How to make a character design
By Haze-man

First, determine what characteristics about the character's personality, if any, you want relate with his/her appearance.  More often than not, you'll simply want all your characters to look really "kick-ass".  The trick to designing a character is to master the two subtle cues that help the reader understand that character by his appearance.  The First Rule is the Rule of DETAIL.  More serious or layered persnalities should be illustrated with more detail and more lines.  Simple or comedic characters should be drawn with the bare minimum of lines.  The second rule is the Rule of HEADS.  A typical person will stand 8 head-heights tall (inclusive).  That is, their head represents one eight of the person's height.  Some cartoons can be as few as 2 or 3 heads tall.  The increased head size enables the artist to better communicate the characters emoions by sacrificing an element of reality.  This is noteworthy because Manga characters typically walk a fine line between being reality and cartoon, existing as beleavable characters and yet performing many super-human or exagerated feats.  Most Manga character compromise at 5-7 heads tall, but only the creator of a character can really determine what treatment is right for their offspring.  Think carefully about how much detail and how many heads tall a character should be before you start designing.

Sequence:

1.  Draw a picture of the character's hear from a ¾  head on perspective.  Redraw this as many times as necessary.   

2.  Draw the character's head at a side view.

3.  Now, draw said character from a front view.

4.  Redraw the front view at the top a new piece of paper, leaving room enough to draw on a body.

5.  Draw the skeleton of the body into place.
Take a ruler and draw a straight line at the drawings feet perpendicular to the character's line of symmetry.

6.  Take the ruler and measure the exact height of the drawing's head, not including the neck.  Mark off the number of head-lengths that you decided on earlier, beginning at the top of the drawing and extending down towards its feet.  Chances are you will not have hit exactly the height you desired.  Take a marker or black pen and Mark a line through the drawing at the place where its feet should be, also perpendicular to the characters line of symmetry.  

7.  Take a piece of tracing paper or another piece of paper and place it over the last drawing.  Trace the head and the inked line.  Remove the paper and redraw the skeleton into the new drawing.

8.  Using the properly proportioned drawing, redraw the character in at least two more positions on separate sheets of paper.  I recommend a front view, back view, side view, and ¾ overview.  

Most characters will only require you to draw them in one outfit or without clothes at all.  Other characters you may need to illustrate in two or more outfits or hairstyles.  Naturally, if a character has the ability to transform, the transformed state will require it's own character design.

Feel free to draw in the head lengths as guidelines whenever needed. 

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