What do you want to make? What appeals to you?

I really wanna push out of my comfort zone and make very simple/stylized art style. I tend to default to something realistic and that is something i wanna break. I’m thinking of something like ‘bee and puppycat’

Get to know your character

• Who are you drawing? What do they want?
• The thought behind the character – what are the key ideas you want to the audience to take away?
• Texture, clean line, lighting, expressive shapes, hard angles – what feels right for what you’re creating?

Structure: Shapes and composition

• What basic shapes make up their body and head?
• How we organise these can drastically change the feeling of the character (scary, little, loveable, wise, twisted, cute, strong)
• These can also help us create more interest and intrigue if used unexpectedly – for example putting a timid character in a towering hulk of a body
• The key when starting this is surprise yourself – don’t use your usual shape patterns!

Shape language

Shapes can be used to guide your overall character designs. Triangle to heighten fear, square to heighten strength, circle to heighten softness. – (feel free to subvert or ignore this guideline- its just a guideline.) Contrast is key to have interesting character design. narrow / wide, and in straight / curved.

Think about who you character is and and what i want to exaggerate. The face is something that is often neglected when it comes to interesting shapes.

AESTHETIC – Colour palettes, texture, lighting and line

Questions to Consider:

• Line or no line? How does this change the tone? – Probably line on the character but painted backgrounds
• Stylised or realistic? – Stylised
• Lighting or flat colour? – flat for now lighting If i have time
• Natural light or sharp shadows? – natural light
• Texture or flat fills? – textured background flat fills for character
• Limited colour palette or full range? – I want to use a full range of colours

(You may not know until you experiment, but keep coming back to the WHY of your character – who are they? What story are you telling?)

DIVERSITY IN DESIGN – Body types, hairstyles, outfits, accessories and more

Diversity in character also just makes for better characters. There are so many personalities and people and stories to be told – let’s do just that. Your characters will be more interesting and more memorable

• Consider: size, shape, age, gender (designing for all gender expressions and sexual identities), sexuality, ethnicity, education level, income, culture, customs, disabilities, and more
• What shoes would your character wear? What accessories help tell their story? How old or new are their clothes? What materials would the character gravitate towards?
• Question your biases! Why are you drawing the way that you are?
• Think beyond a Euro-American lens of the world: how can you signify diverse backgrounds and cultural details where appropriate?

TURNAROUNDS

My work – glow bug

The others