January 7 - Oni 2 (Drawing a Day)
One of the big challenges that artists face is to create distinctive characters that are not grossly cartoonish in order to show individual features. It's obvious that Daffy Duck is different than Bugs Bunny. But in manga and non-cartoon comics, there's an expectation that the characters are going to have a certain level of consistency and realism* to keep a believable universe for the reader. This can present a challenge to the artist if they are unable to draw each individual consistently, and at the same time differently than other characters who share similar physical features in the same book. If a reader can't tell the difference between Peter Parker and Scott Summers because they both have short, dark brown hair, then a Spider Man guest shot in an X-Men comic could get confusing.
While working on the Oni character designs for my manga project, I needed to make all three of them unique, but also look like they all belong in the same book, while at the same time keeping a certain amount of realism in the drawing style.
The drawing I did today, which is the third character in the set (I drew number two last night), has a few similar features as number one. But I did not have to over-exaggerate the differences which make him unique. This allows me to create a character which is believable in the context of the book but can also be recognized individually.
* - By "realism", I mean a representational style of graphic art, compared to the cutesy cartoon styles of shows like Mickey Mouse, Invader Zim or The Simpsons. Even characters with super powers or magic are expected to behave in a manner consistent with their drawn universe, and will have body proportions that don't stray too much from real humans (except for the stylistic purposes of the artist).
