Hello Steemians !
Why is my character so ordinary ? Why does he not stand out ?
Have you ever asked yourself such questions ? If you do, let me give some insights and some tips (especially from mentors such as Dan Cooper (The Lion King) or Efflam Mercier (League Of Legends), you should definitely check their work)
If you feel your character lacks something, like personality, charisma or looks like just a piece of awesome artwork, these questions might have popped in your head.
Old drawing from 2013
How do you improve upon them ?
To my (limited) knowledge, these three domains are the ones to study in order to add that layer of soul for your creation :
- Shape Language
- Levels of readability
- Acting
So Let's dig into it point by point.
Shape Language
Shape Language is a principle you are using through your whole design process. When you work on a character, or anything else you will draw a line, a circle, a square or a triangle. The question here is "Why". Why do you use a circle over a square or a triangle to draw the head for example ?
Shapes are used to convey informations to your audience. Each form has a meaning, mostly accepted around the world :
- Circles, round shapes tend to be calmer, meaning tranquillity and harmony. Also love and cuteness. (Just look at a kitten, or at Sadness from Pixar's Inside Out movie)
- Squares tend to be disciplined, honests, they are the order and the law, what is indestructible and immovable. Your average hero knight, the Dad from the Indestructibles movie, Anger from Inside Out.
- Triangles are all in pointy angles, they are the danger, recklessness and Evil : Scar from The Lion king.
Now, these are basic rules and should be known to be bent. So play with them ! What do you feel when you use a circle as a main character shape ? Or if you mix a Circle and a Triangle ? What if you scale one down a little bit ? If you add more spikes ? Or add more roundness to it ?
Levels Of Readability
To be honest I don't know how to call that one. This advice comes from Efflam Mercier at THU. Certainly one of the best I ever received on Character Design (but you can apply it quite everywhere).
It can be resumed as Level your designs. You want the viewer to understand it properly, therefore, prioritizing the informations you give is really helpful to communicate your idea.
Let's look at this character for example. What do you see first ? He is skinny with a big round head and a long body and long thin arms and hands. Definitely not the fighter type. We can guess is specie is some kind of really advanced and clever civilization where Strenght is not needed. So here the base shapes gives us a first layer of understanding the character.
What can be the second layer ? He is wearing a white blouse with some technological parts to it and a probe flying by his side. Maybe an scientist or an engineer ?
You get the idea. Keep the leveling readable for the viewer and no need to go over too many ideas. Find the most important one, the one telling the most out of your character and organize them.
Acting
Finding that little spark in a character, that little thing that gives them a soul is definitely one of the most important side to tell a story. It is conveyed through posing and studying acting and how people behave or react.
It needs one of your superpowers : observation. Give that little facial expression, or a specific pose or action to the drawing. What is your character doing ? This will tell a lot about their innersoul, what they think, what is their behaviour and how they react.
Ressources :
Dan Cooper : https://www.instagram.com/dethancooper_art/
Efflam Mercier : https://www.artstation.com/efflam
Cory Loftis : https://www.instagram.com/coryloftis/
Ami Thompson : http://amithompsonportfolio.blogspot.com/
Paul richards : http://www.autodestruct.com/thumbwar.htm
Here it is folks ! Thank you for your time and for passing by ! Keep in mind I am still practicing, I hope this can help you guys in many ways but also keep a critical view and do your research, cold email artists you love, practice and learn ! And please tell me if you have constructive feedbacks or if I am wrong I'd love to discuss with you about it =)
Cheers Steemit !!