Real Pictures or Art?

Crow

Crow

Whatever, Bullfrag is awesome.
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Fantasy, Superheroics, Slice-of-Life, Anime, a fair deal of fandom...
Alright guys, is there a reason why you prefer art over real pictures or real pictures over art when you're accepting characters or slapping an appearance onto characters?

Personally, I go for art, because I don't feel like stealing another individual's identity. That's just a secondary reason though. The primary reason - I have good and easier-to-find sources.

A third reason comes into play when roleplaying Fantasy settings, especially higher levels of Fantasy with many races. Sometimes, that is when you shouldn't demand full-on rl pictos. The closest comprimise is a little realistic art.


Now that my say is all said, let me tell you a little something.

On this forum off the coast, Solely-pictures were outright banned from Roleplays. If pictures were included, they had to be accompanied by pretty long descriptions. This forum also banned plots that were too short, effectively disallowing people who wanted simple, fluffy RPs with heavy flexibility. Some rules, but that's another story.

Some argued - well, if the individual can draw well to fit a character, they should be allowed to go solely picture. The mods argued - not everyone can pull that, and it was unfair.

Wonder how the rules there are now.
 
Almost always drawn images, preferably not in a mega anime style. When I can, I use art I have commissioned or drawn myself for my characters. Otherwise, I try to find art of random people (hopefully not someone else's OC...) and not of anime characters. This is pretty damn hard tbh.

If my partner doesn't like drawn images, I will hunt down a real picture, but I don't prefer it. I can't use well known celebrities, because I'll never look at a picture of Robert Downey Junior and think, 'this is my character James McFace, and not RDJ of Iron Man fame.' When I use obscure models, I feel creepy because I think back to my emo/scene days where I had some random teenagers take pictures of my face and use them for their RP characters. It's a really weird feeling, you guise.

So basically my ideal situation is to use art I have the rights to use. I need to just start reusing pictures at this point. Or characters. Just reuse characters. I don't feel right using other people's art, and I don't feel right using models. It's a hard life.

This would all be easier if I wasn't such a lazy shit who can't be assed to draw character sheets anymore
 
Almost always art. The main exception is if I'm playing in some kind of fandom game, in which case if it's a show or movie in live action then I'll grab a picture of them. I will only very rarely get an image of a real person for characters in other situations; I think the last time was around 3 years ago?

The reason for this is a mix of it being way easier to find art that fits my various odd fantasy character ideas, feeling kind of weird about claiming a real person's appearance for my characters, and plain old aesthetic preference.
 
I prefer using real faces and seldom use drawn images. It's just a thing that always stuck with me since I started roleplaying on another platform. I used to use anime when I was big on anime, but then I slid over to using real faces. I may use realistic drawn images, if I feel I have to, but other than that, real faces are my go-to because I was conditioned to.
 
I prefer art over real life images but I will use real life images if the genre I am doing is slice of life or something along the lines. Other than that art has what I need when it comes to characters.
 
To be honest, I never used pictures or art for my characters until I came to Iwaku and discovered it was the norm. Most of the time I would simply write down the description of my character.

I do prefer art over pictures, especially since most of my characters tend to be fantasy or mythology based.
 
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Greenie said:
To be honest, I never used pictures or art for my characters until I came to Iwaku and discovered it was the norm. Most of the time I would simply write down the description of my character.

I do prefer art over pictures, especially since most of my characters tend to be fantasy or mythology based.
Click to expand...

I too remember a time where it was the norm for me. I was actually used to writing at some point.
 
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I never use real photos. Just feels... weird. If images are a must, then I definitely prefer art. Recently, though, I've started to move away from images entirely in preference of written descriptions -- the main reason for this simply being that I've become a lot more conscious about art theft, and so it feels weird to me to use uncredited art these days. I still enjoy using art for my characters if it's a piece that I drew, myself, or that I had commissioned specifically for that character. I've just been moving away from my old habits of searching through Google or other image resources to find random character images. I don't police my players about it, though, since I realize not everyone has the time and talent to draw their own characters, or the money to pay for a commission. And besides, some of the verbal descriptions my players give me can be a bit... lacking, sometimes. I can sympathize if someone feels the need to use an image as a crutch. Detailed verbal descriptions can be hard. o_o

Still, though, most of that is another issue entirely -- if images are a definite yes, then I'll always choose art over photos. XD
 
I prefer art as opposed to real photos, for a varitey of reasons. A part of me likes roleplaying because it's separate from real life, so I can imagine things better if art is used as opposed to real photos. That alone isn't enough to keep me away, though; if the right circumstances are met I'd use real people. Just so long as they are very obscure and the photography used is of high quality. No 'selfies' or mirror shots or anything like that, they need to have quality similar to how art would be done.

I also prefer art because it's easier to photomanipulate art (especially animanga style) to fit my characters. Much like two other people here in this thread, I started out not using any pictures, though! But then I got into forum roleplaying elsewhere, where pictures were the norm, and I got into using pictures. Usually animanga, hence my preference towards that art in particular. Overall I like any form of art so long as it's well done, though.

I've also got a bit more conservative about art theft over time, but that's. A really iffy topic. I'm still really divided on the subject. I would commission everything I want if I could but then I'd not only lose thousands of dollars when I need to save up that money for something else really important, I'd also find artists who aren't available for commissions to begin with. Or only do commissions for a specific community that I'm not a part of and would take months to even partially get into. And then there's the problem of time and reliability; one commission I did took the artist about 8 months to complete a single character with no background, while another I've waited for over a year and the artist is still not done. And it's just a chibified character. =/

It feels really difficult to compare with people who are able to use art as opposed anyone who does not. Like, trying to join this one mass effect roleplay (a few years ago) was nearly impossible because all the players in cliques had commissioned art already and everyone flocked to them, but new players would struggle to do anything. Their characters felt more real because of the commissioned art, which compounded on top of the fact that some of them were staff and they were older players too.
 
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Chiming in with my weird-ass reply. I don't like photos of real peeples in RP, because often what is chosen is some icon of beauty and/or sexiness and many times they have this self-satisified "smirk aura" (or the actual smirk). And I'm ewwww. Plus, celebrity photos? Yeah, can't look at that and pretend in my mind that this is Frank Drinkminky, my RP partner, and not Mr. Famous Guy.

I prefer art over anime, simply because so much anime I've seen is focused on depicting a child-like appearance, especially the females. Even if the female character is 200 years old or 19, she may be portrayed as looking underage with prejudice.

Unless someone is playing a child, or, say, maybe a demon that looks like a child, it is too weird a vibe to me to have to imagine them like that in a RP.

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of great non-child anime pictures. But, recently a RP required anime pictures only and I needed to depict a sophisticated woman from a certain era for my character. I spent a lot of time on that, even the GMs tried to help. But all we came up with is doe-eyed virginal misses that looked like teenagers. At best.

I have cribbed artwork from old book covers and comic books (obscure or one-shots).
 
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I prefer art because it evokes more of a fantasy feel for me personally. Appearance sections as a GM are rarely a point of criticism unless someone decided to bring RoboCop to my medieval fantasy. If I don't want people faces I better state that in the rules section.
 
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Depends on a few factors.

If the setting and character are something I can realistically find a real image for, I almost always prefer a real image. It might be worth noting that I don't typically join roleplays that have an anime feel, so I never have a need for anime character images.

Most of the time, real images cover my bases in terms of most settings - fantasy, sci-fi, and modern. In the few situations I happen to play something that requires art, like a mage or something where outfit is important, then I might look at leaning towards art.
 
I prefer art or anime photos. I can't get down with using another person's identity tbh, and when I do that it makes me feel strange, like I'm unhappy with myself physically(which im not) but I'm not going to go plastering my face on every CS that requires a face claim. I'm thinking more along the lines of catfish, even though I'm not using it to woo anyone, lol. That's just my view on it.
 
Personally, I have an archive of real life pictures to use for my characters. I was also mainly conditioned to use them on my previous site too so thats probably why I haven't scrapped them. :P
When I am the GM of the roleplay, I prefer to allow both, so that no creative freedom is hindered. I don't mind roleplaying with both art and real life in my games because it isn't the appearance that (completely) makes the character, there is much more to them than what they look like in my opinion. If my player feels that their character is best represented with a real life image even though the roleplay may be fantastical in nature, I don't mind as long as the player feels happy with their character and they go within the plot guidelines. ^.^
 
I will always use art over photographs. Using photographs of someone else, even if they're some obscure model, is damned creepy and a personal deal breaker. My preference is actually for anime style, but if I absolutely have to, I'll go realistic. Then again, there aren't a whole lot of RPs that I join, so there is that.
 
Usually I go for art. Nine times out of ten I'm able to find something in the range of what I need. If I can't find what I'm looking for I'll seek out real images though it's rare.
 
When I first started rping I only used anime-type images. Mainly because that was what most others/everyone used on that site at the time. Eventually I took a hiatus for a few years, and upon my return the rp community had shifted. Writing was more advanced (because those on the site were now young adults with better vocabularies), and real bases had become the norm. Mainly celebrities, and models. Following suit I too began to use real face claims. Used them for years, and only recently got back into art since just before joining this site. I have since pretty much abandoned that previous rp site due to everything being so repetitive.

So far all the characters I've made here have high quality art imagery, and I now prefer that over real faces.
Why? Because most people seem to use the same 5 celebrities and models over, and over, and over again.
I get tired of seeing the same exact faces or very similar looking people all the time. Also, I find art has way more variety when it comes to physical features. I want my non-humans to look like what they actually are. A demon to truly look demonic. An Unseelie Sidhe to possess an obsidian complexion, pointed ears, and so on. You can't get that with real bases. Even cosplay and photo shop can only do so much. It's far too restricting, and roleplay is meant to be a 'the skies the limits' type of outlet.
 
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Oh gosh, what a subject! I'm pretty flexible in what I accept as long as its not a screen shot from anime or something like that. I prefer commissions, but not everyone can afford that. Heck, pictures aren't even a requirement for me, just a physical description where I can easily find it.

As far as what I like to offer, I either use doll maker flash games or I commission something. I feel wrong if I use art I took no part in creating or wasn't given to me.
 
I prefer using a simple written description of a character over anything, but between art and pictures of real people I don't care. I don't bother with pictures unless it is an absolute must, so if I'm already eschewing my own preference, whatever looks like my character will do. I do more often use pictures of real people than art now that I'm more comfortable with it (I used to find using pictures of real people "creepy"), though.
 
I use art a lot, I prefer something I've drawn myself, but the only problem is, I can't draw males unless they're feminine males. So if I've got an RP where I'm supposed to be a larger guy, I actually can't draw it. ;; Unless you want a feminine version and then you can imagine it yourself. XD

I would commission art but being a college student is expensive and I'm already broke. XD I do use money I make from drawing to commission others, but a lot of times for a roleplay I don't have a character that suits the situation already, so I have to make a new oc, and sometimes I can't just drop everything to draw a character. So I use art from other artists as a temporary measure until I have time to draw them. Like with my OC Evian, I have an incredulously long to-do list for my Christmas sales and I can't afford to stop to draw him yet. But i needed to get him down, otherwise I'd forget everything about him.

Actually, if you want to see how feminine my art is, just look at my icon. XD Though that's not my normal style in the least. But you can get a feel that my art is not suited for males. ;;
 
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