Help me with some character design?

[Kagedanji]

I just got a tablet for Christmas. These things are really fun and handy; they've motivated me to draw again after such a long time. Now I'm just sketching some original characters out of the top of my head. Though, I've decided to come here for advice and comments.

Recently, I've drawn this:


It's supposed to be a female character. Though, there are just some things about it that I can't put my finger on where it looks more like a trap male posing as a female than a female. It looked even more male in my progress of drawing it, but adding random hair appendages afterwards seemed to fix it, somewhat.

So, my point. Does it really strike you immediately as female? Does it give you doubts that it's really female? Make suggestions on how to lightly tweak her to make her more feminine without changing her completely. Maybe take the image yourself, drop it in photoshop, get your tablet, and make some adjustments.

But before all that, is there anything odd about the face shape or structure as an anime face? Does it look too much like a character from an existing series?

So far, it's become this:


But it's not done yet. She needs a body, doesn't she?

[Arceon]

Frankly. I thought it was a guy at first. Until I looked closer and read your actual post. The primary thing that shot out at me was the hair. Not quite a many female characters actually are drawn with frizzy hair like that, nor do I see that many in actual reality. From my experience, it generally resembles more of a single smooth curve sort of like a dome. There are frizzy type hairs in a manga style of course, but that's more of single large strands sticking up and curving in several directions.

The eyes also striked me for a bit, but for general reasons of small pupils rather than sex. Though I'm not sure if it was your intention to draw her in a shocked expression.

That, and I thought it was Shiro (FSN) at first. . .thanks to the spiky esque hair.

Also, man I hate you. I NEED A TABLET D:

[Kagedanji]

Okay. I cut half of the frizz from her hair. The top of her hair is much smoother now, and the frizz lines throughout the shape of her hair were rid of. Her pupils were made larger; I added another dot of light to each pupil, just because XD. You were right, I kind of unintentionally gave her somewhat of a surprised look. Along with her new eyes, she got a new smile . Lastly, her lines were defined. I still get some feeling that I haven't brought out enough feminism yet, though.

[Scep]

Eyelashes would probably be the easiest way to do it. Or emphasize on the lips. You cant go wrong with lipstick, but a simple line below the mouth might just do the trick.

[Kagedanji]

I did very small changes which included slight defining of the eyelashes and the line under the mouth. Try and spot the other changes, you probably won't. It hasn't changed much overall, but it's still a step forward. Once we've all decided that this character is definitely female, we can move on to deeper aspects of this character. Until then, keep suggesting, please.

[Kagedanji]

This thread is about to die a much unhelpfully premature death. Unhelpful for me at least. We should move on. This character's face should look female enough now, unless anyone has more suggestions. Now I want to draw a body, but no matter how I start, it doesn't look right at all. Maybe the neck's too fat? Maybe I just can't draw shoulders? Before I move on, I'll need some pointers. Also, if you have photoshop and a tablet, feel free to take the picture and do something with it to give me some examples.

[InFromTheTwilight]

hmmm, her hair looks too feature-less, add some hair lines or something and make the bangs less even are my suggestions.

[Kagedanji]

I'm not sure if I followed your suggestions too well. I wasn't sure what you meant by less even. At least it's another change. Small, yet still a change.



But now I realy want tips on drawing a body for her. See my post before this one.