Let's Create a Character!

Hi guys, we're going to create a new character! She's going to get into some kind of trouble in February once we've got her done, nude trouble with her new friends, because that's what we're here for. So I'm going to start throwing out polls, go ahead and vote and I'll then use the results to draw something up. We're not going to vote on absolutely everything, I'm going to interpret results to a degree to keep things moving.

(Please note that while this is an option for the January Ninja Society poll, it's not currently winning so unless that changes we'll do this for February instead. Realistically, I don't think we'll have her done in time to have art ready by 1/31 using the polling process.)

When I create new characters, I don't have a specific order for the process - in some cases, like Sara and Sunny, I had an idea kicking around for how I wanted a character to look visually, before I knew where they were going to fit into the larger scheme of things; Nikki started as a one-off gothy mermaid design that I liked enough to turn into a recurring character. On the other hand, I needed a goth girl for a gag comic once, and a background ninja for St. Patrick's day - I created the look for both of them on the fly and that's how we got Clarissa and Akiko.

Now in this case we're creating a character that's a complete blank slate - or nearly so - so we'll start very generally and work our way into specifics - we'll give her a name and personality once she has an appearance, so the two go together.

And if you want to suggest things along the way, feel free.

The general rules I have for characters:

They have to fit in with what we've got so far. The girls live in a modern setting where the supernatural and paranormal exist, but mostly subtly - people are largely unaware of them and they try hard to blend in (with mixed success). Secret organizations and cults abound, but there are no Tolkienesque fantasy races and no real superheroes; the esoteric things in our setting are generally drawn from history and mythology. What this means practically, is that your options aren't unlimited. But an unlimited poll would be impossible so it all works out.

They should be distinct from the other characters (unless they are purposely a doppelganger) - If you start to create Clarissa again I'm going to start steering the choices so we get a distinctly non-Clarissa. Kelly And Alli are very close in appearance, but they have opposite personalities (and this is why Kelly noticeably bleaches her hair and has brown roots)

They should be internally consistent. For example: Sunny is blonde, but Asian people generally are not - so her hair is clearly dyed, and black at the roots. Most characters have natural eye and hair coloring for their ethnicity, Miyuki doesn't because she's an older design, but also because she's the protagonist so it helps her stand out. Lyta has short hair because she's in the military, Selena's an actress/model so she's slightly taller, etc. They're not meant to be realistic representations, but a little verisimilitude helps, I think. This will limit choices along the way for appearance but honestly not much.

The design has to be reproducible. You know why I rarely give characters elaborate tattoos? Why no one has rainbow hair? Why no one wears a full suit of Maximillian plate as their basic outfit? Well, it's not the renaissance anymore, but also it takes more time to draw. So all of this is unlikely to come up, but it's part of the process so it's here for completeness' sake.