ART – Some Character Design Pointers

Simpsons Quote:

Homer: Astrid said the key to my art is anger, but you know me, I’m Mr. Mellow…

[Bart and Lisa look at each other]

Homer: …so I’m giving you kids permission to get me mad. Come on, give me what you’ve got.

Lisa Simpson: Well, if it’ll help… um, mom found out her engagement ring is made of rock candy.

Homer: [hits clay mold] Good work honey, keep it comin.’

Bart Simpson: Well I’m flunking math, and the other day I was a little attracted to Milhouse.

[Homer screams hysterically]

Hi. So, I was asked a question on youtube about how I approach character design.  I spoken about this a few time, but not all in one place.  I thought perhaps I should say as much as I could about the subject in one post and link to the other ones.

You can either watch the video below on the read the transcript:

The Question

I’ve talked about character design a lot in my own blog, as well as The Drawing Website that I’ve got. I’m going to try to sum up all of what I’ve written so far, and include links. But I’m going to try to also just, kind of really quickly explain it all here, so that it’s not just all scattered all over the internet the way it is in multiple websites and multiple posts.

This question was from MindOfAStoner and specifically said,

“i was wondering if you could do a video about how to design your characters, i have the idea of what i want to do, i just cant seem to put my character to paper and come up with my own drawing style, thanks in advance Luis”

First, Reference

Alright, so there’s a few things here. Okay so, one of things if you look, I did do a series where I was designing characters for an animated cartoon that I was working on that I still haven’t completed, and I’m sorry. But if you look there, you will see that what I did was, I went and I looked at a lot of reference.

I went online and I have the specific website that I went to. But as you can see in the posts, you’ll see that there’s like a lot of photographs. If you scroll down, you’ll see all the photographs I was using to try to get something, a jumping off point- something that will trigger that thing.

You need photography. Look for reference. It doesn’t just have to be in your head. It doesn’t have to just— you don’t have to live in a vacuum and not use real world things. Use real world things. Go out, look around, go to the mall, look at other people, look online, look for photographs, look anything. Just get your ideas going.

That would be my recommendation on trying to try to get them— just something to get them in your head, out on to the paper in some kind of tangible way- something that you can use, something that you could actually have physical there. I mean, it really does help me a lot.

Finding a Style

“I can’t seem to put characters to paper and come up with my own drawing style.”

Okay, so that’s a little bit different. There’s a few things to talk about there.

Drawing style- I have a video about not worrying about style. You ought to worry about draftsmanship first. Let’s assume that you’ve got great draftsmanship. You’re just as good as Frank Frazetta. Then what kind of style are you going to use?

Alright, so once you’re confident enough to have good draftsmanship skills, then I would recommend you just start finding sketchbooks of stuff from artists that you admire, styles that you like, comic books of guys whose styles you like, and then pick and choose bits and pieces of what they’re doing that you really enjoy. Try to emulate it in some way, shape or form.

This isn’t plagiarism, because what’s going to end up happening is that you’re not going to be able to copy them. You’re not going to be them. No matter how hard you try, you’re still going to be you and they’re still going to be them, and they’re going to do what they do better than you could possibly ever do. That’s because you’re not them.

What you’re trying to emulate is their personality and who they are. And because you are not them, you’ll never get what makes them unique.

That is a good thing! Because it means that whatever YOU do cannot be emulated either. What comes out of you eventually, from all the hodgepodge of different influences, will be uniquely you. So, if you want a specific style, you can do that specific style but it will end up being your version of that style which will end up being unique in and of itself. So, that’s another way you can think about it.

Some Words on Advanced Character Design

Okay now, I’m going to talk really quick about the Advanced Elements of Character Design, and When It Comes to Character Design. It’s all about the interior- where the character’s coming from, who that character is, will shape everything about the character including the way he’s posed, the way he looks, the way he carries himself, what kind of clothes they wear.

This is interior stuff. This is more advanced stuff. This is what the professionals think about when they’re just doing stuff, because they’re no longer thinking about the basics of design, okay? They’re thinking about acting, history, storytelling, making the character, creating the character from the inside out- emotionally, historically, who they are, the story behind the character. Alright? So always, always think about that stuff when designing the character.

Don’t Forget the Fundamentals

But now let’s go back to the fundamentals. Let’s go back, all the way back to elements that you absolutely need to have before you even start designing a character. And that is the idea of contrast. And in The Drawing Website, I do break this down with stick figures.

That’s how simple these elements are. It’s all about balance and contrast. It’s all about not making everything even, and making a character visually boring by doing something super, super even. That’s just really, really bad design.

If you go to thedrawingwebsite.com and look at the Stick Figures with Style post, you can read everything that I have to say about designing like that, stick figures and things like that. If you want, you could download the free digital copy of this book, The Art of Draw Fu, by subscribing to the newsletter.

You should be able to get it for free, but you could just read the post there because it’s the same information that’s in the book. I do talk about design. I talk about basic shapes. After that, you should read that post too. It’s very important to balance and contrast to make your design more interesting.

This is too big of a topic. I’m sorry, I have to sum this up so quickly. But I hope this helps. I hope this is good information that will help you be able to design your characters better.

Alright, so if you want another free book from me,  I have The Art of Luis Escobar for free if you subscribe to my newsletter on my blog. And there’s designs and drawings there too, and I talk about drawing in that book as well. So if you’re interested, go ahead and  subscribe to my newsletter below and you will get that book delivered to you for free, as a free digital book.

BOARD GAMES/VIDEO – Craziest Board Game Ever.

If you like board games as much as I do, you’ll love this video of the craziest board game ever.  If you’re not into them that much, it’s still very funny, but there’s a few inside jokes in there that you might not get.

Enjoy:

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