The Art style of DST

[Pinkamena11FazP]

So I am constantly struggling making my custom characters feel like they fit into dst, what makes it okay to use the plain white skin for a character until it has to be dulled color like with Walter. While with Warbucks he had more tanner skin but wasn't pure white like the other white characters. And god the nose and eye types and mouth types I need to just make an entire sketch of all the eye, mouth, nose and head shape types so I can reference them. If anyone can give advice/images how to keep the shapes looking DST like I'd appreciate it.

[minespatch]

I highly recommend you look up the art of Ronald Searle for emulating a form of shaky order.

[MikoFanboy]

this might help?

 

[Another Vena]

eyes: round under normal circumstances, may be oval, add points to them ONLY for expression. If the eyeballs are present, they'll be drawn with just whites or as "bead eyes" inside dark circles (ex. Wilson). For empty sockets, see WX and her skins. Eyelashes are not mandatory

mouth: lips are typically the same colour as the skin or slightly darker (ex. Maxwell), teeth are almost always present.

nose: often L-like, sometimes round. May or may not show the bridge. Nostrils are only on non-human animals.

hair: if it's brown I will show up at your house. rather detailed.

linework: there's often minor separation of a line's end. I call the smaller ones hangnails/splinters. Lines don't fit perfectly into each other.

general: make sure the silhouette is recognizable. More of a design tip. Also, don't use gradients unless you absolutely have to in order to depict the subject. Highlights should be white.

@Pinkamena11FazP

[dzzydzzy]

As is the case when emulating any art style, the best thing to do is literally trace the characters/ mobs/ items that already exist in-game. you learn so much just by tracing. the thing about DST in particular is paying close attention to the varying line weights and gestures of the sort of quickly scratched aesthetic. Not only will you understand linework details better, but you will also get a better sense of proportions which are unique in DST. **Don't trace the portrait illustrations, nor loading screen artwork** as they sometimes actually distort the character designs a bit, stretching their proportions and adding lighting details that aren't true to the character sprites.

Basically every survivor has a proportion of two head lengths. this is to say their head is roughly the same size as their shoulder to foot height if not larger. (Wormwood is an exception cause all of his designs include an extra chunk of design over his head, making it even taller). 

After learning the tricks about a "DST" form, color palette should be pulled from whatever part of DST you like best, some traditionalists might stick to what colors appear in only the default character skins, i'd say DST has evolved quite a bit since its super restricted palette days, and you could look at any skin set to pull color inspiration from.

And then from a practical standpoint (I don't know much about mod building) but you should definitely make sure you are working in the same DPI that the in-game sprites are in, and have them be the same rough height and width as other existing characters, anything that's off will look fishy in a line up.