Viewpoint drawn face claims vs. realistic faceclaims ?

[monxmiracle]

so when i first started writing and roleplaying i had intially started off using drawn faceclaims from cartoons , or artists that i liked . but now as i've gotten older i started using realistic faceclaims based off of famous actors , models , or influencers . some people may find using real life faceclaims "weird" , same can be said about those who don't like drawn faceclaims . which do you prefer and why when making your ocs and characters ? i'm curious to see everyone's opinions !

 

[Hootle]

I prefer both actually. I guess whichever I can find that goes with what I had in mind for my characters. Sometimes it's hard finding what I'm looking for so I like having options between the both or if nothing works a good description will suffice.
It would be great though if I had some type of artistic ability to draw my own characters but oh well.

 

[FloofWhispers]

I prefer drawn, only because I was raised on anime, cartoons and am a furry. Every now and then, I'll use a realisticly drawn character, but, I tend to use anime/cartoon things. Realistic just makes me uncomfortable.

 

[AncientBird]

Drawn face claim is much easier to find than real one... I always have a character's look in mind when I create a character, but to find any real face claim that match it is a torture!

 

[FloofWhispers]

Drawn face claim is much easier to find than real one... I always have a character's look in mind when I create a character, but to find any real face claim that match it is a torture!

True

 

[Idea]

So, I would actually separate this into four categories (excluding the non-usage of faceclaims, such as by descriptions): Photos, Realistic Art, Anime Art, Other Drawn Art, such as cartoon art.

The distinction between anime art and other art is kind of arbitrary and I made the separation this way because of my personal needs, though one could easily have just lumped it all into an "Stylization art" category or made a bunch of different categories for each major style. As for realistic art, it's categorized not by necessarily being photo realistic but by having a large amount of detail and at least seeming to strive for a level of (visual) realism. Las thing to note is that at times these styles may blend together to an extent.


So with that out of the way, my preferences for faceclaims are in the following order:

Anime Art > Realistic Art > Other Drawn Art > Photos

These are my reasons:
-That order is how visually appealing those things generally are to me. Anime art is my favorite, and realistic art can at times feel really cool or epic to me. Cartoon art, on the other hand, often feels out of place for me due to a high stylization (anime also has it but I guess I'm more to used to that one, and it's often to a lesser degree) and especially recently a lot of cartoons seem purposefully made to be as ugly as can be. As for other such styles in the other drawn art category, they tend to either be too deviant-arty / tumblerish for my tastes.

-Anime art has the added benefit that it can act as a filter. If someone isn't simply indifferent to anime but outright dislikes it they are likely to be against the use of such faceclaims. This person probably wouldn't be a good match for me, since as a big anime and manga fan my approach to characters and storytelling has been influenced by them, potentially in ways I myself haven't even noticed. On the other hand, those who are interested in anime and that kind if story telling may appreciate the use of that kind of faceclaim.

-Realistic art can be very useful in terms of quick images for fantasy settings, especially for something like homebrew dungeons and dragons. In playing those things it can clash with the expected feeling to use anime art. Furthermore it's also generally better for finding monsters.

-Using photos of real people is just something that makes me very uncomfortable.

 

[nerdy tangents]

My preference is just “credit the creator.” It drives me crazy when people will just post a random picture and not say “Face Claim : Model/Actor’s name” or “Face Claim : Drawn by Artist”

I think probably real people are a little easier to credit (especially as people usually start out with an actor/model in mind). But I don’t really have anything against drawn face claims as long as the original artist is credited.

 

[SpookySableye]

I find myself preferring drawn faceclaims over the ones of real people. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to cartoons, anime, and really animation in general, so that definitely plays a part in why I like to delve into that side of myself when looking for pictures, though I myself also feel a bit creepy using real, existing people's photos for that stuff. I'll do it if that's what the person running the roleplay wants, but if I have the choice, and it won't break the immersion, I'm going with a drawn faceclaim.

 

[FloofWhispers]

I find myself preferring drawn faceclaims over the ones of real people. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to cartoons, anime, and really animation in general. so that definitely plays a part in why I like to delve into that side of myself when looking for pictures, though I myself also feel a bit creepy using real, existing people's photos for that stuff. I'll do it if that's what the person running the roleplay wants, but if I have the choice, and it won't break the immersion, I'm going with a drawn faceclaim.

Saaaame

 

[Jannah]

Depends on the RP for me. If I'm doing a realistic RP or a RP based off a live-action/realistic fandom then I only like realistic faces. However, if I'm doing a RP based on an animated fandom then drawn faces are fine (I also don't like realistic faces in an animated universe). How realistically drawn the faces are depends on how realistically drawn the characters in the original source material are. In other words, I generally like aesthetics to match.

 

[cuzn]

for the most part i go based off of my partner's preferences. i tend to roleplay in a lot of fantasy settings, though, and in that case i either draw my characters myself or use drawn fcs. because i can draw and love to draw fantasy, all of my character designs tend to be things you can't really find in real life, or even in cosplay... but because i'm not too confident in my art just yet, i can't always provide a full drawing for every character i use, so most of the time i just try my best to get by with thorough descriptions if my rp partner allows it.

 

[Jannah]

for the most part i go based off of my partner's preferences. i tend to roleplay in a lot of fantasy settings, though, and in that case i either draw my characters myself or use drawn fcs. because i can draw and love to draw fantasy, all of my character designs tend to be things you can't really find in real life, or even in cosplay... but because i'm not too confident in my art just yet, i can't always provide a full drawing for every character i use, so most of the time i just try my best to get by with thorough descriptions if my rp partner allows it.

I honestly wish I could draw because sometimes I have images in my head that don't really fit any of the real faces or even artwork I see around the internet.

 

[Pokeking]

I don't much care for face claims, realistic or drawn. I like to describe the character as best as I can and then let the reader's imagination fill in the blanks.

 

[Zornaboy]

Don’t care much for faceclaims, like a mix between a visual and a written description. What irks is me is the faceclaims that get used.

 

[Crenando]

Realistic face claims are fine for RPs where the cast all looks like normal people or are close enough to be photoshopped into what you need or exist as cosplays, but when you get to completely inhuman creatures in sci-fi or fantasy, what do you do?
This is an especially big pain for fandoms that have illustrations of those kinds of characters but either cut them from the live-action adaptations or do em dirty, presumably in front of they squad.

 

[Chim]

I'm the opposite. Whenever I saw someone use a drawn face claim I would be weirded out, because I grew up with movies, etc. I'm not a fan of anime by any means, perhaps that's why I like photos of real people more when I reference to how they look like. True, it does get weird when you use a real person's face to roleplay as them. At the end of the day, I have to remind people that the face references that are in use are not by any means part of this roleplay, nor they commence to the acts that have been written out. Some people truly get the idea that this real person, whose face was used as a face claim, truly did these acts.

 

[Onmyoji]

I feel weird using real people photos for faceclaims, unless it's a photo of the actor who played this specific character used in a fandom rp.
I prefer drawn images.

'Drawn' doesn't equal 'anime' though. It can be paintings in various styles, including realistic paintings, or even 3D models. Just taking photos of random real people feels weird to me. If I saw my own photo as a faceclaim I'd be creeped out. Even using a photo of some actor for a character that was not the one they played feels a bit off to me.

I realize it's my own personal issue so I don't force anyone to change faceclaim images even if they rp with me just because I don't like it. But I don't use them myself.

 

[A Sparkling Zombie]

In a roleplay set in modern-esque or futuristic times, where only humans are playable, I prefer to use realistic face claims.

Otherwise, I prefer to use illustrations that are anywhere from "anime-lite" to realistic. The anime style is too...simplistic, for lack of a better descriptor. I like when faces and bodies have more definition, and (traditional) anime generally doesn't support the type of appearances I like to play. Mass Effect's anime came close with James Vega, but the result is pretty awkward.

 

[yutohase]

My preference is just “credit the creator.” It drives me crazy when people will just post a random picture and not say “Face Claim : Model/Actor’s name” or “Face Claim : Drawn by Artist”

I think probably real people are a little easier to credit (especially as people usually start out with an actor/model in mind). But I don’t really have anything against drawn face claims as long as the original artist is credited.

Well, I think it’s good to credit the artist, but sometimes when we find face claims we don’t know the original artist so that gets a little hard to do. In those situations, assume we didn’t draw it, and move on.

 

[yutohase]

Also I prefer drawn to realistic, but mostly because of my anime phase going on.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Well, I think it’s good to credit the artist, but sometimes when we find face claims we don’t know the original artist so that gets a little hard to do. In those situations, assume we didn’t draw it, and move on.

It’s more that people

1. make a living drawing art and should at bare minimum be linked back to their art station or deviantart page

2. some people specifically request their art not be shared without their permission.

It’s actually not hard to find the original artist if you use sites like deviantart or even Pinterest (you might have to put in a touch more work with Pinterest but it’s doable)

I used to do photo manipulations for another site where I would use photoshop to help create face claims for peoples OCs. For the most part I did this for free and took hours out of my day to make the best images I could.

All I asked is that people didn’t steal other peoples OCs or just credit me if they took my own OCs. As not only did I put effort into my work I also used base elements from other people.

I feel like a lot of folks discount how much time and effort it takes to do the art your using. No one says you made it but it’s just basic manners to credit the person who did.