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May 31, 2025.
10 Character Design Tips
Read time - 8 min.
By someone who’s made plenty of mistakes, and turned them into masterpieces.
1. Personality Comes Before the Pencil
Don’t pick up your pen yet.
Most creative blocks don’t come from a lack of talent, they come from a lack of vision. You sit to draw but haven’t even met your character yet. That’s like sculpting a statue with no soul.
Before you draw, dream.
Take a quiet moment. Imagine the life your character has lived. What do they fear? What drives them? Who broke their heart? These aren’t details for later—this is the essence. Once you’ve felt their heartbeat, drawing their face becomes inevitable.
If you only focus on technique, you’ll get better at lines, yes, but you’ll starve your imagination. And a skilled hand with nothing to say is just noise. You are a creator. And creators don’t copy, they breathe life into what didn’t exist before.
2. Simple Shapes, Infinite Potential
You want freedom? Start with a circle.
Most people begin by copying what already exists, fine. It’s a useful phase, like training wheels. But at some point, you want to move. You want to create. And if you start with complexity, you’ll get stuck.
Don’t build a mansion before you sketch the floorplan.
Every legendary character you admire? Underneath the cape or crown or claws, it all started with a few humble shapes. Circles, rectangles, triangles. That’s the foundation. That’s your language.
Learn to break everything down, everything, into simple shapes. A good character design is one that can be posed a thousand ways without falling apart. That starts with a structure so clear, it could be drawn blindfolded.
3. Design Something Worth Remembering
If your character could walk into a crowd and disappear, you’ve failed.
Think of every iconic character you know. They have that one thing,a crooked grin, a giant hat, a missing eye, a laugh you can hear even when they’re not speaking. Sometimes it’s a “mistake” that becomes their signature.
Find that trait. Exaggerate it.
Make it impossible to forget.
Perfection is boring. People don’t connect with flawless, they connect with the strange, the bold, the offbeat. So let go of your fear of approval. Be brave enough to be misunderstood. The world doesn’t need another safe design, it needs your weirdest idea done brilliantly.
4. Poses Speak Louder Than Words
Body language is the hidden script of a great character.
Sure, you can draw them standing straight, front-facing like a passport photo. But do you want to bore your audience to death?
Every pose tells a story. Think of how differently people lie on a couch. Some sprawl like they own the world. Others fold into themselves, trying not to exist. Same setting, radically different messages.
Use pose to express personality. Is your character tense, relaxed, arrogant, broken? Show it. Don’t wait for a speech bubble, let the silhouette do the talking.
5. Tell the Damn Story
No backstory? No character.
A cool outfit and a dramatic pose might get attention, but it’s the story that keeps it. Why does your character wear that jacket? Who gave them that scar? Why won’t they look you in the eye?
You don’t need a full novel. You need a heartbeat. A sense that this character has been somewhere, has felt something, has lost something. Once you give them that history, the drawing becomes effortless.
This is why I love comics. Because drawing without storytelling is like dancing without music. You can do it, but why would you?
6. Think Like an Animator
Even if you’ll never animate your character, design as if someone else might.
Why? Because movement tests design like nothing else. If your character only works from one angle, it doesn’t work. A truly solid design can run, jump, cry, laugh, and still be them in every frame.
Keep it clear. Keep it expressive. Avoid clutter. Don’t design for a still image, design for life. Animation teaches you to speak visually, with rhythm and intention.
The bonus? You’ll draw faster, cleaner, and with more emotional punch.
7. Beauty Is Not the Goal
Pretty? Who cares. Memorable? Now we’re talking.
One of the biggest traps in early design is obsessing over “aesthetic.” Don’t fall in love with the surface. Beauty fades. Character endures.
There are legends in animation and comics who are awkward, ugly, weird-looking, and beloved by millions. Why? Because they feel like something. They hit you in the gut.
Design for emotion, not applause. Don’t ask: “Is this beautiful?” Ask:
“Will anyone feel something when they see this?”
8. Create the World, Even If It’s Invisible
You are not just designing a person, you are designing a context.
Every character is shaped by the world they come from. Is it a futuristic jungle? A city underwater? A moon colony where everyone’s allergic to light?
Even if you don’t draw the background, you feel it in the character’s clothing, posture, scars. That world shapes their logic, their survival tactics, their sense of humor.
Want more originality? Design the world, and let the character grow out of it like a flower from its soil.
9. Give Them an Inner Contradiction
Conflict is everything.
The most fascinating characters are not the strongest, fastest, or prettiest. They’re the ones fighting something inside. A hero with a villain’s hunger. A coward in a warrior’s body. A villain who wants to be loved.
Find that contradiction. Then draw it.
Let their posture betray their pride. Let their eyes reveal their pain. That kind of psychological storytelling makes your work resonate deeper than any costume design ever could.
10. Enjoy the Madness
This is the most important rule of all: have fun.
If you’re tense, afraid, obsessed with perfection, guess what? Your character will feel just as stiff. But if you’re laughing while you draw, playing like a child, trying wild ideas, the magic shows up.
The most iconic designs in the world weren’t made by people trying to impress anyone. They were made by people playing with shapes, ideas, emotions.
So play.
This is not homework. This is alchemy. You are turning thoughts into people, don’t forget how miraculous that is.
