TruceBlues Character Design Challenge!
Hi everyone! This Summer, I've decided to start a Character design challenge! This is mostly for myself, but If anyone wants to join me that would be awesome :)
youtube link to examples of this challenge
The basic challenge is as follows. From May 15 to August 9, 2026, I will be doing a character design challenge based on music where the goal is to create 2.5 (2-3) characters a week for the summer. If you want to join me, post your designs at #trucedesignchallenge2026. I cannot promise to repost everything, but I'd love for people to come together for this as a more informal challenge! This is not anything monitored, just for yourself, but I will note if there is anything very inappropriate that I see under this tag, I will either report it or just ignore it.
I don't fully expect anyone, or many people to join me in this, to be clear, but If this sounds interesting to you it could be fun!
This is a MUSIC based character design challenge, which I will describe below.
Full Instructions:
Shuffle your playlist.
You will use the first three songs that pop up to create your character. - (if through the process you find any song uncomfortable or triggering as you look more into it, move to the next song and try again)
Look into each song individually and take notes.
Options to look into: (not all need to be used just ideas)
Lyrics: Take the lyrics of your song, finding specific words or phrases that can be translated into a potential character background or story.
Themes: Look into the themes of the song as you interpret it, or find the original meaning if you are confused and try to apply it to your character.
Context: look into the real life context of the song or the artist to find inspiration for your character.
Vibes: How does the song make you feel? What vibes does your character give off from there?
Create a character sheet with character front, back, profile close up, slightly simplified, and extremely simplified.
Here I have provided my own playlist with over 348 hours of music.
Disclaimers: if do decide to join in and choose to use this playlist, I will say that while many of the songs are perfectly family friendly, a lot of individual albums are 18+ or triggering in some way. Along with that, because of the length of playlist I do not know the amount of potential triggers in it or if specific artists are problematic. I try to remove them as I learn that but it's hard to check all the songs at this point. Artists like Sofia Isella, who i adore, have multiple trigger warnings in songs (ex. SA). For that reason, if you are under 18, I would suggest you use your own playlist. Also if you are any age and feel like you could potential be triggered by certain topics, once again, choose your own playlist for the sake of yourself.
Example! (two examples and processes will be on my youtube May 15th)
Songs heard:
Riot on the Ward by Everything Everything
Model behavior by Laura Benanti from women on the verge of a nervous breakdown
Aishite Aishite Aishite- Ado version
results:
If you do decide to join, remember that this is just for fun! if you feel burnt out or upset at any point in the process, feel free to just stop. Overworking yourself defeats for a more informal, brainstorming art challange.
Thanks for reading
