Character Development

Our first studio session was about how to brainstorm ideas for creating a character that we would then use in an animation. The tasks involved very basic sketching to help us shape and picture our character and then we drew the character more tightly from a front view and then a side view. The tasks set was to teach us the basic steps necessary to invent a character from scratch and then take that idea to further its design that can then be used within an animation.

Sketching

The first step was to sketch away, when creating a character always use a obvious feature of yourself to apply to your sketches. I chose my hairstyle as a feature to apply to most of these sketches so a spiked style that goes over the characters face at an angle. 

Feedback - At first I was told that I was thinking too much about my drawings and that I was using small lines because I was actually trying to draw a character. Instead I was instructed to try and draw with my eyes closed and use really long lines. The idea was being that after drawing a couple of long lines the brain would start to see where a character could be formed which then you follow up on.

After applying the feedback to my sketches I was really surprised to see that my drawings were actually taking an interesting form and at the time I was thinking that I would never be able to draw as good as this in all my life but I just did.

After a couple of sketches we were told to try and draw a character in different poses so as soon as any pose entered my mind even a flash image I put pencil to paper and to be honest I was very surprised at my ability to accurately draw anything that came to mind.

Production Layouts

The second step was to take the sketches of character ideas and come up with one final character. We had to tightly draw a character with little detail at a front and side view perspective, the aim was to capture just the characters shape and form. Grid paper was used to draw the character because we could accurately keep the front view and side view the same size proportion.

Feedback - The image above with the 3 drawings was my first attempt at drawing my character. The front view was a success but the side view was more of a stick character. The third drawing to the right was an example from my tutor and he told me to think about the characters form and have a heavy focus on curves to give the character depth and realism.

The image with 2 drawings above was my final design and after applying the feedback my side view had real depth and realism, this has changed how I think about drawing because I realised that I drew with too many straight lines which doesn't allow the character to come to life.

What Have I Learnt?

Most importantly I have learnt how to draw, after this session I have a completely different way of thinking and approach to sketching. When it comes to brainstorming character ideas I will no longer try to draw an actual character idea from my mind I will very loosely draw shapes and forms in different poses. Next when it comes to finalising a character I will use my sketches to draw a front and side view with curved lines to create realism.

The session has left me very happy and eager to try the new sketching and brainstorming technique with my own projects in the future.