This part should be pretty short. This is mostly how I decide how a CH looks like.
First off, let's get into how I see Countryhumans. Instead of being completely humanoid, I stuck with the designs most people in the fandom use. Such as; no hair, no noses and no ears. They also have a completely spherical head. They can still hear and smell though (don't ask how)
Now let's talk about animal parts, like wings and tails. Any country with wings on their flag will have those wings. Same goes for horns and tails. For instance, Wales has a dragon on her flag, so she has dragon wings, horns and a tail. (Although Wales doesn't exist as a countryhuman in my HCs so that's a bad example...)
If a CH has a symbol (normally coat of arms) on their flag on either the left or/and right side, they will wear an eye patch. I often have cool, elaborate HCs for these (like Prussia and A-H), but most of the time the eye patch is just there...
I also like to take parts of the symbol on their flag, and incorporate it in the design. A good example of this is with the Mongol Empire, who has a flame for their head, because her flag had one. He also has a glowing ball as their heart, and carries a scythe.
Sometimes, I'll also include parts of countries' coat of arms and put it into the design. This was mostly prominent in FE, where she has floating ribbons on her back from the coat of arms.
A new, very recent headcanon I came up with while making an animation was that most countries with a dash in their name (Austria-Hungary, Denmark-Norway, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) will have double two of their body parts. (Because they are two countries) This includes wings (if they have them), eyes, arms etc... This is because they are 'two countries'.
Some of the countries I have for this are:
- Austria-Hungary
- Denmark-Norway
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- Sweden-Norway
- Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti
- Demerara-Essequibo
- Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla
- Kanem-Bornu Empire
- Mauro-Roman Kingdom
- Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
- Germany (included him since he is East and West Germany combined)
- Yugoslavia (also included since they were often referred to as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes)
And a lot more I probably haven't found yet :D
If a country has the prefix "Neo", and then a dash, this rule does not apply for them, since they are not two countries (ex. Neo-Babylonian Empire, Neo-Assyrian Empire, etc...) There are some more countries with dashes in their name that I don't apply this rule to, but I forgot who they were :)
Finally, I usually decide height by how large a country is. It can also be decided by their personality. Like since AE is one feisty boi, he is short, which makes him even more feisty. And A-H is short because they are AE's child (and inherited the land). On the other hand, the whole Russian family is rather tall, because of their more serious/calm personality, and their land size.
Most of the time, their clothes are decided by the time period and their flag. Most CHs I draw have a military uniform or armor, since I like history! I decide the colours by the flag, or what soldiers from their country wore.