I was amazed with the idea that the shape of the profiles or faces of the famous characters influenced our interpretation of the nature of them. And you are right because I just realized that most characters with round or circular faces usually plays good or nice roles. And, personally, I have identified some like Doraemon, the cute Boy Scout "Russel" from movie UP and the smurfs. And what is common to them are their chubby cheeks and thus a round face.
There are also characters which has square faces which I remember to be brave and fierce in nature like no other than Superman, Batman and most superheroes I know. Oh! Oh! Mr. Carl Fredricksen, a stern yet brave old man from movie UP has also square-shaped face. One thing I notice that it can also be attributed that a square-shaped face adds masculinity to a character as most bulky people has that kind of feature too, as a relation. Woah! What a realization there.
And, for triangular shaped characters who might usually be evil. Uhm, I thought of witches at first and HIM, the red-skinned villain of powerpuff girls.It is really an eye opening for me @alcy. I am into traditional arts by the way and I specialized in pencil drawings. I haven't posted my drawings in steemit yet, but soon I will.
Fighters may usually be bulky and could really be identified by their getups. But, I just realized that some of the illustrators these days disguised some their characters to appear inappropriate and weak. In this way, people might get surprised and eventually liked the character. An example of the latter is the Penguins of Madagascar and One Punch Man. Who would have thought that those penguins do karate and fire bazookas? And a small bald man can finish off enemies with a punch?
What could the people may always remember about a character may refer to "acting". Some examples I have identified are the small flocks of curled hair of Superman, the thick eyebrows of angry birds and eye patches of Captain Pirates I know.
Your post has made me imagining. And, I agree with these pointers in character making. For all of you who are planning to be illustrators, keep following @alcy.
Wow, thanks for this comment man, I really appreciate !
As you said about artists trying to hide the real purpose of the character, the meanings of the shapes squares, triangles etc are the obvious ones, meaning if you use them, the viewer will easily understand the story.
But these principles can be bent following your story. Check at Bobby Chiu's paintings, he has some really rounded evil characters. In the end it all comes down to your story and how you want to communicate it.
Another analogy with colors for exemple where you can see green as peaceful, harmonious and calming color (miyazaki's movies for exemple) but it can be used as an oppressive one as well, like in the Matrix (when they get in the Matrice the color key becomes greenish). Thanks for your comment man ! Cheers !
I agree! The thrill starts when what was cute and cuddly turns to be evil or badass! Haha. There are really a lot of things that could be a cue to revealing a character but the element of surprise can steal the spotlight sometimes. Cheers!! @alcy