It’s also important to apply this to both your male and female characters! Nothings more frustrating than seeing interesting “ugly” male characters with creative choices in their design but the same body type and shape language for every female character the artist draws.

Absolutely jumping for joy rn, I always forget it's ok to make things look unappealing when drawing an actual design I'll use

I'm so glad you made a video about this subject! A perfect example of this is Stitch, his round shape and big eyes contrasts with the sharp claws, spikes, teeth and personality creates a beautiful character with each feature elevating the next. I've always had a problem with caricature art because it often feels like people blow up the most obvious proportions that often times feel racially insensitive and miss the subjects soul. On the flipside when I was a beginner artist I sanitized all my self portraits in fear of being perceived as less attractive. So as a rejection of that whenever I draw a self portrait I try to push the subtler less flattering features while having a conversation with elements I'd consider attractive just enough because it makes me more myself. It's only when you stop being afraid of "ugly" that you can find the deeper beauty beneath.

I have chronic "make only pretty characters" syndrome, and I've always had a phobia of making them even slightly unattractive. But it's been limiting my art skills and making all my characters have same face syndrome. You make some awesome points and I think I will try and come out of my comfort zone with character designs some more :) Thank you for the video.

This concept is equally applicable to environment design as well. You can do "cafe sketching" with environments through google earth because those images will be largely unedited and fully panoramic. The other revelation I had from this concept of "Uglier Characters" is that it is part of a back-and forth cycle of artistic development. We both need to draw from life without personal style and with personal style, but also learn from other's styles as a way to learn how to see. I think that most of us agree that we have been doing one of these more than the other and that bringing some balance to these forces would benefit us artistically.

I remember hearing that Pokémon do a similar things with their designs. When there's one that's meant to be cool, they always include at least one detail that's decidedly not cool. An example of this would be Garchomp and the rounded hammerhead-style protrusions on the sides of his head.

""ugly"" features can also make characters more attractive.. i think thats like a big reason tumblr sexy men exist 😂 i cant think of a single homogenised perfectly symmetrical pretty anime boy character ive ever had a thing for unless they made up for visual blandness with an interesting character literally the only anime character ive ever had a crush on as a teen was fkn aizawa from mha 😂 i feel like that sort of tells you everything you need to know

11:31 YES!!! Thank you for acknowledging TMNT Mutant Mayhem and how it embodies this idea!! I absolutely love its intentional sketchy, rough, claymation-esque, "ugly" look and it's been a great reminder to acknowledge and embrace imperfections, which sounds pretty corny but as a perfectionist there's been many times it's stopped me from creating altogether. TMNT in general has been one of the most influencial pieces of media to the way I view art and even the world, and I'm so glad you appreciate its style too! :D

As someone who makes character designs (but really terrified to show them), I can say that adding some odd "ugly" trait is normally meant for balancing because making something "too cute" normally ends up being uncanny or surprisingly... ugly. Also, "forced ugly" onto a character normally has the same effect of "forced cute", no one ends up liking it. It has to make sense to be there.

My design teacher talks about this all the time! Not so much with character design, but with logo design, which is similar, in a way. Even if your “message” is sharp angles and diagonal lines, designs become more interesting of you throw in a little something else along with your “shape language.” This was a great video! I always love watching your stuff! :)

Very happy for this video! I love flaws and "ugly" characters. I think growing up on The Land Before Time influenced me, I love how these dinos are slightly gonky. Come think of it, the 80s and 90s were really big on "ugly", like Klasky-Csupo cartoons come to mind. I wasn't into them back when but I admire that they just go out of their way to make stuff look a little rough. I feel "ugly" characters have to work harder to get sympathy from the viewer which makes it more rewarding when it works, whereas stuff meant to be overtly cute and nothing else just usually makes me go "meh". Like... it's been done. The element of awkwardness you mention is very much something I appreciate and your characters are all very appealing to me because they're layered, if that makes sense. I'm a weirdo who thinks Barney Gumble of Simpsons fame is adorable. He probably makes me think of the dinosaurs from my youth...

So glad you mentioned this. Non-perfect characters are always more interesting and attractive. I couldn't draw a stereotypical 'pretty' character if i tried, it just seems too.. caked on, not an artist, but love to see a good range of characters, it really keeps everything interesting.

I hate it when people call someone "woke" because they look average or below average in media, like how insufferable you have to be to hate people based on appearance

exACTLY!!! i hate boring designs that are all traditionally beautiful, like, that's not 'reality', which is what, when added to fiction, makes it interesting!

I like to think of it as needing ugly to balance out the cute. As others have said, Stitch is a great example

There's a difference between appeal and reconization. Like overly perfect characters to chuncky character designs. Although I see passion and appreciate both

I love this!! I've been thinking so much about it in the past few months. Originally I started pursuing art so that I could make my own representation. But after I started using social media religiously, it absolutely killed that. I see how my characters became homogonized because of a subconcious fear of making an ''unattractive'' character. It's so crazy to think about now. This video is the perfect motivation!!! I'll comeback everytime I need the reminder ♥

Man you’ve put into words what I couldn’t for a long time. For me it’s always been a more self concious thing, and when I got to a better place mentally and I wasn’t judging myself on how ‘I weighed too much’ or ‘my body looks weird’ I noticed my characters started to be different too. Maybe it’s the other way around even, seeing people love them for who they are and their differences might’ve made me appericiate my own shape. Lots of love, keep up the good work ❤

This is excellent advice, and you handled a touchy subject well! I'm sure you never, ever mean to call any people or features 'ugly' in a direct or dehumanizing way, so it can be hard to show sketches of actual people and explain that there ARE imperfections in how our bodies or appearances look. One of my favorite phrases when it comes to this subject is "the flaw that makes the masterpiece". It's that little hint of a smile on the Mona Lisa. Something that reminds of you that you're looking at a person and not just a model.

commenting for the Algorithm, a good reference for me about what charmingly ugly designs look like would be the character designs from Ed, Edd, and Eddy where the characters have this constant wavy outlines and bare features that really captures the gross elements of childhood without overselling it into grossest

I couldn't have asked for a better start to my day😊

I love when a perfect video to watch with my coffee drops right when I need it. I grew up surrounded by art styles and a culture than centered beautiful people (though I suppose it might be hard to find a culture that doesn’t prioritize beauty), and I think it both helped and hindered my art. I love beautiful things, and a focus on beauty helped me understand appeal, but it’s always been a push and pull in my artistic journey where I had to step away from the comfortable and allow myself to make something different so that it could feel real. Where I’m at now I’ve been thinking that I want to learn to draw truthfully first, beautifully second. Thanks for the discussion!

This is why i love stuff like Oddworld and Zeno Clash. Have a look at the (fairly recent) Clash: Artifacts of Chaos and its main character Pseudo. He's awesome. I once read that the team's method of designing the protagonist for Clash was by making a bunch of designs of weird, ugly creatures that could very well be either hero *or* villain, and then let some others give their though on which looked the most heroic. And they still ended up with a gnarly wrinkly grumpy-sore-thumb carrot-looking man with chessboard pattern bodypaint for a main character.

I always try making the character look right to me, and when I make changes, it's only to make them fit the image I had in my head better. Also, I design characters to be characters I can relate to personally, by trying to incorporate their personality into their design in some way. I just find characters made to be purely appealing to look at as boring as paint drying, so I avoid having anything to do with them. So a little ugly can really turn a character from a plain yellow star into a braisen golden star with just a bit of grease and polish.

I always love your videos, but this one really hit me. I’ve been struggling with a character that looks way too safe, despite attempts to make them stand out. This video has really made me think of iconic and beloved characters that no one would want to be. Doofenshmirtz is a prime example. He looks like it’d just feel uncomfortable to be him, but man does his design say something. I’m gunna try spritzing my designs with some uglies from now on.

Wonderful video! This is something I've been wrestling with for a while - I feel almost embarrassed to design a character with certain features for fear of being judged by other people. But that's not right! I can draw whatever the Hell I want, and whatever the Hell I want has traits that other people consider "imprefect", BECAUSE other people consider them imperfect - I think they're neat. Very affirming to hear someone outright say what I've been trying to more wholeheartedly convince myself of, and in such a digestible way. Also, the floppy-haired guy you were café sketching looks an awful lot like me before I let the top of my hairstyle grow out a bit, which I thought was funny. Similar eyes / nose / chin. Quite a lot of folks look similar to me at a glance, but still.

I'm so happy, I found this video! I always enjoyed to create character with more individual features like a bigger nose, a strange skull shape, braces, imperfect teeth etc. These character just look more alive.

Your videos are very helpful. Thank you! Also your show looks awesome.❤❤❤

This was very helpful. The cafe drawings show more opportunity for conflict within the character. Having the bunny yawn and bare its teeth was a revelation, too. I've been cartooning only a few years, and I always thought drawing cute characters made them look more professional. This video showed me I was wrong. Thanks for that.

This is the thrid video I've seen talking about unvale IS THIS A SIGN.

I really really appreciate this, I think you articulated this better than I ever could. I know I add traits like missing theeth to some of my characters because I want to normalize things like this. I really like adding non-steriotypical beatuy standards to things. This helps explain things better than I ever could. The line vetween wanting to create likable, memorable characters, and wanting to challenge societal standards. Especially because real people don't neccesarily fit into those standards. Insightful, thank you.

I don't have brain rn but commenting for algorithm!! Lovely as always!!

13:56 is that from webtoon? Cause if so, damn that's some s tier level roasting loll

I 100% agree, we need more of those

Thanks for the tips. Helpful as usual. Also nice beard lol.

This is such a great video thanks for the useful information. I'll definitely think about this next time I'm doing a character design.

yes

OMG thank you! Everything is looking so sanitized nowadays. Have you compared past and present Simpsons, all the character is gone, it's very sad.

i was hanging out w/my pet bunny while watching this lol, thematically appropriate

I love this topic! It's something I have also noticed in the Art realm. The lack of authenticity! I started doing this in my charakter designs, and I'm not saying, that I'm good at it, but Just trying to make Charakters look more Authentic. A bit more "Ugly" if you want. Basing them around real humans, made them in my eyes even more attractive, because they feel like people! This really enhances any charakterdesign, really! I can also reccoment just looking for real life photos of ordinary people on pinterest that fit the feel you're trying to achieve. I for example have a rough streetsmart mechanic charakter in his 50s who is also quite "the Bro" so I researched something along "old Italian man" for some clothing references.

I really want to hear your take on the character designs from Smiling Friends.

Thanks for making this video. I was just in the middle of making a punk cat girl character and this video helped me put some more grit in her. She looks way less generic now.

0:43 "aHhhH" bro's scream XD

VIBEOOOOOOOO

I had a feeling this video was going to bring up some questions. I always like to explore other people's mindsets to see what I can add to my own. Funny enough those last 14 seconds of the entire video works for just about everybody who watches it. Artist that I forgot the name of :"Me and rob(Rob leifeld?), we do our own writing and drawing, we don't collaborate with anybody." Stan lee: "That's the problem I've been meaning to talk to you about that... " Collaborate with someone to see how you can make your characters seem more imperfect and better those designs with other people to help you with that. (or something like that.)

I saw Grulbus and clicked immediately

people must find me really really interesting then

A friend of mine always says things gotta b mildly ugly to be pretty. Same with ppl (according to them). I think there's truth in that

Wabi-sabi is the way.

Please make a video on how to give up on art. It's not the thing for me, but I'm over attached to my characters that need to die and be forgotten. I'm sure there are others like me similarly frustrated with an inability and total lack of skill and have just realized that art isn't their thing but have a hard time letting go.

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Video game companies: "Way ahead of you, buddy!"

14:03 Alright Webtoons fans, how many can you recognize? I can see Parallel city, Guardians of the Video Games, and Room of Swords. The first has a pretty typical style, but the latter two stand out even in a sea of blurry thumbnails 🙂.

That is odd and unconventional advice. I do like making my characters pretty. It can be fun to play with idealism. I think a good example of this is Final Fantasy. It is a franchise I recently dabbled with. The narative genre is fantasy, and the gameplay genre is RPG. So that makes the franchise already way up my alley. The one thing that really got me hooked is the character designs. The hardest thing for me to draw is good-looking men. That is tough. It is something I used to struggle a lot with. I was fine with drawing women. They are nice and curvy. They look fabulous. So this isn't about diffculty with drawing people in general. It is just the dudes that are tough. It is tricky that my idea of good looking guys is very different from the convention. I am not into rugged muscular guys. I like pretty, cute and androgynous guys. Androgyny is tricky, so it contributed to the difficulty. I do like anime guys particularly the pretty ones. Final Fantasy really nailed the perfect anime guy. There are some really hot guys. Two characters I can think of off the top of my head are Cloud and Sephiroth. Ooh la la. It is fun to see how far the envelope can be pushed. Maybe there are guys that are just as beutiful and elegent as the ladies. Final Fantasy does have its fair share of pretty ladies. The guys are bearly distinguishable from them. I only dabbled with Final Fantasy a little bit. However it has already inspired me. I have drawn my male characters a tad differently. I go fo pushing to envelope to idealism. This video is very different. I had no idea that going in the opposite direction had values. That may help with adding variety and realism. A nifty example is the bunny with the sharp teeth. Maybe another example is a mouse. I think the mouse is the cutest animal ever. It is close to a kind of idealism. I have no idea why some people are afraid of mice. Mice totally are not scary. They can become nasty pests by stealing food and spreading disease. However that doesn't cause fear. Disgust maybe, but not fear. Rats are very similar. I think they are very underated. Rats are so cute. They are not quite as extreme in idealism as mice are, but they are up there. Rats can even be kept as pets, just like mice. Despite the cuteness mice and rats have the sharp teeth too. It is a main feature of rodents. Rabbits are not rodents themselves, but they are related to true rodents. They also have the teeth. Maybe going away from idealism helps ground a character design. Even the cutest rodents and rabbits have got to have thier special teeth as tools for survival. I think cats are also super cute. Yet they have even scarier sharp teeth. Now that I think of it, it is funny that house cats are so cute and they are known for hunting mice. Muce the cutest animal ever. That is a case of you are what you eat. I think the actual explanation is that both animals are smal. Being small has advantages and opeans up niches in the environment. Small animals often have cuteness as a side effect. It is called neoteny. Maybe the easiest way to be small is to use less growth hormone. That would make the overall sive smal, and it would skew proportions towards cuteness.

I'll just draw myself then

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