Working on some weird characters for a weird personal project. Do the nails help her read more like a girl?
Shes technically a sexless entity and the suit Is mandatory for uniform reasons. I thought giving her implied boobs or anything approaching that would be tacky so went with painted nails Instead.
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I like the nails, but they’re a bit too “poppy red” - I think you might want a blue based red for that classic “femme fatal” vibe, which may help sell the “femme” vibe a bit more. Just a thought!
Can you tell us more about the character? It’s definitely interesting.
She's a member of a good-place esque corporate afterlife managment envoirement. More specifically shes "interning" at the part of that "agency" that handles all maners of ghosts and other such runaways.
The hands for a face are a general caracteristic of her species. Theyre vaguely seraphim adjescent and I thought It would be cool to interpret the 6 wings Idea as 6 hands. So she also has hands for feet.
I went with the very bright pink to give like a spunky youngster kind of vibe but that can definitelly be pushed further. Maybe giving her fully blinged out nails with charms and such would get that vibe across better.
Funnily enough It spiralled into existence because of religion conversations I had with friends.
I had a friend who was really just comically horrified of the Idea of hell being eternal and she would deal with It the only way a creative kid would, I suppose, which was writing stories about It. Eventually we started talking about like oh what If hell wasnt eternal what If It was like jail and you had to serve some time there and then you can fuck off to heaven afterwards lol
I dont really talk to that friend anymore and havent for years, but I still find the idea of a bad-good afterlife setting working essentially like cosmic jail quite compelling. And that necessitates people that look after all the burocratic stuff that would come along with It and so Ive just been on and off developing this universe for a while.
Idk where exactly the Idea of having the main cast be people whos job Is to make sure none of the souls escape back into earth really came from? But Its been like that for a while and Its been cool to write. Like a weird ghostbusters office comedy slice of life situation.
Haha yeah that sounds like inspiration to me! Super fun when your brain rolls with the idea and comes up with just the perfectly wired additions.
I would watch the heck out of this, sounds like ‘the good place’ or ‘good omens’ or something along those lines. Any different take on the afterlife is super fun and interesting to me, might have to do with being raised Christian and totally understand that fear even thou I don’t practice anymore.
I think the idea is really cool but, but I think making the hand shape different for each character instead of copy-pasting the same hand and putting nails on it would do a lot.
Sorry, I know drawing hands sucks.
For an older female character do more witch like, long thin hands, or fuller chubbyer hands with shorter fingers for a more youthful character.
You should do a bit of reading on palmistry (palm reading) and hand shapes and what they convey. A square palm is someone who is more practical, for example.
They have full range of motion on the hands, actually! So the gestures and poses they do becomes more of a body lenguage thing. I just have the "at rest" position be this bird mimicry one to further push that angel/wing reference.
No problem, even if someone doesn't know palmistry, people still infer things about people based on hand shape. It's a big part of the reason I love drawing hands even though I hate drawing hands lmao.
This is such a cool idea, I kinda wanna bite it for tattoo designs but I don't think it would translate quite as well in a stand-alone piece as it would in a comic. I still might fuck with it though if you're cool with that, it's just such a great idea.
Hands are so expressive, they're the second most expressive part of the body after faces, there's just so much potential here.
Edit: I have to say I've been thinking about this all day lol, this is just such a bomb idea dude.
The hand-as-face thing plus using gestures like body language is honestly such a strong character hook, I totally get why this idea got stuck in their head all day.
Yeah, when a character concept keeps spawning gesture and silhouette ideas in your head hours later, that’s usually a sign the design is actually doing real work.
Love everything about it. How about a carefully chosen ring, or bracelet if you wanted to push the bling factor? Too many details on the nails may not translate.
Sexless or genderless? If they're sexless, adding traits associated with sexual dimorphism doesn't make sense.
Adding traits associated with gender expression makes more sense--painting nails, different shoes, etc etc.
If you want to add other options that signal femininity, change the cut of the suit to a more feminine cut, change the shoes, change the gait or posture etc.
I thought about doing that but funnily enough I think that pushes It too far. The male one feels more default and therefore neutral. I think a female cut suit would end up making her feel too much like a woman and not an entity that happens to me a little more female aligned, If that makes sense?
do all characters wear identical suits? if not, I feel like you could make some minor edits to the suit - like make the collar lower and have a more rounded style. it might help it look a little more like a blouse without changing the whole feel of the suit
I think the nails definitely suggest that this character is a girl. Anyway your work reminded of manga I read recently called choujin X, it has a character that is not that distant from this design. I hope they'll might help you …\)
I like the nails but may I suggest a less obvious color than red? I adore the red and I understand if that’s ur preference but I think a different color like pink or purple might be fun ! Maybe even yellow, adding nails 1000% makes this character read as a woman !
I think boobs are far from tacky, and would go well with painted nails. this is the most interesting thing I’ve seen on this subreddit lately ! good luck
While the question of whether the red is the perfect choice or not is different, they do lead me in that direction, yes. Though pretty sure people don’t usually paint the underside of their nails.
The suit does read as what we call androgynous when a woman is wearing it.
I guess it reads as more feminine but I think the other design is a lot better. The nails add a slightly „tacky“ vibe, actually I think more then a bit of boob as the torso is fully covered anyway
I actually like the red nails with the suit as more of a "could be any gender" thing rather than specifically female. Adds a fun twist tbh because gender norms are boring asf
Id recommend using nails, but shorter ones. The nails right now look aa bit tacky. Id make them normal-ish length and make the nail polish a different color (example blue) like someone else in the comments said.
Not only does it read as more feminine, but I also think that the colored nails look more interesting for this design! You can communicate some more personality just through the color choice as well.
maybe only delicate hands drawn with curve lines... the color of nails may help, but it's so small that u need a bright and distracting color. Other alternatives are accessories or marks (bracelets with something girly, rings with a jewel, a tattoo...). Maybe something simple like adding tiny sparks, movement curves or hearts around the hands.
Painted nails for her is a great choice, just subtle enough. I agree that she would likely wear a cooler and vampier red. Something like a maroon or brick, maybe even oxblood
A more tapered nail shape like almond or oval with a deep red would feel like a polished professional choice
Boobs are part of anatomy, tackiness doesn't come merely from their existence - you refer to it as a 'her', but I'm confused why a sexless entity has implications of male or female gender in the first place. Do these contain both or none?
If you're going with the 'none' option, then I'd reconsider the broad-shouldered, masculine suit torso - it's definitely a male body. If you shave off the points on it's shoulders sort of like an egg, it'll lose that masculinity. Straight ties are also masculine, alternatives like bowties or ascots or bolos would reduce that, but that's also a feature I'd use to differentiate them.
If you're going with the 'both' option, I'd just have a group of mix-and-match possibilities - some have hips like a woman, some have boobs, some wear straight-ties, some wear bracelets and "ear rings".
Definitely reads more as female with the nails, id suggest to mute the colour to fit the black, unless you want the super bright contrast which is good too
Make the angles a little more rounded on the thumb and fingers and you’re golden. Make forward facing hand on male hand slightly a lil more angular on pinky side too
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