Am I the only one who feels this way about character pictures?

[heliacalRebirth]

I use my own homemade pictures most of the time, because when I rip stuff from the internet I always feel like, oh shit this could be like a super famous person/anime character and I don't even know so I always just make my own. Plus, I feel like by doing my own art I can further personalize my characters. I would like to draw realistic but manga is a lot quicker and easier to distinguish. I'm not HUGE about the way characters look, physical appearance is only the tip of the iceberg after all.

It does annoy me, however, when someone is doing say, a post-apocalypic role-play. Everyone chooses realistic pictures of people then suddenly there's a cutsy little asian girl compete with blushies and a school uniform. It just doesn't really fit. At all. And yes, this has happened to me.

I think there's a place for everything. I'm fine with anime pictures, real pictures, and whatever else. Just please, make sure you know beforehand if that fits into what everyone else is doing.

 

[ThousandSwords]

The way I generally see things is rather simple.

If you're in an RP that is a serious RP that it would make sense to NOT have anime pictures in, you shouldn't use anime pictures. It looks goofy. Whether or not it is hand-drawn is, essentially, irrelevant as long as it gets the point across what the person looks like. I personally prefer hand-drawn pictures to photos, but that is my own personal preference.

That being said, I generally prefer the pictures for my characters to actually fit the character itself. This was a challenge that I had for a long time, finding the perfect picture to fit the character, simply because the way you see the character in your mind's eye is, well, sometimes not very well replicated in reality, or the drawings that are there are so very close, but just SLIGHTLY off in some way or another.

I design my characters based upon what I expect them to be, and base their appearance entirely around their "idealization", as in, what they believe in, and what their ideals are. The emotion conveyed within a picture of that character is just as important as what they look like. A reckless character will, understandably, be aggressive in his facial expressions and stance in the picture. A morose character will likewise be rather dull, muted, and somewhat emotionless in his stance/facial expression.

 

[Lady Sabine]

The emotion conveyed within a picture of that character is just as important as what they look like. A reckless character will, understandably, be aggressive in his facial expressions and stance in the picture. A morose character will likewise be rather dull, muted, and somewhat emotionless in his stance/facial expression.

Ugh, yes! This is a major pet peeve of mine. Even if I find a picture that strongly enough resembles my character, what if the emotion of the piece is all wrong? What if she's supposed to be quiet and demure, but the model is posing with a gun and a smirk on her face? Or what if he's supposed to be serious and studious, but in the picture is of a guy grinning and stretching like he doesn't have a care in the world? I can't use those pictures! It throws off the mood I'm trying to set and does more good than harm, usually.

 

[Peachygem]

I only like to play as characters that I've made up or designed, so I either draw it myself or commission someone (like my avatar). I find people who use famous people pictures to be slightly weird, because if someone took my face and made a new person out of it I'd be very, very afraid...

 

[Lady Sabine]

Wait, Peachy, you're famous? :o

 

[The Watch Dog]

I prefer sticking to drawn art. I despise the use of anime character as character portraits in non-anime roleplays, and the general description of "just like that, except with *different* clothes". Real life pictures are disturbing to me when it comes to portraiting a character whenever it is a realistic or not roleplay.

 

[Scrap Iron]

I have to ask, was disturbing a purposeful word choice there or did you just mean you don't like it? I can understand having a preference, but I would like to know what makes it disturbing to you.

 

[Shavynel]

The only thing I hate is when something "requires" that you have an image. I wouldn't go so far as to say I rage against people and RPs that want pictures, but I usually come up with a character concept first, and well, finding art that looks like my character or drawing art is usually not a thing for me. What happened to just descriptions?!

 

[ThousandSwords]

The problem I find with written descriptions is that it gives a very good sense to yourself of what your character looks like, but to other people's imagination, unless it is a painfully meticulous reconstruction of every single facial feature, minor tic, and clothing style, it's going to look different.

That's why I enjoy commissioning art when I can.

 

[Lady Sabine]

I don't really see what's wrong with other people having a slightly different mental image than your own. :/ I mean, books don't have a problem with it- why is it so important in RPing that everyone's minds construct the exact same image down to every meticulous detail?

 

[ThousandSwords]

The thing is, it's not a problem in books because it doesn't particularly matter to authors (generally speaking) what people think their characters look like.

It's a POTENTIAL problem in RPs because some RPers think their characters look "JUST SO" and anyone thinking that they look even a tad bit different could very well make them flip out because they decided they'd like to be a special snowflake today.

I've encountered this before. It's kinda painful.

 

[Lady Sabine]

I would say that's a sign of a bad roleplayer, not a problem with written descriptions. Saying images are necessary to prevent it is kind of like saying that rules on how your character looks are necessary to prevent Mary-Sues. While I guess it does technically work, sometimes the solution creates more of a problem than it solves. XD

 

[ThousandSwords]

True enough. A written description is fine most of the time, it's just that I'm a bit spoiled by the fact that I have a job and money to throw around, so I can afford to get commissions and such.

 

[Lady Sabine]

I'm sure I would too, if I had the money. XD I just don't think the lack of pictures is the root of the problem.

 

[Scrap Iron]

Even then, is a commissioned image going to look exactly like what you have in your mind? I've only had one character art commissioned and I basically told the woman doing it to go by what she knew of the character, since she was familiar with it from extensive RP. I only told her that I wanted the character lounging and reading a book. Came out great.

One of my friends has commissioned a ton of art for his one character and he very specifically tells each artist to use their own style and take on the character. They're all so varied and wonderful and I can't imagine how boring it would be if he were exacting enough to have the character drawn a certain way each time.

 

[ThousandSwords]

Oh, I understand that. It's just that there are certain general themes to the characters that I use that, unless requested, generally aren't going to be put into the picture.

The Hound Knight is a very certain case in that, as is Hyuude.

You'd be surprised how HARD it is to find a picture of a red, spiky-haired man with a wild reckless grin, lots of muscles, scars, and punk clothing that is NOT Axel from Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Jester]

<-- Made that myself. And the banner for my Group in my sig.

Honestly, I like the ability to draw it myself because I can show folks accurately what characters of mine look like. It's part of why I started drawing at a young age, and I'm still not very good at it. (Anatomy. Psh, who needs it.)

I don't mind though when other people use pictures or something to get an idea across, as long as they don't try to claim they made it. And there are RP's that force you to use images? Oh, bump that. Sorry, I'll move on. I have art of my characters, but the whole forcing someone to do something they may not even have thing is irritating.