Viewpoint FCs and character appearances

You can go either one of two ways if you ain't faceclaiming.

A) A very evocative description - not necessarily an accurate one but one that is very well, atmospheric, powerful, gripping. It doesn't have to be how they look just as they are from pure observation but something that captures the vibe and mood, letting one's subconscious fill int he blanks.

B) A very technical descrption - basically nailing all the little devils-in-the-details in such a way it feels like you're basically breaking the image in your head down into something concrete.

Personally, I think FC's are handy but a part of me likes to be that snob who can say "well, I can aKShuYaLly flesh them out perfectly with no need for a fancy image you peasants!" But real talk though, I think it's good practice to be able to describe how you look because not everyone is gonna wanna have to jump back to an image there will likely be some inaccuracies with your particular interpretation of a character.
 
I rarely ever participate in the discussions myself, but I do want to put out the idea of not using face claims (FCs) and seeing the thoughts it brings up. I actually used to love FCs, but now I don't want to re-appropriate other peoples' art, and I feel like I'm back in middle school when I fiddle around with doll-makers. I don't know if anyone else feels the same way, has no strong opinions on the matter, or strongly disagrees. If you do disagree, and find FCs a driving point, what do they add to RP that isn't made up for in writing?

I'll add a more general question: what do you think is necessary to visualize a character? Ignoring images. Hair color, ethnicity, what they smell like?

Basically all of this has been said already, but I'll chime in anyway. Lol.

FC's are, at the end of the day, a choice. Plain and simple.

If you and anyone participating in an RP with you are okay with not using them, don't use them. If a majority want to use them, then there's no harm in allowing them.

The only thing I'd say needs to happen is that the FC needs to stay in the character profile and out of the general posting sections unless it only appears once in the intro post and never appears again after that.

When it comes to pros and cons, there really is no con to using an FC in your character profile. The only time I've ever encountered any kind of "con" is when someone only has access to a phone for posting (lacking a laptop or personal computer) and the FC's are being placed at the top of every single one of everyone's posts (for whatever ungodly reason). That can very quickly eat up bandwidth and slow the site down for phone users to the point of the site becoming unusable and they'll never be able to post because the pages will be stuck in an infinite loading loop due to bandwidth being bottlenecked.

As far as my own experience for benefits, the main benefit of an FC is an instant association between the name and face of the character which all the participants of the RP can enjoy. Not entirely necessary if you're good at descriptive writing. Everyone can kind of paint their own individual mental picture of what they should look like when you do descriptive writing. But that skill (yes, it's a skill) is harder for some than others. So having an FC for them to immediately link a face to the name of your character is often beneficial for others mentally and emotionally.

As well, people bond far more with characters they can see. And this includes the owners of said characters. When a character has no definitive or easily discernable face, it's much harder to connect with them because human beings are genetically and evolutionarily programmed to identify each other by face. No face, no identification, no association, and it becomes incredibly hard to bond with said character.

Even if you've got a good idea what they look like in your head nothing really beats having that perfect picture to match the appearance that you can go back and admire and use to personally connect with the character. Finding the perfect picture can be impossible sometimes, however. In such cases it's generally best to avoid an FC and just describe them in as much detail as possible so they aren't mistaken for a face that you don't want them associated with. But when you can find the perfect picture, draw it yourself, or commission an actual artist to do so using sites like artistsnclients dot com for relatively cheap prices (which I've done for a character or two already, it's awesome!), then it really can bring a sense of satisfaction to you and anyone else who wants to see the character again. Cause sometimes it's just fun to go back and look at the pictures again.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Aside from that instance of using FC's on every single post which bottlenecks bandwidth for phone users, there's really no con to an FC at all. Even if the FC isn't exactly what you're looking for, but is incredibly close, you can always describe the differences for everyone either above or beneath the photo so they can do a bit of mental artistic work to reshape the image to your description.

Cheers!
 
There's nothing wrong with drawing OCs/FCs yourself. Even if it doesn't look like a professional artist did it, it's still better than nothing.

I draw a lot of my own art even though my artwork is terrible. On one fandom wiki I'm on, dollmakers are banned, so users have to draw their own art.
 
I never use FC's unless the RP specifically demands it. I prefer to just describe my characters since nothing ever quite fits as far as FC's. If I had artistic talent then I would draw out my characters, but alas I don't.
 

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