I can see that being really annoying, but maybe they actually mean it more like the latter? Probably hard to tell tone of voice on a ref sheet, especially if the artist doesn't speak english well or something.

I use it as an example in there but those massive bear paws fad that's been around for a little bit now. I see several character sheets where they say those massive paws are required and that just doesn't seem fair lol.

Like why not make the character normal, then go get art of from some artist that does the bear paws thing regularly instead of bitching at artists who don't do it "not doing it right"

Maybe I haven't seen the bear paw thing, but it sounds like that's part of the design? Seems like it'd be better to be up front about it so if the artist doesn't feel like they can handle that style they can turn down the commission.

I feel that's more like a style thing. If you design a character to fit a specific style of a massive paw the size of their entire torso, I think that's quite a bit more than just a character detail. When I think of character details I think of, species, their colors, their markings, and then I think of little quirks like oh he has a scar over this eye. Oh he has a cat scratch on his eye, oh he has no pupils, oh he has a tail that bends this way.

Ya know?

The bear paw thing was started out as a style thing, it was made to just look a certain way and certain artists adopted it. It blew up and I only use it as a reference because it's one of the ones I see the most.

But other things that are like blatant anatomy things that aren't explainable or reasonable. For instance one I saw a while ago was a massive deer who was required to be drawn with hooves that were about a quarter size of what was even believable. Or seeing one that has eyes that are HUGE and very round that it's listed as "eyes MUST be drawn this way"

Things like that get on my nerves. Where it's a blatant style issue rather than a character design.

I saw something a long time ago that was like a little lion that they had pointed out several of these style type issues where it said it was required to be drawn like this. But when I added all them up they basically wanted ALL their art demanded in the exact style of the original artist who drew them the reference image.

It just weirds me out. Like if you're going to commission someone find someone who draws that or otherwise deal with artists drawing your character in their own style.

Cos it's gotten to a point where I feel most people are doing it to make other artists draw a style they like so maybe they can get around it cheaper by buying a piece from a lesser known artist, that has some similar style qualities and then they go "okay but now add this because its a 'character detail' and it's required" and you basically end up drawing another artists style for cheaper and they can get away with it.

Alright, sorry...

No one's yelling at ya love <3

OMG you are so preaching to the choir I love al the amazing styles of art on FA especially yours Miss Hax. I wish I was as good as you are.

Ahh no girlie, you're just as good as me <3

giggles I wish. But thank you for always being super sweet to me. I just wanna give you *hugs* because I think you are so awesome.

Most of mine I just want markings close (except my sona's tail marking, which is why my ref is set the way it is).

Otherwise, the style is why I commissioned an artist in the first place. ^_^

I can understand the frustration, but on the other hand a reference sheet isn't really supposed to be there for you to say "I got the general idea". Traits and characteristics are portrayed in a way because the character owner wants them to be in the art.

For example, one of my characters has zebra stripes, but I don't expect an artist to draw them exactly how they are portrayed on the ref sheet, but then again if there was a character sheet that had, say, a bite out of the character's left ear, two nose rings, a heart tattoo, and a right purple eye and a left yellow eye with a pentagram for a pupil, then I would say it's expected of the artist to portray those characteristics.

No but that's exactly what I was just saying.

I find it a problem when there are "characteristics" that are a very stylized things.

IE: Yeah you want your character to have the notch out of it's ear, or yes you want your character to have the same scar in the same place. I get that. That's fine.

But to put it into more general terms what I'm getting at is:

"My character is ALWAYS drawn toony, but it HAS to have hyper realistic eyes"

Blatant. Style. Problems. Are what I'm talking about. Not design quirks or design characteristics.

I've never seen something that blatantly out there but it's as simple terms and examples as I can make since no one is understanding.

I disagree.

If its on the ref sheet specifically; either you dont accept the commission, or you draw it.
If you dont feel comfortable drawing something on the ref sheet, and you think it will turn out badly or you want to do it in another way, you inform your customer and let them make a decision.

If they dont mention it till after youve done the work, then its their problem. That said, this is what makes WIPs so useful.

Obviously I would never take a commission I can't handle, I think most artists would.

I put it into a super extreme example to put it in most basic terms of what I mean because people seem to think I mean character design rather than style conflict.

So here's the example:

"My character is ALWAYS drawn toony, but MUST be drawn with hyper realistic eyes" Things like this where it is an issue of style versus the actual character design itself.

Where the designer essentially bullies the artist into drawing something EXACTLY that one way because they won't budge on accepting the artists style.

I've already pushed some commissions away due to style conflict and it sucks because I would love to draw that character, and make money, and draw for that person, but because they have it MANDATORY that their character MUST ALWAYS be drawn with hyper realistic eyes and a toony body I can't do it, and I get shit thrown at me through notes for a few because I can't accept it.

I just genuinely don't understand people putting mandatory style on their character, and limiting the character rather than simply making it, and going to people to get the art done from people who do have the art style their looking for. Or instead of making it mandatory, asking the artist if they would be willing to try drawing that specific style.

Do whatever you want with your character obviously I can't stop anyone, it's just an automatic turn off when I see a character with a mandatory STYLE listed on their reference sheet.

The whole reason of commissioning is to have that artists personal style.