Don't know if this blog is still active, but what do you use for inspo for your designs?
Hey there! Yes this blog is still active, I just have had a lot of other art projects to work on as well but I want to get back to this soon.
I actually would love to detail some of the things I think about for making designs so this may get a bit long but I hope it’s helpful!
1) General
For general inspiration, it can really help to look at color palettes and real life animals as well. Looking at other people’s designs is also helpful for light inspiration. Most people aren’t okay with total copying, I just mean minor or generic things.
2) Name Inspiration
Taking the character’s name literally is something I find really helpful and fun. For example, Albatross has dark gray on the backs of his wings, legs, and face to imitate a real life albatross - they look a little bit like an albatross’ wings, talons and beak. Even characters like Splash, I include little teardrop shapes that look kind of like splashes.
3) Personality & Shape
I also take their personality into consideration. If the character is really shy, reserved, kind, etc. (like Fathom) I tend to go for rounder shapes because I feel it gives off a softer feeling. Whereas characters like Darkstalker or Arctic are much sharper and have lots of spikes because they are more cold, moody, etc., and it can help make them look “mean”. This can also extend into the colors; soft or muted colors give off a calmer, kind feeling, saturated colors can seem more high energy, etc.
4) Shape & Tribe Traits
One of my favorite things to do is challenge myself with every design - I really try to exaggerate the shapes of the character alone, to make them as distinct as possible even with no color. I also tend to give myself a little bit of artistic liberty with colors because some tribes, like nightwings, would be very difficult to make distinguishable if they were all just black. Same for tribe characteristics like rainwing frill. Having them present but a little varied in shape, size, color, etc. is a lot of fun.
5) Patterns
Ok, last point - I like to try and think outside the box when it comes to patterns. I still default to the common types of patterns, but I try to change it up sometimes. A lot of designs have a similar type of pattern; darker spine and top of the head, lighter underbelly. These looks very nice and I use it a lot too, but it’s super helpful to change it up for making characters distinct. Even just going for a dark underbelly, or modifying the shape of patterns is so helpful. Using animals for inspiration definitely helps with this one. Don’t feel like you have to use *any* “default” patterning. Some is good for tribe recognizability, like seawing glow spots, but change it up sometimes too! Asymmetry is also super fun and it’s something I’m trying to use myself more often.
Aaand that’s all! Sorry this got so long but I LOVE this topic. Hope it’s at least interesting or helpful to you and anyone else who reads this!
