Post your pics/art here!

Kay, so... 8 of those pictures aren't even MY characters, 2 of them actually having "original" designs,
Super Mystic doesn't even count; it's a form, so don't cry,
Striker is literally solely made to be able to compete with overpowered SRB2 characters,
And the rest have an actual backstory to them. Don't judge a book by it's cover.

P.S.: Why don't you set an example?

the_real_power_of_the_chaos_emeralds____by_therealburningfox-d4rs7g5.jpg


I searched through the thread, apparently I didn't post this thing yet. So yay more GMod crap.
 
Kay, so... 8 of those pictures aren't even MY characters, 2 of them actually having "original" designs,
Super Mystic doesn't even count; it's a form, so don't cry,
Striker is literally solely made to be able to compete with overpowered SRB2 characters,
And the rest have an actual backstory to them. Don't judge a book by it's cover.

P.S.: Why don't you set an example?

Oh goody. This will be more fun than I had expected.

I'm going to take a gander and say the 8 that you're talking about are two SMS pics, three Sonic pics, Jill, May and... Conduit or something? Still leaves like 16 pictures that actually are your characters. And I'm going to guess that the two "original" you're referring to are Cyan Aqua and... god I don't even know what. Cyan is literally the only character in your library that isn't a hedgehog or fox. Or I think it isn't; looks more like a wolf. Even then, his whole design feels rather contrived. Overly clothed with an oversaturated palette. Manipulates water (Because you have to make him an elemental gimmick that isn't too overpowered right? Most characters are manipulating fire after all. Or lightning. Or the fabric of time and space.)

"Super Mystic doesn't even count; it's a form, so don't cry" -- Oh good to know, Super Mystic Tails isn't original enough to be a fancharacter; it's even lower than that. Thanks for establishing this for me.

"Striker is literally solely made to be able to compete with overpowered SRB2 characters" - And you think this is a good thing, why? You've literally just made a character that's more overpowered than everything else. Also he's a hedgehog, probably from an ancient race or something. Bonus points for breaking the same ground as everyone else there.

"And the rest have an actual backstory to them. Don't judge a book by it's cover." - I couldn't give two shits what your backstory is. The fact of the matter is that your perception of what a "good" fancharacter is is narrowly limited to the character designs set by the official cast. Pretty much all of them use Sonic or Tails as their base, change the color, put way too many clothes on them, give them hairstyles or different tribal markings, and then give them some sort of elemental power. The worst of the official games don't do this. Look at the cast: Blaze the Cat, Cream the Rabbit, Chaos, Emerl, Vector the Crocodile, Jet, and notice how all of these are not only different species (if Chaos and Emerl can even be classified as that), but also have dramatically different designs. The least original characters ever introduced to the series might have been Shadow and Silver, and you've easily trumped their level of mediocrity simply by trying to justify them with clutter and trinkets.

If it seems like I'm being hard on you, don't worry; your work isn't even close to the worst example in the Sonic community, if only because the bar has been set so low to begin with. And for what it's worth, you're probably not as clueless compared to your roleplaying friends' notions of originality.

I personally don't do fan characters because I have no use for them. If I were to actually make a character (and I do have the art and mental capability for it), it would have a functional purpose, likely for an SRB2 character wad that uses some sort of fun gimmick, and its design would be inspired by how it plays. I would avoid copying off of the designs of any of the official cast and would instead strive for something new that follows the general art style of SRB2/the old Sonic games.



If you want my opinion on what a decent fan character is, here are a couple examples:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Just-plain-Ruby-63011078
A species less frequently used, nonderivative and not overcomplicated design, a focused color scheming. To my knowledge, the only functional purpose of jen's characters is to bend elements and act as some of the official characters' girlfriends, which is not that inspiring. But from an aesthetic standpoint she does a good job.

http://mb.srb2.org/showthread.php?t=31025
Yes, Hinote is a decent character. Species less frequently used, nonderivative design, focused color scheming. Her personality is imbued into her sprites, and her gameplay is balanced and simple, but also distinct from the official characters.

Honorable mention: http://mb.srb2.org/showthread.php?t=37629
Obviously Tails inspired, but the stylization is so distinct from anything else on here that I can't really criticize it.
 
I'd even go so far as to say that there is no such thing as a good fan character, because the whole concept of a "fan character" is derivative by definition. Just because some of them are implemented with decent production values doesn't change the fact that they inherently have no merit.
 
Umm... is it me, or does it look like this topic is shifting over into "talk about fan-characters while others post their art?" Eh, here's another plain Sonic drawing to tide you people over.

Fiery-Drawing-Super-Sonic-Flying.jpg

It's Super Sonic, with some sparkles and the 7 Chaos Emeralds on the bottom-right corner. Very simple.

Right now I can't draw any more pictures, since I lost my little stylus thing that I use to draw on my Paper app. I'll upload some of the pictures I already have until then.
 
I'd even go so far as to say that there is no such thing as a good fan character, because the whole concept of a "fan character" is derivative by definition. Just because some of them are implemented with decent production values doesn't change the fact that they inherently have no merit.

I think there is such a thing, but the scope is extremely narrowly limited to those which have a practical function. Most fan characters are designed without any valuable purpose in mind. Hinote is the one character that comes to mind as being aesthetically and mechanically relevant, particularly because her gameplay justifies her existence and her design is hardly derivative at all.
 
A few of of my pixel art masterpieces.
SMW Style Shading included

Sonic:
sanik_spriteh_by_maximus_universal-d7ecxf2.png

Tails:
taylz_spriteh_by_maximus_universal-d7ecz74.png

Knuckles:
knakles_spriteh_by_maximus_universal-d7ecznf.png

Shadow:
shedoh_spriteh_by_maximus_universal-d7ed1t7.png

The "Evil", "Scary", "Spooky", Sonic.exe:
sanik_exe_spriteh_v2_by_maximus_universal-d7ed258.png

Dr. Robotnik w/ Egg Walker:
egggggggmanh_spriteh__w_eggggggg_walker_by_maximus_universal-d7ed3mo.png


EDIT: I personally like sonic.exe the best.
 
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I think my eyes just burned from those bad things you call "drawings." You can barely see the eyes on Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow.
 
I'm just going to go post this quick painting I did of a swamp witch from a certain video game I've been playing. Nothing more to it, but some quick practice.

I do enjoy that rainbow looking flame on her hat.

the_great_swamp_witch_by_sevencolorsalice-d7e2to2.png
 
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Dinosaurfications makes everything better.

207xta8.png


Can someone show this to Rex The Kitsune?
 
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Fan characters are never TRULY original if they resemble the Sonic style anyway.

A good fan character (assuming such a thing exists) should draw inspiration from the source content's universe to create something new. Hinote draws inspiration from the Sonic universe to create a different type of character with its own gameplay, but doesn't confine itself to the animal archetypes set by the main characters.

Super Sonic is a parody of Dragon Ball Z, as is the emeralds being a carryover of the "seven sacred stones" cliche, and the Death Egg from Star Wars. When Sonic Team does a reference to another lore like this, it's clever or at least amusing. When anyone creates a new character that uses one of the main characters' designs as a base, it just comes off as uninspired. To that end I think you've missed the point.

If you want constructive criticism on how to improve on your character designs, some of us can probably help you on that. The purpose of my spiel is just to correct your naivety in assuming those previous examples are particularly less generic than your OP-Slayer.
 
A good fan character (assuming such a thing exists) should draw inspiration from the source content's universe to create something new. Hinote draws inspiration from the Sonic universe to create a different type of character with its own gameplay, but doesn't confine itself to the animal archetypes set by the main characters.

warm_up_by_sevencolorsalice-d7dwtov.png
 
A good fan character (assuming such a thing exists) should draw inspiration from the source content's universe to create something new. Hinote draws inspiration from the Sonic universe to create a different type of character with its own gameplay, but doesn't confine itself to the animal archetypes set by the main characters.

If you want constructive criticism on how to improve on your character designs, some of us can probably help you on that. The purpose of my spiel is just to correct your naivety in assuming those previous examples are particularly less generic than your OP-Slayer.

Good fancharacters don't exist. Their sole purpose, to have a connection to an artistic world already created, really prevents them from being good in the sense of originality compared to any other form of art or style of drawing. However, how original and good they are in the context of being a fancharacter can vary. Sonic fancharacters generally fall into the "Not that great" sector of both originality and over-all interest, but compared to the ones I've seen on Deviantart, I'd say ones like Hinote aren't that bad.

Anyways, I drew pokemon. Enjoy a low quality picture of said pokemon.

IKLmA2O.png
 
The topic on fan characters is rather subjective. I do have to say, you can't be original when it comes to creating a fan character because you're creating a character based from a series already made. From what I've learned over the past with my experiences as a student artist, it's difficult to be original because people will always find something that inspires them create. When you design, you want something that appeals to your target audience.

In my case, I've made Hinote 8 years ago. That's a long time ago and I was only starting to learn what designing meant. My inspiration came from Official Sonic characters, and it's evident Blaze the Cat inspired me to make Hinote. I can't say she's original, but at least she does have a design that doesn't bother others and that's what makes her appealing. The other inspiration I took to create her design was my ponytail I used to have when I was a child.

Really, for your sake Burning-Fox, there is no need to be defensive over your characters if others are trying to criticise your characters. Not everyone is going to like what you've created.

I haven't drawn Hinote in years, and it makes me feel 13 again everytime I do.

hinote_by_sevencolorsalice-d7ee79k.png
 
The topic on fan characters is rather subjective. I do have to say, you can't be original when it comes to creating a fan character because you're creating a character based from a series already made. From what I've learned over the past with my experiences as a student artist, it's difficult to be original because people will always find something that inspires them create. When you design, you want something that appeals to your target audience.

I just want to point out that all art is inspired by something. Taking inspiration from some source lore or franchise isn't enough to make your work 'unoriginal'.

---------- Post added at 01:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 AM ----------


Hinote shares almost no resemblance to Blaze.
 
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Hinote shares almost no resemblance to Blaze.
She's a purple cat with yellow eyes, and she's pyrokinetic. No resemblance, hmm? In any case, the creator herself even said that inspiration was mainly drawn (pun intended? you decide) from Blaze the Cat, and it's evident in the basics of her design, though that does not make her "unoriginal"; though, I personally find the whole concept of originality to be like perfection: something we can only get closer and closer to, but never fully attain. It's often the smaller things -- keeping Hinote as an example: her outfit, her hairstyle, and even down to her (possibly undisclosed) personality -- that define a character's "originality". After all, as you said, we draw our inspiration from something that already exists. (And for the record, Hinote never said doing so made anything unoriginal...)

Anyways, seeing as this is a picture post topic, I'm gonna digress back to that. I'm keeping spoiler tags around it because someone insisted that it was "NSFW" in one of the chats I was in, though there are no traces of nudity -- just a simplified outlining of the female anatomy from an artistic perspective. Symbolic? You tell me. I'm clearly no master artist, though, and I'm still fleshing out and developing my style, so don't expect anything super amazing. If things like this are not permitted, then I'll take it down after being told so~

inb4"ewshe'snaked" (thanks Hinote)
869qj
 
originality to be like perfection

If you want to know, nobody is truly original, or a genius, because everything is based on inspiration or copying other things. Going to school? You're basically copying what someone else is teaching. Although don't get the wrong idea, I'm not saying that originality is something nobody should bother with. What I mean is that discussing what originality truly is will more likely be a waste of time. Probably the same goes for perfection.

However, I appreciate people at least TRY to be original, rather than just recoloring Tails or something like Burning-Fox did just to then overreact to defend his fancharacters and think any backstory makes up for the bad design. If you want to know what I think about them, I don't like them at all, due to most of the cases being self inserts to the Sonic universe or just copying designs, like really. I appreciate that people like Hinote did try to make something more-so appropriate and original, but I still don't recommend that people test their designing and story creativity with Sonic content.

In all seriousness, this fan character bullcrap is getting on my nerves, it ruined one of the only threads I like in General Discussion, and find this picture to be rather fitting in here. Both for fitting to the context right now and the thread's purpose.

ic1npy.png
 

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