Your incedibles au fic has inspired me to pick up my dusty incredibles fic from ye old days so thank you for giving me the motivation and inspiration to get back to the things I love!! You are an inspiration!! I was wondering if you had any tips on superhero design, every time I try to design something I feel like it doesn’t feel like I’d fit in the universe? Anyway, you are awesome 👏🏻
Well, first of all, thank you very much!! The greatest compliment I ever receive is when people tell me that my writing and art has inspired them to create stuff of their own.
As for tips? Sure thing!
How to design an Incredibles OC
You say that you’re having trouble designing a superhero that “fits” in the universe, which probably means that you’re struggling to match the universe’s aesthetic. The cure for this is references, references, references.
Before I start any projects I spend a lot of time on Pinterest and google images collecting a whole sheaf of images that I use to decide what kind of pose, background, art style, clothing design, facial expression ect that I want to be using.
After gathering a bunch of pictures that all have bits and pieces of what I want, I’m able to jigsaw all those bits together in my mind to more clearly visualize what it is that I actually want to draw instead of trying to pull it out of thin air.
(Side note: Some people think “real” artists don’t reference, that is hilariously false, we’re only able to pull designs and objects and coloring techniques and characters out of “thin air” because we’ve practiced drawing those kinds of things before and memorized them into our visual vocabulary to the point of not needing reference for that thing anymore.)
But anyway, for making an OC in the Incredibles universe you’re going to need references from inside the universe in order to absorb the aesthetic, to find what kinds of things they all have in common so your design can have those things too.
For my Incredibles OC Blaze/Agent Gibbons I knew I wanted him to look like he was from the glory days, so I collected a bunch of reference of supers from the glory days. The NSA (National Super Association) files are great for that since they have shots of all the old supers.
When we see them all together like this you can start picking out things they all share.
- Formfitting costumes
- Everyone’s face is covered with masks that can be face fitting, wrap around the head, or a full cowel (or apparently a metal helmet)
- no extra belts or bandoliers or gadgets that break up the human form, no piece of the costume distracts from the hero and is understated
- Often a symbol on the chest that is very large, simple and easily visible
- much of the face is visible with no un-human looking features
- everyone is very white, mature and predominantly male :/ ah well, seems poor Frozone was a loner in this category…
Something that can also help you pin down an aesthetic is to look at what it is not. For example, if we contrast it to a batch of Marvel heroes:
It’s easy to see some things that Incredibles heroes don’t have.
- Unlike Marvel heroes, they do not have ridiculously pronounced or exaggerated muscles
- We realize that Incredibles heroes all look human (as opposed to “The Thing”)
- While Incredibles suits are formfitting, they do not appear skintight. Elastagirl doesn’t have a cleavage window or a protruding chest, Mr. Incredible’s pants aren’t too tight, and most Incredibles universe heroes have long sleeves, long pants, and necklines that come up to their chins.
- Marvel heroes also sport a ton of chunky equipment and weapons that none of the Incredibles heroes have including: utility belts, guns, hammers, bows, metal bracers, bandoliers, metal suits, badges, boots, ect.
- Incredibles heroes don’t have any designs that are remotely intricate, like the lines on Spiderman or the stripes on Cap, or the patches of color all over Iron Man.
By contrasting two different brands of hero we realize that Incredibles heroes are extremely minimalist and streamlined, using large blocks of color to break up their outfits with strips of color that imply belts, or boots, or arm-length gloves, but at the end of the day there are as few pieces as possible.
We also see from color pictures that suits only feature 1-3 bold colors with perhaps black or white as well.
So now when you look at my OC Blaze’s design you can see why he looks like he belongs in the Incredibles universe: formfitting suit, large and simple symbol on chest, wrap-around face mask, no chunky equipment, and areas of the body being broken up by tactfully placed patches of color like his “neckline,” “gloves,” or “shin guards.” He also has larger than life shoulders, but overall his body looks pretty much like any normal in-shape guy, not like a Marvel steroid body-builder.
Since it’s a pencil sketch it matches the old picture style, but in a color photograph the light areas of his suit are golden yellow, the darker areas are a dark orange and his hair is blonde in keeping with a simple color palette.
If you want to find great posing and effect reference then think of an existing superhero with a power similar to your OC’s. Blaze is pyrokinetic and has a powerset that on the outside looks very similar to the Marvel character “Firestorm.”
While they are extremely different characters, they both mess with fire that gives them the ability to fly, meaning that Firestorm art gives me fantastic ideas for posing, while looking up art of ATLA firebenders gives me great reference for drawing simple fire that is coming out of a person (since Firestorm art is generally far more rendered than the art style I want to use, which is much closer to ALTA art.)
Of course these are glory-days specific designs, if you look at the more modern Supers from the second movie then Edna’s designs get more daring with breaking up the silhouette a little more and having brighter colors, but honestly it’s pretty much the same.
That said, I hope this helps! You should now have everything you need to get started on designing an Incredibles OC that feels like it fits in the universe and looks great, as well as some tricks for learning to match an aesthetic for any other projects you might be tackling!
(And if you find these tips helpful I’d love to see what kind of characters you come up with!!)
A study of character design and visual design.
