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How to Ref Sheet
4 years ago
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Hola! Maybe I'll make this into a visual guide sometime but for now let's just discuss what makes a good reference sheet for your character, and what generic tropes should you try to avoid when you get your next character's reference sheet.
One of the biggest issues that are generalized around the fandom is when people shade their ref sheet. It makes sense from the client side to have the character looking their best in every part of the ref sheet, but for artists shading can get in the way of clearly understanding the tones and patterns of your character. "Is that a different color fur, or is just the shading?" So... don't. At least the front/side/back poses should be always flat color, and any fully rendered artwork should be extra, on the side. The point of the ref should be to help the different artists make a consistent rendition of your character first and foremost, of course unless the goal of your character sheet is for a different use other than commissioning artists.
If you have tattooes or markings that should be always done the same way, and you wouldn't be happy enough with aproximations, you should add the tattoo/marking in a space that makes it easy to copy and morph. The two best ways would be to put it over a fully white or fully black background, or even better have it as a .png with transparent background in a separate file to offer to the artist. Many artists will chose to draw it themselves for style reasons, but having your marking as a layer that they can wrap around the correct area will make it so much easier as it'll work as having a sketch to draw the final thing over.
Make sure the palm, nails, pupil, teeth and feet are clearly visible at least in one of the poses. Asking whether the character has claws, their color, if has paw pads, if is digitigrade or plantigrade, if has fangs... it wastes time, and some artists won't bother to ask at all and just will default to what is easier or what is they personally like or are more comfortable with. Try to make sure it's all clear in your ref.
Make sure to include height, genital size/sexual preferences and personality. Height is important when your character is interacting with others or objects. Naughty bits and sexuality for obvious reasons... need to know how big things are and into who's holes they like to put them. And personality is to draw your character behaving and reacting appropiately to what's happening to them, you don't want to give artistic freedom to your artist to then get your scary manly dominant wolf looking all subby and cute by accident.
Avoid information that is irrelevant for the artist. The important info can easily get overlooked if it's presented among a bunch of other data. At least make a separate section for the longer backstory and info the artist doesn't need. Alternatively you could get an alternative ref sheet version... One that is for artists with the aforementioned flat colored poses, tattoos for copy and only relevant text, and other for showing to friends with shaded poses, longer backstory and such.
If you don't have a proper reference sheet yet, but you have several separate drawings, avoid showing the artist the bunch of them. They usually have inconsistencies from one to the next, making the artist have to mix and match and pick what one detail to believe from each or, again, stop drawing and wait for your response on if your char is bulky like in exibit A or more thin like in exibit B. So, pick the one you like most, and show only that one to the artist. Show another only if the first didn't show something important that only the second shows, but yeah, don't let the artist choose among a list of several pics, you choose the one you like the best.
That's all I can think off the top of my head. Please don't take it personal if you do any of those things :D Just try to consider these the next time you're about to commission a character ref.
Let me know what you think. If you have any other suggestions for better reference sheets share away. Let's make it a conversation \o/
One of the biggest issues that are generalized around the fandom is when people shade their ref sheet. It makes sense from the client side to have the character looking their best in every part of the ref sheet, but for artists shading can get in the way of clearly understanding the tones and patterns of your character. "Is that a different color fur, or is just the shading?" So... don't. At least the front/side/back poses should be always flat color, and any fully rendered artwork should be extra, on the side. The point of the ref should be to help the different artists make a consistent rendition of your character first and foremost, of course unless the goal of your character sheet is for a different use other than commissioning artists.
If you have tattooes or markings that should be always done the same way, and you wouldn't be happy enough with aproximations, you should add the tattoo/marking in a space that makes it easy to copy and morph. The two best ways would be to put it over a fully white or fully black background, or even better have it as a .png with transparent background in a separate file to offer to the artist. Many artists will chose to draw it themselves for style reasons, but having your marking as a layer that they can wrap around the correct area will make it so much easier as it'll work as having a sketch to draw the final thing over.
Make sure the palm, nails, pupil, teeth and feet are clearly visible at least in one of the poses. Asking whether the character has claws, their color, if has paw pads, if is digitigrade or plantigrade, if has fangs... it wastes time, and some artists won't bother to ask at all and just will default to what is easier or what is they personally like or are more comfortable with. Try to make sure it's all clear in your ref.
Make sure to include height, genital size/sexual preferences and personality. Height is important when your character is interacting with others or objects. Naughty bits and sexuality for obvious reasons... need to know how big things are and into who's holes they like to put them. And personality is to draw your character behaving and reacting appropiately to what's happening to them, you don't want to give artistic freedom to your artist to then get your scary manly dominant wolf looking all subby and cute by accident.
Avoid information that is irrelevant for the artist. The important info can easily get overlooked if it's presented among a bunch of other data. At least make a separate section for the longer backstory and info the artist doesn't need. Alternatively you could get an alternative ref sheet version... One that is for artists with the aforementioned flat colored poses, tattoos for copy and only relevant text, and other for showing to friends with shaded poses, longer backstory and such.
If you don't have a proper reference sheet yet, but you have several separate drawings, avoid showing the artist the bunch of them. They usually have inconsistencies from one to the next, making the artist have to mix and match and pick what one detail to believe from each or, again, stop drawing and wait for your response on if your char is bulky like in exibit A or more thin like in exibit B. So, pick the one you like most, and show only that one to the artist. Show another only if the first didn't show something important that only the second shows, but yeah, don't let the artist choose among a list of several pics, you choose the one you like the best.
That's all I can think off the top of my head. Please don't take it personal if you do any of those things :D Just try to consider these the next time you're about to commission a character ref.
Let me know what you think. If you have any other suggestions for better reference sheets share away. Let's make it a conversation \o/
Just my musings on it.
I loath lack of detail from people. Especially when i get your refs for a writing com. Like. ...i cant write when you just give me a body and dont tell me your personality or any details 😬
Her clothed version because i keep her other versions private for my along (less art theft possibility of ref)
But what would you have to say for this?
But it's a lot of info in a single picture. The small texts and the background texture makes it visually more cluttered. It's missing some relevant data like her height and personality and there's the shading issue like in the neck, underboobs and groin it takes a moment to figure out if it's just the shading or there's a different color fur in there.
One thing I'd suggest, besides of the points already mentioned in the journal, is to maybe consider parsing the sheet into different sections a bit more clearly. Like it's done with the section about likes/dislikes and wardrobe, those two are pretty well separated and it's easy to not get lost around them if that info is not necessary at the time... the same could be done with the different forms, like separate or box 'em up a little to make it visually easier to keep the eyes around what's useful at the moment. Or even export a couple different versions that include only the specific kemonomimi, anthro and animal forms alone, so you can show only the relevant one to the artist depending on what is being drawn.
The way it is now it's incredibly pretty, and useful for personal stuff like RP and DnD things, but yeah it's a little overloaded for artist work. Though overall is a pretty great ref you got there.