Disclaimer needed? Yeeeeah, disclaimer needed.

Disclaimer: Please don't take anything said in Munchsized Rants personally. I find myself guilty of most of the things I want to bitch about, so just because someone's guilty of any of them doesn't automatically put an 'I hate you' stamp on their forehead. It just makes me secretly snicker or rant or rave or pester, depending on my relationship with the person. There's a reason I'm posting these on my personal account versus something more popular, like my nitetigrezz account, or something more appropriate yet still with significantly more watchers, like my nitescratches account. I'm not looking to start a flame war. I just need a place to let my little prejudice Ishaan air out. Thank you for your understanding. Now let the rant begin!

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Ref Sheets

Heavy shading. Drives. Me. Fucking. Bitching. Nuts.

Granted, I used to oo and ah over this too. It makes the art look pretty. After reading some rants from other artists though, it does tend to make me twitch because what they have to say makes so much sense x.x A ref sheet is supposed to be that: A sheet of reference to make certain the character will have the accurate colors and markings in any future artwork. So how the hell is shading the reference supposed to help other artists out with this? If anything, nine-times-out-of-ten it just makes things that much more challenging for any other artist using it to have a good grasp on the accurate tones you want the colors in.

On that same note, convoluted ref sheets filled with frills and sparkles and pretties all over the place might make it more attractive, but it makes me want to bash the artist over the head with some of those sparklies. How can I take something like that to another artist and feel confident they're going to do my character justice while watching them go cross-eyed trying to make heads or tails of it? This is why I've always been so careful about who I commission. Give me a straight-forward ref sheet with little to no shading and a plain as dirt background over the fancy crap any day x.x

And on a more professional note, I can't stand being handed ref sheets with lots and lots of word vomit. I mean where the entire life story and personality of a character Must be mapped out on the same ref sheet showing me a close up of their vah-jay-jay. The whole point of ref sheets is to portray your character in a visual way so people can have an easier time portraying their physical aspects. This can be very difficult in word form. Even expressions and favorite outfits can be best portrayed with a visual representation. And hell, if you're planning on getting pictures featuring their kitty or rooster, go right ahead and throw in all the detail of the mews and cock-a-doodles you want!

The ref sheet of my munch does have some word vomit, but that's mainly to point out some very specific ~physical~ points that most artists would overlook. Species, arm length:torso ratio, height, the fact that her feet are digitigrade... all the things you'd want pointed out for various forms of artwork. However, you won't find anything in the way of personality. The only non-physical bit of info there is her DoB. Why clutter up that important ~physical~ detail with things that have nothing to do with the physical? All it does is make it that much more difficult to find the information actually needed for the physical. Even in the nice neat organized ref sheets, when you have a bunch of info about your character, it still feels like you have to go on a huge hunt to find that information when it's stuffed on a ref sheet. For the sake of your commissionees, please for the love of all that's fluffy, scaled, or feathered, leave words where words go, in the artist comments. It won't only make it easier to find the information needed for what you're getting commissioned, but allows you, the owner of the character, that much more freedom to arrange and organize in such a way that actually makes sense, and you won't need tiny writing on a huge-ass picture to make it work.

It doesn't seem like something that should concern a writer, but you gotta remember that in order to make a story about ~your character~ and not some other random neon pink and puke brown rainbow unicorn with black sparkles and ten orange tentacles with cyan spikes on its three green and purple striped tails, I need to be able to include descriptors that are unique to ~your~ neon pink and puke brown rainbow unicorn with black sparkles and ten orange tentacles with cyan spikes on its three green and purple striped tails, and a good amount of that comes from the physical. If I can't make out what this physical is, or that's actually sky blue spikes instead of cyan, chances are you're not going to be very happy with the end product. So keep your ref sheets clean, simple, and to the point, and you'll make so many artists and even writers very, very happy.

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Okay, I feel better now. This has been a MunchSized Rant. If you detested this, then instead of bringing the torches and pitchforks just nuke the damned journal anytime you see 'MunchSized Rant'. Otherwise, open discussion is welcomed in the comments. Thank you!