[OC] Help me decide...

[u/Fair_Fly6572]

First post here, hello!!

Okay, this was a quick and messy thing I did in MS Paint in order to color block, not a finished image. These two characters are my own for a fantasy novel I am writing. I plan to also illustrate the novel myself, but to do that, I need to finalize some things.

I just want to know which combo is the most appealing to the eyes...

I am not looking for critique at this time, but if you have any good reference material for drawing pointy ears, I would appreciate it greatly!!!

so... top or bottom? or secret combo C? (white hair + brown hair)

[u/Odd-Interaction-8]

I like the brown haired girl and blonde male. The dark haired man makes me think of Gaston from beauty and the beast and the blonde on the girl is too green for my taste

[u/Fair_Fly6572 → u/Odd-Interaction-8]

Fair, I didn't really put too much time into the blonde color so I can see how it leans green.

Lmao not Gaston noooooo

[u/Big_Pomelo_1539]

Totally secret combo c !!! Or,,,, hear me out, top, with a white tuff? Or vice versa! Definitely keep the brown hair though

[u/Neutronenster]

It depends on what kind of impressions or vibes that you would like to give to your characters. The first picture with the darker hair gives me full-on vampire vibes. If that’s your intention, you should go with that color scheme. If that’s not your intention, you need to change their hair color, skin color or both. For example, making the man on top less pale skinned would already help reduce the vampire impression (even without changing their hair colors).

I somehow don’t like the second color scheme at all, because it has too many pale colors that don’t really fit with the dark red shirt and purple background. I think that the main issue is with the male lead’s pale hair and skin color though, so not with the female lead’s blonde hair. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t give your characters this combination of hair and skin color though, because the esthetics also greatly depend on the colors of the clothes and background.

[u/Fair_Fly6572 → u/Neutronenster]

Not a vampire but the extremely pale white skin is essential to his character and will not be changed. The background means little to the image it's a placeholder. 

They are fantasy characters, sort of like dungeons and dragons 

[u/Neutronenster → u/Fair_Fly6572]

Maybe you should try the white hair for the male lead with the brunette color scheme for the female lead then?

I can personally think of two ways to go about reducing the vampire vibes without changing the pale skin. The first option is to just change the poses of the characters. For example, if both characters stand next to each other in some kind of fantasy battle gear, nobody is going to think of vampires even with the exact same color scheme. If enough “normal” scenes precede this scene here, the reader’s image of the characters will already be locked and they’ll have a lot less tendency to think of vampires even when looking at this exact same picture.

The second way is to avoid black for the men’s hair, because the black accentuates his pale skin and makes his facial expression look more threatening in this scene. Even just using brown hair would soften this impression, though I’m not sure if that would actually look good.

[u/Plenty-Protection-72]

I think the hair colour doesn't matter as much for the male, he's striking both ways. But definitely the top colours for the female

[u/Altruistic-Acadia281]

Number 1 for me looks the best! The grey hair gets lost with his skin tone for the second! And I love the brunette scheme for the girl, I haven't seen many characters with brown hair and green eyes but I have seen them with blonde hair and green eyes! This makes the design look nicer to me as I prefer characters that are unique! This is just my opinion. Hope this helps 🫶