try to act like armchair critics but with the only purpose of dragging you down their depressing hellhole. Constructive criticism is what you need to look for, ignore anyone whose main argument is "it sucks and it doesn't look like I want it to". OFC there's no pleasing guys like that.
But, as this is a board-tan, which de facto means it's a group project, you're going to be doing this regardless. When you made the initial design, and by that I mean, silhouette and main "theme" and the two-three primary colors you're going to use, show it to the board and see if it FEELS like the waifu you all can agree on. You'll likely be doing a revision or two on the initial sketch, or dump it immediately because it doesn't feel right. You'll just know it when you see it. Again, the building blocks for art are OBJECTIVE and UNIVERSAL, but what is right in art is different from person to person.

Rule #4: Details, details, details
When you're done making the basic model of what you want to make, you've given it purpose and you've fully decided on her personality, then it's time to "spruce it up". Details are all the knick knacks that you think may look cool on your character, but that don't necessarily destroy her character/composition and that can be easily hidden away from your mind if you just want to make a quick doodle of her.
Again, I'm using Araki as an example because the guy's just that good at character design, at least he used to, anyways look at pic related: Josuke8 has its main distinctive design that you can identify at a glance - sailor outfit, oversized bonnet, bare midriff, buck teeth, halved eyes and exposed chest - but then if you take the time to analyze it, you notice all these little hidden things, like his nautical motifs, his Joestar Mark, the rope he's got for a belt, his stupidly oversized button, all these things are sort of easter eggs you put on a character to reinforce their personality without taking anything away from their original design. Even something as simple as Saitama has those details: the oversized zipper, because of course his costume is imperfect and an extension of his bland personality, and a simple, no thrills belt. They seem silly and useless at first, until someone wants to draw your character in a better style and you realize oh shit, my character is actually lacking that little something extra.

And finally, the Rule #5: HAVE FUN
This is the most important rule and it trumps all the others combined. It doesn't mean shit if you can make the most technically interesting character ever since someone painted Jesus Christ like some bearded nobleman (at least that's the rumor I've heard), yet you find no joy in making it. It's soulless and it will show, maybe not immediately, but with time, it'll show.
Art is fun. Like I said on old /loomis/, Mr. Loomis said "Fun With a Pencil" not "Work With a Pencil". Because if you aren't having fun, you're not making art, you're just drawing. And that extends to all facets of life and all, but here's my two cents. I hope they've been useful to you. I'll be sure to check /robowaifu/ from time to time to help out if I can, and I ask all other artfags to do so as well.

>>43
>>44
>>46
Thank you very much anon for all the input. That is great advice for artists. As an engineer, that will probably take me a while to digest everything. But I'll apply myself to understanding your advice and stay in touch with this thread. Cheers

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Some older sketches I made while brainstorming

>>48
any chance you'll ever develop on this anon?

>>48
Another sketch, please give critique

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>>48
Another sketch, please give critique

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>>48
Another sketch, please give critique

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>>57
I like it, but there's a couple of issues I see and one oddity.1. the rear view of the ass has the hips coming in too narrow, widen them out a bit. the gap is fine.2. the head's front aspect is to round, make it more oval. the side aspect is fine.3. While unimportant, it seems a bit odd to have the hands turned entirely out like that. I like the skeletal structure of the hand, but it's a bit off if you're intending to mimic the human hand closely.

>>57
>vent on lower back
Wouldn't you get blasted with hot air any time you're snuggling up or engaging in any other fun activities from behind?

>>60
Fuck anon, you're right. Maybe the vent would be placed on her upper back in the next iteration.

>>61
What about on the sides of her hips/thighs? Then she could keep you warm with her heat on those cold January walks through the snow.