Character ideas.

When creating a new character, one needs to take into consideration whether this character is going to be a realistic one or more towards stylized aesthetics. Characters can be abstract and quite simple, without too much detail; they can also be extremely realistic and with many features. Discussing the subject, we looked at a wide range of various characters, from the most stylized ones towards the realistic ones, designed by famous artists from the industry: Amandine Pécharman, Andy Ristaino, Nico Marlet, Carter Goodrich, Sean Galloway, Glen Keane, Iain McCaig, and Ryan Meinerding. 

Next, there was a little exercise where I produced this Character Inspiration board presenting character designs I like. This base of figures should help stimulate ideas later. 

Designing a character has several principles that should be remembered. It is also important to acknowledge that it is a process and the result when we can admire a polished character is just the tip of the iceberg. An invisible laborious affair is the most important, and that is what leads to the outcome.  

1. Design your characters from inside out – we should break the silhouettes into sections, so we know the size and the ratio of the body parts; the parts should not be even. 
2. Repetition – visible in lines and shapes, and exaggerations. 
3. Straight and curved lines create “fast and slow” areas, the more details the biggest attention. 
4. Primitive shapes are the base: circle, square, triangle present various meanings and characteristics. 
5. Volume shows how a character’s body reacts in various situations.  
6. Muscles and bones determine both, movements, and appearance. 
7. A recognizable shape equals clever design; it should be easy to read. 
8. Expressions, traits, and character movements should be visible. 
9. The style should work well with the character’s characteristics. 
10. The triangle – a face layout is an inverted triangle (eyes plus nose; mouth under the nose); this pattern is easy to read and accepted by the audience. 
11. The importance of a colour. 

With this knowledge we looked at various characters and tried to define them. Next, we were asked to think about a character we want to create and try to generate a brief description of it. We answered a series of questions about the character we are to design. We had to think of a name, religion, occupation, dreams, goals, social background just to name a few. All this information should help us visualize our character. What is also important, a character must express emotions. The audience should be able to recognize happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, and contempt, and any combination of them. At this stage we should be open to diverse options of how this character should look.  

Therefore, the task for this week was to, based on the characteristics we have written down, sketch 20 different versions of our figure. Next, we were to pick 3 that we like most and work on them further.

I have spent many hours thinking about my character and trying to sketch assorted options I was happy with. This task was not an easy one, but I enjoyed the challenge of having to create 20 different versions of the same character and trying to produce a range of styles. My ideas are presented in this Character Ideas Padlet.