How do you design your characters?

Usually, I create or adopt a very low quality character that has something I like or could develop. Then, I develop a story, and then personalize the design as the story evolves. I have several AUs and different designs for each character, but usually a good-looking, final, and consistent design comes out of it. The design usually ends up being moderate-simple in complexity for me, but it depends on the species, the world, your knowledge of the world, and your personal tastes.

There’s nothing wrong with starting with a character that resembles a cannon character or a Mary Sue. Search, research, and experiment, and find what you like. Then use things that seem to work together. A mess of a character with a complicated, random evolution is the most natural and human feeling character.

Basically, start with any character you like, ripped off (if can legally rip off... you can be sued for stealing from other artists, stick to tv shows and books or not), do a lot of redesigns with features that you like, and you’ll have a unique and pretty nice looking design.

I usually tend to either desing their appearance first or create them to fulfill a need in a story. Then, I draw them more and question who they are, what they are, and why they are, and I try to answer those question in a way that makes sense. I would reccomend you start asking yourself questions about the character, who they are, what they want, why they exist, and how they fit in the world they live in. Another thing I also do is that I don't develop them right away, in a day. If you are having trouble sticking to a character I would reccomend (if you have more than one character) to focus on one first, then when you start to lose interest you move onto the next, and so on and so forth. It is a process that takes more time than usual but it really helps if you can't keep your mind to a single character. I hope this helps, and sorry if my wording is confusing :)

i have to different ways i desgin a character

1st way is when i'm bored and i just draw a design randomly not really thinking about it being a characters

for example these guys >> Clyde,  Taaveti, Umeko, and Juniper

These guys usually at the beginning are very undeveloped and take a long time for me to connect with them. Even now I still have trouble coming up with backstories, motivations and the like

the 2nd way is when I create the backstory first and then create the character

For example >> Dominique, Joleen, Izzie, and my newest ! Orion

These guys are more developed and i get super hyped about them,,,, problem is that I have such a good image in my head of what they look like I can't draw them in a way that I like so they stay hidden away until I can manage to draw them,, or sometimes I can't even image what they look like and I try a whole bunch of designs

i hope this makes sense lol

Story comes before the design otherwise I cannot conceptualize a believable character. I start with a genre or setting as a building block then continue from there. Personality and miscellaneous information comes last. It is an odd process though it works for me.

I design characters from a core concept or theme I found interesting, then work further from there.

It almost always starts with a little 'what if' that develops into a character. It can be a personality, backstory, powers, etc, but there is always a core concept that I stick to and avoid deviating too far away from. Quite an odd way of creating characters, yes, but that's how I work.

i always do the design first and then the character. the way i write stories is by coming up with an idea (i want a hitman character!) or getting sudden inspiration from something and i come up with their personality as i draw them. its pretty much impossible for me to do it the other way around. ive just never been able to do it, lol. i make stories by making characters and creating a plot with them based on similar personalities, interests, etc. if a character doesnt fit anything then i either wait to see if any future characters will fit or redesign them. its a very spontaneous process for me.

For me it really depends on the situation, I guess. Sometimes I just doodle a neat character and if I decide I want to keep the design as an actual character, I start fleshing them out from there. If they're being established into an already-existing story, however, I tend to already have at least a vague idea for what role I want them to fill in the story and I just start writing them out. I draw inspiration from people I've met and also things I've read/watched for this. Normally as I write them some ideas come to me for what they'd look like, then I draw them. As time goes by I start adding little quirks onto their personality. It doesn't have to be all at once! I'm still developing my mains and they're over five years old now. The little character-related forum games on here can be super helpful if you're stuck on what sort of personality they should have!

As for how to make a character unique...I'm not sure what sort of advice to offer there haha. But remember this one very important fact: nobody has a character that is completely original. Inspiration will always tinge character designs. Inspiration is good! Obviously you don't want to blatantly rip off another character but being inspired by an existing character is fine.

my characters have already existed for as long as I can remember, I just draw them/make them in the sims/make polyvore outfits for them/etc... according to how they already are O_O