I usually do so whenever I need inspiration or feel too lazy to write. I would love to see drawings of your characters!
If I could even pretend to draw a straight line, I would draw something. Wasn't blessed with the ability.
Yes I think it helps a lot, especially when it comes to description, to know what my characters look like. My art isn't very exciting, but it's cool to see them all down on paper!
I would if I could draw anything better than a stickman. Instead, I trawl Google images until I find the face of my character. I have trouble picturing faces (they're all just blurs in my head) so it helps me picture scenes more clearly. But I'm very very light on descriptions so readers will never picture them the same as me. I love it when beta readers tell me which celebrity's face they've assigned to my characters.
I actually take different features from different people and then draw them. Though I suck at realistic art. I actually get inspired a lot by faces on Google images.
Depending on what i'm doing i will, the two WIP's have some basic character sketches that I wish not to share, as they're for my reference only, namely because I'm not that great at drawing. the WIP i love doing character sketches for the most is Harvest: The Devil's Orchard. most of my characters are some kind of demon/human entity, so getting some kind of idea on paper is great (i even try to do sketches of stuff like rams and goats to get some idea of Horn shapes/styles)
Hey @Shn1010, it might be worth checking out the 'Character art' thread here: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/character-art.144896/ - lots of drawings over there! I tried to draw my characters but can never do them justice, so I ended up making them in the sims and photoshopping them into different scenes, haha.
Here's the series of images I drew in first year art college that eventually inspired Aliens Don't Bend at the Knees: EDIT: Okay, I give up. This is my fourth attempt to post these damned pictures. I tried two different formats (PNG and JPG) and used both "Upload a File" from the "More Options" panel as well as just hitting the "add an image" button. I've posted images before, but I'm stumped. Maybe this'll do the trick: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-z_yjY1NlJUUzJmUkZ4Tk56VWc https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-z_yjY1NlJUNnZVU3JSbmxhaEE https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-z_yjY1NlJUajliZWNhRmhHMm8 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-z_yjY1NlJURUJEeEFNUGhKc00
The only drawing I did of my characters was Kelly Briar. I got to say, I'm pretty proud of it but I don't think I can repeat it. I could only draw the faces efficiently. I'm not proficient on anatomy to draw the body. I want to get better at drawing so I could draw my characters because it could be a good imagination practice and like you said, something to do when I feel too lazy to write. I think it would be fun if I could make my own comic version for my stories, but that's going to a long while before I could do that. Drawing could really help visualize things a lot more.
This thread has actually inspired me to give drawing my characters another shot. I will post them - if they do not disappoint me too much!
So I drew this in like 2o mins, so it's a little rough, but I actually managed to get them to look something like what I see in my head.
*o* wow!! I wish I could do digital art. I don't have a tablet and a mouse doesn't go a long way for me
They're just scans of line drawings I did with a biro and pencil. My scanner takes away the papery texture in the background, somehow - good guy scanner! I am gonna colour them in on the computer though. If you scan in your line drawings just up the brightness and contrast and all you'll be left with is the outline so it looks like it was drawn on a computer
I have, but basically as yet another form of procrastination. I've posted this elsewhere on the forum so, forgive me, those who've seen it before. This is my protag's father, Morys Obelyn.
@obsidian_cicatrix Wow, that looks amazing. What medium did you use for that? How long did it take you? I'm sorry for all the questions, just in awe at your skills! @Shn1010 - ahh really? Hmm, do you scan them or photograph them? If you make it so that the image is taken in a well lit area so that there is more contrast to begin with, then up the contrast/brightness on the computer then that may make a difference.