Saturday, May 13, 2017

Demos from online character design

Hello there friends! It's been so busy I fell behind on everything once again including sharing some art with you. I had to travel and attend to various responsibilities and free time was at a premium. I was able to get back on track recently with some demonstrations I created for a couple of my online students. Here's a sample of the lessons I was parsing out.

This student was having problems getting started with their concepts utilizing the construction method I was teaching. So I went through the process to illustrate how to go about it.

Start with a foundation ...


Use the foundation to build out your design ...


Once your have your design established you can eliminate the foundation sketch. It did its job ...


Add some shadows from an overhead light source to help describe form ...


Another demo involved getting my student to break out creatively and really push the concept and the design. This is what they had to start ...


By creating a construction based foundation you can set up your approach ...


Push the foundation sketch and let the character emerge ...



Now that you've got the anatomy established it's time to explore clothing ...


Add a shadow level to enhance the dimensional form and you're in business ...


Thank you for your patience and for continuing to check in! It's always a pleasure coming here and posting art.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was really interesting! Designing a character is not easy, at least for me, but this was a very helpful read.
One question: What is an online student?

Charles Z said...

Glad you found this helpful Gabriele. Yes it was from an online session drawing in Photoshop on a Cintiq.

Unknown said...

Amazing as always, Charles! I know this will surely help me with character design! As long as I keep this in mind, I should be able to draw new characters!
I have a quick question!
Do you have a quote that you made (If so, mind telling me what it is?), or do you follow other quotes?

Hazman said...

I like the creative designs here. I don't have to mach trouble with character designing like the one I showed you one a while a go its one of the other characters I've done. I just wish I have better idea of body anatomy, using shapes and motion lines. Just wish there was somebody who can teach me so I could improve. Oh well I guess I'll have do it my self for now and learn from some experienced artist and you is well.

Charles Z said...

Thank you Vanilla. I have lots of quotes that I keep in mind and use to inspire myself and others too. The one I'd say I use most often is the slogan for my school which is "Keep Creating". That's one of the most positive things one can do in their life.

Hazman there's an almost limitless number of tutorials on YouTube that help with drawing and character design and lots and lots of other subjects. Anything you can think of. I plan on expanding my lessons online at some point not too far away. Maybe that'll help out more when the time comes. Meanwhile I wish you good luck and if you are creating on a regular basis and practice you'll continue to improve.