Watch a fun character design prompt: use the silhouette of any object to start a character design.
- 1 min. short (blue light)
- 1 min. short (Cintiq vs. iPad)
- 1 min. short (Photoshop vs. Procreate)
- 1 min. short (Jordan’s steps)
- 83 min. video (tutorial)
- Character Design Track
- Character Design Area
This video explains how to go about developing a character, addressing their personality traits and how to incorporate those traits into the character design.
Demo by Teaching Artist Cat Huang and Guest Teaching Artist Julie Benbassat.
![Digital Tool Recommendations, Cat, Banner](jpg/image-from-ios-203.jpg)
Examples
Artworks by @pandapufkin, Steen, @trenter_the_dragon
Video Walkthrough
- Prompt: Create a character design by tracing the silhouette of an inanimate object as a starting point.
- This prompt helps you to step outside of your comfort zone and work with shapes you wouldn’t ordinarily use on your own.
- Determine every aspect of the character: clothing, hair style, jewelry, accessories, shoes.
- The gesture of a character can say a lot about their personality.
- Think of associations you can make with the silhouette shape.
- Consider the time period you want your character to live in.
- Julie’s process with Procreate: combining traditional and digital media together.
- Julie often uses Procreate to color her ballpoint pen illustrations.
- Julie and Cat both use very few brushes in Procreate, 1-3.
- Procreate allows you to create automated straight lines.
- Procreate makes it very easy to import/export files.
- Sketching in Procreate is very fast and helpful when sending editorial illustrations to art directors.
![Jordan McCracken-Foster](jpg/2022-10-16_19h52_07.jpg)
Character Designs
- Character #1: Art Masking Fluid
- Character #2: Lotus Fold Book
- Character #3: Cell Phone Holder
- Character #4: Herd of Sheep
Reference Photos
Software
Guest Teaching artist
Julie Benbassat
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![Water Mixable Oils Still Life Painting, banner](jpg/img_7305.jpg)
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