Creating An Iconic Character

Now many of you may ask, when creating your main characters how do you make him iconic? what makes him stand out from everyone else? Well I am here to show you some examples of iconic characters and then how to make your own iconic character.

But first lets look at this characters outline.

without color we can easily tell its mario because of the shapes used for him, even though he isnt in his iconic pose he is noticeable. now lets add color too him.

Now with color as you can see mario is not mario because besides shape and posing another important part of a character is there Attire. As ShakesPeare said its the clothes that make the man

Now that we've seen how Mario Becomes Iconic, lets look at some other iconic Characters

Master Chief or MotoCross?

Master Chiefs Armor from Halo 2 and 3 couldve been easily mistaken for a MotoCross Racer. Infact in the outline showed above of him without his gun he would look like he was ready to race and not to hunt aliens. but once we do add color to the characters it is a little easier too see who is here to slay aliens and who is here to slay the dirt.

Now, You might wonder... How do i make my character iconic? What Will make him stand out?

Well for starters a Good Start is positioning, How do you want your character To stand? Will it be a straight on stare or will he be rotated 45 degrees? The next Thing is Shapes? What unique shapes identify and seperate him? What makes him different and stand out. and now lets see his attire? does he wear clothes? is it a monster? what makes him stand out once the light is shined upon him? now that youve gotten those down lets talk about The characters pose? is he gonna be swinging a sword at you is he aiming down his sight? or is he just standing there in a A pose?

Here is My Character, Once of the Unique Things about him Would be his Wings but Besides That, His Hair is also what uniquely identifies him, it give him an iconic presence like it belongs there.

Now here is a outline for one of my creations. The Chimera he has a unique shape and feel to him while Sticking to original vision I had for him. The goat and Snake add an Interesting Shape and hierarchy when looking at him.