Character Design: Develop Your Own Style

Character Development

“In the words of Porky Pig: “That’s all, folks!” I hope you had fun taking the course and learned some new things along the way to help you in all of your future artistic endeavours. Remember that art is a skill that takes a lifetime to master and that we are all at different stages of our journey. Try not to compare yourself with other artists and above all have fun, draw every day, and never stop learning! You’ve seen me design my character from beginning to end throughout the course’s video lessons, and now it’s your turn! I’m really looking forward to seeing your character, so let’s recap your brief and some steps of the design process to help you on your way: Your brief is to design a stylistic character that holds personal meaning for you. I want you to push your designs in terms of shape, proportion and colour to come up with something a little outside of what you would normally draw. Here are the steps again to remind you: Write a brief Your brief is the roadmap for your design. Be as detailed as you can be about your character and perhaps even interview them to establish their backstory. Writing out a spider diagram helps to visually track your character’s attributes. Do your research! Before you put pencil to paper, take some time to do research. Create a mood board or two and choose interesting images to put on them. Don’t just go for the first few images you see on Google, dig deep! Research is an extremely important step that shouldn’t be skipped. Spend time on your ideas Character design isn’t a race to the finish line, it’s all about making the best decisions based on your brief! Spend time trying out silhouettes, thumbnail sketches, or even make random shapes on paper with paint and draw on top of them when they are dry. There are no rules when coming up with your ideas, and whatever approach works for you is the correct one! Refine your ideas, and don’t be afraid to push them! Never settle on your first idea, try out lots of them! You can’t predict when that perfect solution may appear - it may be idea number 4, or it may be idea number 44. You can always go back to an earlier iteration, and if you stop too soon you leave many important stones unturned. Redraw, repose and push your designs until they go too far, then dial them back. Try out different heads, costumes and props to represent your character’s personality in the best way possible. Check and refine your work, embrace happy accidents and be fearless with colour! Remember to check your work constantly and look for ways it can be improved. Have you flipped your canvas recently? Do you have any tangents? Once you’re happy with everything, take the time to choose the best colour palette for your character. Remember that colours influence our emotions! Try out different combinations and be sure to check your values using the method I showed you in Unit 2, Lesson 5 with my fox character.

My final piece of advice is perhaps the most important, and that is to be yourself. Just because the way you draw isn’t a way that you’ve seen anyone draw before, it doesn’t mean it is wrong or any less valuable. In fact, that quirky way you work may just be the very thing that sets you apart from other artists! Never be afraid to experiment and be yourself. Now, off you go! I’ll be on hand in the forums to help you if you get stuck, give you advice if required and answer any questions you may have about character design, portfolios or the industry as a whole. See you there! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final Project Congratulations on finishing the course. I hope you had fun and learned things to take into your work. It's time you design your character. I can't wait to see what you do. Remember the process we covered in the course. First, we wrote a brief and used a spider diagram for the character's personality. It's important to get detailed about your character's back story, and even ask them some questions. You can always interview a character by writing out questions and answering them from that character's perspective. After writing a brief, we did research and made a mood board. Th...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Character Design: Develop Your Own Style

• Level: Beginner
• 100% positive reviews (142)
• 4537 students
• 6 units
• 31 lessons (7h 59m)
• 6 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Software

  Adobe Photoshop

• Areas

  Character Design, Digital Drawing, Digital Illustration, Drawing, Traditional illustration