Character Design

"Good Design should be clear and informative, generating a personality with feeling through the organization of shapes."- Steven Silver 



Project: Create a cartoon character of yourself.

1. Watch the video on character design.

2. In your sketchbook, neatly answer the questions below, label in order, A, B, C... This should not take up more than a third of the page. Use yourself as the basis for the answers. See example below.


Character questions:
A. What is the name of the character?
B. What is the sex of the character? (if applicable)
C. how old is the character?
D. What does the character look like?
E. What is the characters role or occupation?
F. Where does the character live?
G. What era does the character live in?
H. What is the characters personality?
I.  How would you describe the characters attitude?

(Below are the answers i came up with for my character:)

Dad

Male

50ish

Man

Teacher/Parent

Suburbs
Contemporary

Classic Gemini, multiple personalities, can change instantly

Easily excitable/over the top and Skeptical

3. Here is a video about drawing cartoon Skeleton's or Skeletoon's.

a. Watch this before you begin working on your own designs. 

b. This is the proper way to experiment with character design, this is what I will be looking for as foundation drawing.

4. On the same sheet of paper with the answers to the questions above do the following.

a. Doodle 3-4 variations as you try to design yourself as a human character

b. The character must show hands/feet and face and stand at a 3/4 pose.

c. Always apply the rules covered earlier when you draw heads, hands and feet. 

d. Keep in mind the basic shape of your characters as shown in the video

e. After you have found the body type you like, add clothing and features.

f.  Clothing should not cover face, hands or feet.

g. NO SHADING, NO INDIVIDUAL HAIRS, NO INKING

H. Turn in drawing to discussion board titled: Pencil Character Design. 

5. After you have gotten feed back, please redraw one of the images larger on a new sheet of paper 

• erase unnecessary lines
• no inking
• Add character description to this one also.
• Upload your final concept drawing to the "Revised full body cartoon character of yourself" discussion board

6. Peer review 

• Comment on two other fellow students character pages on the discussion boards. 
• Try to find examples from the character description that match the drawing, be specific. 
• If on person already has two replies move on to someone else. Once you have replied to 2 people you may the go back in and comment on anyone else you would like.
• Limit each response to 30 words.
• Due Tomorrow