Iso's OC Question of the Day

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

Do you pick the art you like the most? Do you pick whatever art is the most accurate? Do you prefer to only use your own art? Do you specifically draw/commission icon art? Do you use thumbnails of full images, or do you crop things down into square icons? etc etc

I usually go for a mix of the first two! I try to stick with whatever's the most accurate to the character, but sometimes I'll get art that's Real Good to the extent that even if the art is really outdated and/or missing important things I can't not use it! I always crop images into whatever looks the nicest in a 200x200 box (which is the biggest Toyhouse displays icons as I think?), usually focused on the face. Thyx is the exception; the art that serves as his avatar is in a shape that doesn't crop nicely and would require adding borders to be 200 pixels wide, but that picture is just so incredibly perfectly Thyx (and also just really good in general) that I'm totally willing to throw off the organized symmetry of my character page for it. ;_;7

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

I used to use a base I made of a shoulders-up avatar for all of my characters, until I started getting other characters that just wouldn't fit on the base. For charas that don't fit on the base I use the fullbody image of them, until I can draw art that looks good to be used as an avatar. I haven't drawn my more recent human charas on the base yet because I'm lazy. -.-

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

I actually just make the avatars before the profile, and I've noticed I need to redo them because I'm looking at the images and cringing. I make the avatars for my characters just headshots, I feel like a fullbody picture doesn't make a nice icon honestly, too squished for my tastes. And I feel the fullbody should be in the profile and not the profile picture, and that's one of the reasons I prefer to finish all the pictures before writing the profile so I can imminently have all those picture references. 

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

I suppose I tend to either pick a nice headshot from someone else (because I usually only draw fullbodies) or a colored fullbody if they don't have one, or if I feel I like it better than any headshots they may have. Of course, many of my characters are limited to what they can choose for an avatar since not all of them have "nice" art yet, meaning I need to get off my butt and draw them better art so maybe I can commission/request even better art because my art's kind of... eh. XD

In general I try to pick whatever I feel depicts the character best, having a nice balance of accurate and... I dunno, whatever makes me happiest when I see it. If possible I'll go with someone's art other than my own since other people tend to draw better than I do, but I don't mind using my own art if I don't have anything else or I don't feel the other art properly represents them. I can love a gorgeous but inaccurate piece of art in the gallery, but I'll be unlikely to use is as an icon if something on the face in particular is inaccurate. Clothing... eh, I'm less picky. I don't go out of my way to get icon art or draw it (because I'm poor/cheap and also because I don't usually like drawing anything but fullbodies). I'm not picky on uniformity though, so I don't care if it's square or rectangular or octagonal or trapezoidal whatever. I prefer when everyone's avatar is a bit different, and my brain tends to go dead if I see pages of icons that all look really similar. I'm sure they're all unique and interesting characters and all, but I'm indecisive enough as is, so if all the icons look really similar then it's unlikely that one will catch my eye over the others. And if I can't find a good starting point to look at and then fan out to look at the others afterwards, then I tend to flee from the situation altogether before my brain melts. XD I'm horrible.

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

Usually I pick my favourite art from someone I've commissioned! C: If, that is, the character in question was like a chibi or something that I adopted and not an already finished piece of full art. If I don't have anything like that, I try to draw up a nice headshot to use. I like something that can embody at least some character trait of theirs that's significant.

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

If they had an avatar made for them already, it's a pretty simple decision. Otherwise, I try to pick the closest thing to a bust-shot of the character in question that I have. If I don't have that, then I try and pick a plain full body. Lacking that, I just pick whatever I have.

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

I always draw special busts for my character icons to keep them organised. Otherwise I find that my gallery lacks structure and differently sized pictures make me a little disoriented when I look through a gallery. Lately I've enjoyed looking at galleries where all avatars were a bordered picture of the same dimensions, and I'd like to go for that. If I were to do that, it'd mean I'd just use a picture or the bust for them. I even saw people use a differently coloured background on transparent pictures to better show the character's faction, and I may look into doing that myself.

Y'know what's fucked up?? It's the beginning of January and it's just been pouring. Where's the snow? What's with all the rain? Like, c'mon, I live in Wisconsin! What gives? Anyway...

Q25. Which of your OCs likes the rain the most? Who likes it the least?

The answer to this one would be a character who isn't on Toyhouse, because he's a plant. But out of the people I have here, I'd say probably Zhirael. He's fascinated by weather in general, especially anything involving precipitation, because in Hell the atmospheric conditions tend to range from "pitch black and kind of chilly" to "it's raining blood and you can't tell if your flesh is melting because of the heat or because of that ungodly sound that pierces your very soul". Umbra also likes rain, but mostly just the sound of it.

Hellscream likes rain the least, seeing that he's a Really Big Electronic Device with some souls involved. You'd think that maybe Hell College would've invested in some waterproofing, but apparently that's not a big priority when you're hastily throwing together a murder robot out of a bitter, impulsive desire for revenge. Personally, though, if I was making a murder robot I'd want it to be able to stand up to a bucket of water...

Q25. Which of your OCs likes the rain the most? Who likes it the least?

Hades likes the rain, because it means he can't travel, which means he doesn't have to kill anyone. Felicity likes to sit inside and listen to the rain. Skye hates the rain because she'll slip in puddles while she's trying to run around. Finn doesn't like it because it will hurt his poor baby ship...

Q23. Which one of your characters is the tallest?

Abby Sr. is 6'8" (~2m) in human form. She can be up to 50 feet (~15m) in her true form.

Q24. How do you decide what to use for your characters' avatars?

I'm working on a series of character busts specifically for their profile pictures. I try to put them into interesting poses that say something about them. I'm a fan of show not tell.

Q25. Which of your OCs likes the rain the most? Who likes it the least?

The Grand Duck hates rain the most. It puts out the fires of burning villages and burning villagers, and also reduces visibility so that he cannot accurately throw axes into fleeing opponents' backs. He is equipped with Cloud Nine to prevent weather manipulation.

Colleen likes rain the most. She is a fungus and they love damp conditions. Also it's good for her pet plants.

Q25. Which of your OCs likes the rain the most? Who likes it the least?

Leysa might like rain the most simply because it is her elemental and humid air makes her feel alive. Being surrounded by any water and wet air feels nice for her. Adie might also like rain in spring and summer mostly because she enjoys gardening and things of the nature.

Collin however probably hates the rain because it gets his hair wet and is cold and makes him feel sticky. He probably doesn't like the gloom of it and might get kinda moody when it starts raining. 

Q25. Which of your OCs likes the rain the most? Who likes it the least?

My previously mentioned darling, Nyfringe Nyre, loves the rain the most. He originally came from a swamp and will sit in the rain until it stops, even if that takes days. It's one of the few things he actually genuinely loves about the world, the feeling of being caught in the rain. And he actually has a profile now since last I mentioned him, although I still need to draw him a fresh reference.

Now for those who like it the least, those would be some of my Fyre elemental characters. One in particular doesn't have a profile yet, but once I figure out his design I'll like make one for him. He's terrified of water since it can be deadly to him, so rain is just about as terrifying for normal people if it was raining fire instead. XD But since he doesn't have a profile yet, I suppose out of the ones I do have I'd say Una likes rain the least. Although it doesn't hurt her since she's not a pure Fyre elemental, it still makes it more difficult or impossible for her to use her Fyre rifting. Also, since her fire sort of fuels her, if her hair and tail get soaked she can feel really tired and she can't run as quickly as she likes.