After listening to an episode of Quackcast I thought to revisit some of the ideas brought up in Aaron Diaz's art blog, this one: http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/
I remember he had some interesting ideas on character design intermixed with some pretty standard ones. One idea that stuck with me is that a good character design should still be distinct even if they change clothes or clothing style, as a sort of litmus test he came up with what he called the "Naked Test." Pretty simple idea, draw some characters naked, are they still distinctive and recognizable?
So I gave it a try and drew some characters nekkid and I guess it worked, but I think it would have been more helpful if I made character studies more like how Aaron Diaz does. I might have gained a little insight to the characters' personalities weirdly enough. Anyone else ever try this? What were your thoughts on it?

He didn't come up with that, that's been a standard of character design for some time. It's funny that you're using that example because it's one that he's quite bad at IMO. If you make Kimiko stand up straight and ignore her robot legs and scale her up to be the same height as the other woman he's comparing her to, they have EXACTLY the same body shape. Some other stuff he's brilliant at, but not that one.

It is an interesting activity though, and thinking in those terms is an easy to way to keep in mind that you can do a lot more with your character design than different hair, heights and sexes. It's also kind of fun to take shapes and try and draw characters to 'fit' them. an apple-shaped character or a top-heavy triangle or whatnot.

I'm interested to hear the "insight into your characters' personalities" you mentioned!

It's a good exercise, but people sometimes lose sight of the end results while doing it. The point of it is to have a cast varying enough in shape that each one is identifiable at a glance, and there's never any confusion about which character you're looking at, at any size and angle. And yes, as mentioned, it's a great opportunity to use shapes, sizes, and proportions to reinforce character designs.

But I think even clothes should be a part of this process... because even if you take the time to make your cast look diverse while naked, you might counteract your efforts when they start to wear armor or robes or whatever it is they wear. Certainly have them look diverse unclothed, then continue the process into their wardrobe design.

Skoolmunkee's right, Diaz misses the chance to make the real differences in his characters' builds, such as wider hips or shorter torsos, etc. He does make some good points, though.

skoolmunkee
It is an interesting activity though, and thinking in those terms is an easy to way to keep in mind that you can do a lot more with your character design than different hair, heights and sexes. It's also kind of fun to take shapes and try and draw characters to 'fit' them. an apple-shaped character or a top-heavy triangle or whatnot.

Yeah, I've thought in those terms. Sometimes people just do have the same sort of body shape, and they would in reality too, but in many instances you have radically different shapes. - Which is what I always hated about superhero comics where most of them don't. -_-

Since I started out with a fine arts background I did a lot of nude studies from models and got to see that it's pretty rare that anyone would have a "typical" shape, so that's been at the back of my mind when I've drawn a lot of characters. (not that mine are super distinct or well designed anything)

Anyway, it'd be great fun to do lots of nuddy studies of your characters! ^_^

Ah, I assumed that he came up with it just because that was. the first I'd ever heard of it. The reason I decided to try it out is because I haven't done anything like that before and it was interesting.
I think you're right though, both Kimiko and Whatshername have a pretty similar body type with the same slim build. Apart from the obvious things like one having cyborg legs and a cyborg arm I think the taller woman also had wider shoulders and bigger boobs. Probably a better example of the naked test done successfully was in The Meek by Der-Shing Helmer. It's not a deliberate test but within the comic the characters Angora and Phe are both seen naked and they're extremely different from each other. Angora is shorter and athletic, Phe is tall and heavier-set.
The insight to character personality was largely because I goofed up and tried to put study drawings into some kind of context. The context was that the characters that I drew were checking themselves out with a full-length mirror. I thought that if that were the case one character must be unhappy with how she looks or just a low opinion of herself in general. The other character seems like she has a much healthier self image or maybe slightly vain. To me those things seem consistent with what's already been established within the actual story, I just hadn't thought about it before.

My mind would end up in the gutter if I attempt to draw my characters completely exposed.

Nothing wrong with that, mlai. :]

patrick, that's interesting! Hmm, now I kind of wonder what my characters would think of themselves naked in front of a mirror. Interesting indeed...

i came in here expecting to see naked drawings of everyone's characters posted.

but i like the mirror idea! very tempted to try that actually.

PIT_FACE
i came in here expecting to see naked drawings of everyone's characters posted.

will this be the start of something?

demontales

PIT_FACE
i came in here expecting to see naked drawings of everyone's characters posted.

will this be the start of something?

depends, are ya requestin it? >:D

PIT_FACE

demontales

PIT_FACE
i came in here expecting to see naked drawings of everyone's characters posted.

will this be the start of something?

depends, are ya requestin it? >:D

It's not a direct request, but could be interesting, especially withe the mirror idea that's been given. I have a feeling it would soon derail though, that is if people participate a lot.

demontales

PIT_FACE

demontales

PIT_FACE
i came in here expecting to see naked drawings of everyone's characters posted.

will this be the start of something?

depends, are ya requestin it? >:D

It's not a direct request, but could be interesting, especially withe the mirror idea that's been given. I have a feeling it would soon derail though, that is if people participate a lot.

I second or third a motion for this.