Designing for a small screen
Character design for a scroll comic has a particular constraint: most readers see the artwork on a phone, where a full-width panel may be only a few inches across. Fine details disappear, and a character shown from a distance can shrink to a few dozen pixels in height. A good design therefore has to work at two scales, a close-up with room for personality and a tiny figure that is still instantly recognizable.
This article covers the practical basics of building a cast. How a design conveys emotion and temperament through faces and posture is a separate topic, discussed under personality and expression.
Start with the role, not the outfit
A design is easier to make when you know what the character is for in the story. Ask a few questions first. Is this person the protagonist, a rival, a mentor, comic relief? What should a reader feel on first sight: trust, suspicion, warmth, unease? What is the setting, and what would someone like this realistically wear and carry?
Designs that begin with a role tend to feel purposeful. Designs that begin with a pile of attractive features often feel generic, since nothing ties the details together. It helps to write three or four adjectives for each character, then check that the visual choices support them.
Silhouette first
A silhouette is the filled-in outline of a character with no internal detail. A classic exercise is to fill each design with solid black and see whether you can still tell the characters apart. If two figures produce the same shape, readers will confuse them whenever the lighting is dark, the pose is awkward, or the image is small.
Silhouettes are shaped by a handful of things:
- Overall proportion. Tall and narrow, short and round, broad-shouldered, lanky.
- Hair. Often the strongest identifier in a small image, since it can add a large, distinctive mass to the head.
- Clothing shape. A long coat, a bulky jacket, a cape or a skirt changes the outline far more than a printed pattern does.
- Accessories. A hat, a bag, glasses or a tool can act as a recognizable tag.
Varying these among the main cast is more effective than varying only face details, which vanish at phone size.
Color palettes for a cast
Color is the second quick identifier. Many creators give each major character a dominant color or a small palette that shows up consistently in clothes, hair and accents. A protagonist might lean on warm tones while an antagonist sits in cooler or darker ones, though assigning colors by simple rules can become predictable, so treat associations as a starting point.
A few practical points:
- Limit each character to a small number of main colors, which keeps them readable and easier to recolor under different lighting.
- Check that characters who share scenes contrast with each other, not just with the background.
- Test the palette in grayscale. If two characters look identical without color, their values are too close.
- Keep in mind that some readers see colors differently, so do not rely on hue alone to separate important characters.
Broader choices about color palettes for whole scenes and comics belong to a separate subject, but a character sheet is the place where those choices start.
Outfits that say something
Clothing communicates occupation, status, habits and mood. It also has to be drawable. A design with intricate layered garments, dozens of buttons or complex patterns will be tiring to reproduce across hundreds of panels, and small inconsistencies become noticeable. Many creators simplify clothing to a few strong shapes and add one or two memorable details.
Think about variety over time as well. Characters usually change clothes across a long series, so it helps to design a core look and a few alternates that share the same logic, such as the same colors or the same type of accessory. The role of costume design in building a character’s identity goes further into this idea, and the point to keep here is that a recognizable base look makes variations easier.
Keeping a cast distinct
When a story has many characters, differences must be deliberate. A simple method is to build a lineup chart: draw the whole cast side by side at the same scale and look at it as a reader would. Check for these problems:
- Several characters with the same height and build
- Too many with the same hair length or color
- Faces drawn from one template with only the hair changed
- Clothing colors that blend together
Contrast can come from height, body shape, age, posture, and the amount of visual detail each character carries. A lineup can also reveal that one character is far more elaborate than the rest, which can make them seem more important than they are.
Model sheets and consistency
A model sheet is a reference page showing a character from several angles, with common expressions and notes on proportions and colors. Having one cuts down on drift, which is the gradual change in a character’s look that sneaks in during a long weekly schedule. Useful contents include a front, side and three-quarter view, a head turnaround, a few typical expressions, a size comparison against other cast members, and a swatch of the exact colors used.
Consistency does not mean characters can never change. Hairstyles, outfits and even proportions may shift as the story moves forward, provided the change is deliberate and the core identifying features stay.
Testing at actual size
The final check is practical. Shrink the character to the size they will appear in a long shot and look at them on a phone. Can you tell who it is? Does the color contrast with the background? Do the key features survive? If the answer is no, simplify. Removing a small detail is often more effective than adding a larger one.
Good character design is rarely finished in one pass. Most creators revise after drawing the character in a few real scenes, since only then do the awkward details become obvious. A design that is simple, distinct and easy to draw tends to serve a long series better than one that is merely impressive on a single illustration.