Where do You Source Your Protagonist's Design?

[Eldoria]

I base it on the actual place, era, fashion trends, social standing, economic standing, and culture they are in. I guess you could argue that it is a social construct, but I would argue that it is an outlier because of it being historical rather than imaginative.

Yeah, it falls into the second category, social constructs, where character is formed based on the characteristics of a particular society in a particular region and over a certain period of time (history).

I like to draw characters first before I write them to get the vibes I want. I start with an archetype and building off of that. Here's an example of one my character line ups:
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These are the major female characters in my story. I wanted a mage, a warrior, a serene noblewoman (whom I turned into a bard as I was drawing), a beautiful airhead, a stern office lady, a gremlin with a giant hammer, and a mysterious cloaked figure. I gave them distinct silhouettes, found their color pallets, and gave them outfits with multiple textures and material. I didn't have a distinct era I was inspired by, I just wanted fantasy vibes that homogenized with multiple attempts.

From there, I flesh out their backstories and imbibe them with traits that tend to be the opposite of their designs so they can grow past the archetypes they started out as. For example, the serious looking warrior in green is a trickster that likes to play jokes as a sign of affection, but she is also fiercely loyal, even if she is more sarcastic than not.

I'm also a sucker for distinct eyebrows, so if I feel the design is lacking, I like to slap on a pair to make their face unique.

You really think about your character design systematically. This is crucial for maintaining character consistency. Random characters often lack consistency in how they respond to the story's challenges. On the other hand, well-designed characters will have unique personalities and consistent responses to the story's challenges, making them seem like "living characters" rather than simply plot devices.

Going by these:

Jack Diamond is a hybrid/distorted archetype (Noir Detective/Superhero/Occult Investigator)

Kelly/Sparrow ... not sure what she is. Was the result of a challenge, initially (don't remember the actual challenge itself, but the whole "waking up as a female version of himself" thing was the result of it), and decades of doing "superhero stuff" (earliest attempts at writing were superhero stories... mostly silly ones but still)

The crew from the Between Worlds series are all amalgams of several of these. David is probably pretty much an idealized me, Malcolm is entirely the first type (a mix of several people I know with a wild power tossed into the mix), Thellissandra is an attempt to totally subvert the "mysterious warrior" archetype, Carol ... wound up different from what I'd first planned and I'm not really sure where she wound up. Same with Liz (who started out as "what if my wife were a black haired lesbian, and, essentially, 'Sir Not Appearing in this Film"? and wound up mutating into something wildly different)... and the next generation is something else altogether.

Dane Coleman is ... different. Kind of a mix of all four, nearly evenly.

Nathan/Indigo is, pretty much, Martian Manhunter from DC Comics with a different paint job and personality, and minus the psychic stuff. So I guess that's type 1.

Combining archetypes can indeed produce unique characters, but to do so, the author's inner experiences play a role in shaping the character as a hybrid of various archetypes that feels human.

 

[Naravelt]

Three of my main characters and the antagonist’s designs are more suited for options 1 and 3, while the side characters are a combination of options 1, 3, and 4.

 

[K_Jira]

Pretty men

 

[Golden_Hyde]

Archetypes and tropes are shortcuts to creating familiar characters that readers can easily recognize, but they also make stories cliché and predictable.

Which in some occasions, I went full experimental mode to craft a character, primarily a protagonist or any main characters for that matter.