Popular design traits/trends that you don't like?

i'm really not that picky on designs, but i agree on the whole pastel/ cutesy look, it just makes me squint at my monitor lol (and big agree on overly complex characters, i love simple designs)

but i guess i also dislike animal/ anthro hands/ arms on humanoid figures, especially if they're exaggerated to make the hands look bigger like a plush. idk why, i like the idea of animal legs or just waist down features of anthro like legs, but when it comes to the hands/ arms it's just not my kind of thing

I'm not a huge fan of super complex designs when it comes to ferals' and anthros' fur patterns. To me, the patterning tends to look really messy at any angle other than the side view/what is displayed on the ref sheet.

I also don't really care for characters that have constantly flowing goo/tears/blood from their eyes and/or mouth. For me, the only real exception to this is ghost and undead character because it feels like there is a legit reason why that would be happening. 

Most of my peeves have something to do with CS. (unoriginal ideas like "X animal with Y characteristic and nothing else", and especially people who act like they own that specific combination of 1 thing.)

But aside from that?

• Object heads, for me, really depends how the person pulls it off. Some of them are nice!
• I don't get characters that are literally just "animal with pride flag palette." They're always go completely unused, and feels disrespectful just slapping a flag on a character for 'the aesthetic'.
• The double pairs of ears thing is also weird to me. Not only does it look off, their hearing would be way messed up.
• Overemphasis on teeth and tongues in art styles. Gives me vore/other fetish vibes, yikes.

When a character’s reference sheet is done in an anime style and extremely pale characters.

I love them but I hate them, mostly because I draw lineless cause I can’t find the right way to do lines and have a finished look, but when you have a pale character I just find it so so hard to draw them, coming from an artist’s POV, when you have a white alien character though, it’s cool cause it’s  not supposed to look human! On humans, I just don’t want to use non fleshy shading tones like grey or use a fleshy tone but now the character looks like it’s bleeding or malnourished.

As for the anime reference sheets, awesome if that character is an anime character, but coming from an artist whos more professional pieces are realism/lineless, it’s useful to know what sort of face shape, nose or how the eyes would realistically sit on the face. As anime faces can be rather generic(usually females), I love anime character designs don’t get me wrong and the reference sheets are always so detailed, but when commissioning or expecting art from an art trade, it’s useful to have a reference of the character that isn’t 100% anime, or even if you see a person and think “that’s what my OC’s face would look like!” save that photo, it’s extremely helpful!!*

*unless you’re commissioning an anime artist or requesting that style of course!

^

Edit; i also agree with item heads, I don’t understand them, I made one a long time ago, it’s probably the most popular design I’ve made it was a blue balloon on a squirrel body

Weemelia an object head OC is a character who has, well... an object as a head. I agree with some others about that in the sense that A LOT of them are very similar and use the same concepts (like TV heads for instance, which come up a lot!), but other object heads with unique themes and objects to them can be fun! Of course I would never judge anyone based on what kind of OCs they have, like you do you man, of course! I would never have one of my own, though.

I also agree about the complex designs thing. While they can be cool to look at, sometimes they're just too much- and realistically I could never use a design like that in one of my stories, much less draw it. I totally get how it works for people who enjoy collecting characters! But because of what I use my own OCs for/where they come from, designs are a lot less complex and I tend to focus a lot more heavily on personalities, relationships, and the stories they all tell. ^^

a lot of my dislikes in character design are things people have already mentioned, and mostly come from the perspective of being someone who mostly develops my characters through drawing them; pastel designs and overly complex designs. some of these characters are absolutely gorgeous but i'd never want to own them just because i'm really not great at drawing them. plus i tend to prefer bolder colour choices tbh, although i do have some pastel characters i adore. a lot of my characters are kinda complex? but i have a very specific way of drawing them that breaks it down into simple shapes and steps that make them easier. if it's not a character i designed or am very familiar with i just Perish with complex designs tbh. pastel designs just hurt my already very bad eyes ;;;

other than that i'm? fairly unpicky about designs? it honestly takes a lot for me to really hate a design and more often i just see a design and quiver in fear at the idea of drawing it rather than actively dislike it. i have a pretty varied range of colours and markings and stuff in my own characters, and there's not really anything in particular i wouldn't like if used right tbh

Generally if it has something to do with animal legs on a humanoid body and nothing else is animalistic. Or they use popular animals for said trait, i.e Fawns, felines, canines.

over all.. just.. modern designs?

this might sound weird but i just cant seem to contect with designs that have a modern type of asthetic. i'm just heavily into fantasy and medieval things or even further back. modern isnt my thing at all 

The only thing I can think of that actually bothers me is kemonomimi characters that also have human ears. Honestly it bugs me way more than it should considering kemonomimis are entirely fictional, but it just... makes zero sense to me anatomy wise.

was about to say the same thing as NyandereMuffins

like i know technically kemonomimi aren't real at all but i just HATE it when they're given regular ears + animal ears!! it looks awful, like they're wearing an animal headband and it's not their actual ears. just drives me nuts

ban human ears on kemonomimi

pastels and very bright white designs kill me and my poor light sensitive eyes. Also ^^^ re: human ears on kemonomimi characers. It just looks wrong! Especially since when I draw them I tend to shift the ears to where the human ears would be to make sense with the skull and all. I also really dislike how whenever someone makes a dog oc they often all look the same pop/punk dog with no variation. 

or characters that get classed as "monster/monstrous" humanoids and its like... a skinny dude with horns or just another sexualized demon girl.  I also really dislike generic anime bishie designs.