{Food for Thought}

[carneaglariel]

A thought just hit me as I was drawing this morning, so I wanted to pose the question to the rest of my flist.

Do you find it easier to portray a female or male character in your writing/art/comics/stories?

I know of some friends who say they find it easier to write from a male's perspective rather than a female's, even if they're female. Vice Versa

Comments

[maxsterism]

I don't really think that much about it because usually I base my characters on stereotypes (or should I say, anti-stereotypes) which meakes it kinda easy for them to fall into/not fall into them as long as I have a clear idea of where they're going? However, if you meant that as a role-playing question, my answer would be a pre-pubescent girl. You can never figure out what the hell they're thinking most of the time LOL OTL.

[carneaglariel]

LOL I CAN TELL YOU ALL ABOUT HOW PRE-PUBESCENT GIRL THINKS HAHAHA. My sister is helping me fill in the blanks of what I didn't know since she's practically the opposite of me and she's in her 'growing up' age >D

Same case for me I guess. I find it harder to understand the mindset of pre-pubescent guys. Unless I was to base it off my brother which would be an amazingly small range in terms of stereotype 8D;

[peanutcase]

if its fanart, the more i know the personality and knacks of the individual. its not a problem to draw them ^^;;

as for being either on either side of the gender to put concept together. I will be on a very neutral end. I draw more males, cos my fav characters are mostly guys. ahhahaa.. just my preference. but i can only draw guys from a female pov. aahahaa.. never from a guy's pov. i always get guys wrong.

[carneaglariel]

Yeah somehow I don't have this problem with fanart. Save for Lelouch, the magnificent bastard. He's too complex a character for me to portray in paper sometimes XD

Yeah the PoV bit always daunts me because somehow I don't think I could see it from a man's pov. Though interestingly enough, I feel as if I could portray olden day men better than I can modern day men. Somehow or rather. That or it could be from the influence of books I read O_o;

[iyori]

I don't write a lot, but even when it comes to portraying characters in doujin/manga/etc, i think as a girl i'm simply more tuned in to girls' thoughts lol. I have my own ideas about how male characters would react to a particular situation, what they would say etc but since i'm not a guy i pretty much shelve that under stereotipical concepts. I don't know the answers, but it's something i would love to find out about :D

[carneaglariel]

I think we'd always be tuned to girl thoughts haha. Imagine drawing from a male's perspective and going OMG HE'S SO BISHIE AND HAWT I WANNA BEEP AND BEEP AND BEEP. This might work in BL but somehow I don't think that works HAHAA XD:

Yeah its always interesting to see how the males would think about it. Stereotypically I always think males see things really simple and clean cut, though I have met men who don't live up to that and think too much for their own good so yeah 8D;

[elderg]

For me it is easier to portray a guy then it is a girl. You know the saying guys doesn't know how woman think? That is exactly why when dumping my characters in my writing into situations, i can imagine how guys would work their way around it. Girls, on the other hand, are far more difficult to imagine unless i can draw it from self-experience.

just me 1 and a half cents. Beware the joker standing behind you but don't look or you'll piss him off

[carneaglariel]

I think the saying goes vice versa. I can barely guess what's on certain men's minds unless I know them very well and usually its not the immediate thoughts that come to mind hahaha XD LUL CONSULT A GIRL ON THE PROBLEM HAHA 8D

Thanks for the input~

[ilunari]

I can potray both female and male characters fine. I might be alone in thinking this : but characters as of most stories seen today can be really flexible, and the stereotype on both genders almost gone long while. Not much borders, and the borderline is blurred pretty much.

What I usually do when I create a character(I do create characters here), I usually try to setup their personalities first, then the draft. Interactions usually come later because it's the hardest part (for me) and it plays a crucial part of the story.

Simply put, I potray characters depends on their personality more instead of genders. So for me, Setup is very important.
Gender doesn't really matter much to me anymore.

My 2 cents here ^^.

[carneaglariel]

That's actually quite true IMO. Especially for modern day characters. I mean olden day characters is where the stereotype comes from, though these days even in real life, the line between genders and their reactions and understandings of certain things have at times severely crossed over X_X;

Yeah that's interesting though I do put emphasis on gender because I once did personality statements without considering the gender and probably their upbringing and I ended up with female and male characters who acted almost exactly like each other. Could be totally my fault though 8D

Thanks for the input though!