Character Development

How to Bring Your Character to Life

It is easy to bring your characters to life by using different expressions, body stances, colour ways and accessories. In this exercise we are going to look at how our characters might obviously look in their everyday situation, such as going to the shops, beach etc.

Let’s say you wanted to draw a bushranger and he was at “work” for instance, you might give him a stern, or menacing expression, a big bush hat and a scarf over his mouth. His clothes would probably be dark and maybe a little worn.

But you could still tell your audience that he was a bushranger, even if he was going to the beach. He could still have a stern expression, and the same hat, but tie the scarf around his neck.You could design a bushranger-type pattern for his shorts and shirt, make them the same colour and a little worn, like his clothes.

Or say you wanted to draw a Queen. She would probably be a little older than a princess, very upright would wear a crown, pearls and pearl earrings and have a Orb. When she is sitting on her throne she might be wearing a purple or dark red cloak edged in Ermine (which is white fur with spots)

But when she was going to the gym, although she might still be wearing her crown, pearls and pearl earrings, she wouldn’t be wearing the cloak. You could use the Ermine pattern and colour of the cloak for her gym clothes. You could also use the Orb as gym equipment like weights or simply have it poking out of her gym bag.

Exercise:

Make a list of the characteristics of your character.

Draw your character in both settings.

Some Ideas For You:

Bushranger: Menacing expression, bush hat, scarf over his/ her mouth, dark clothes, a little worn.

Queen: a little older than a Princess, upright, long purple cloak or dark red cloak edged in Ermine, pearl necklace, earrings, crown and Orb

Old Witch: Blue tongue, black cat, broom, long fingernails, messy hair, warts, cauldron

Businessman: Short hair, suit, tie, briefcase, umbrella, mobile phone.

Ballerina: Tutu, ballet shoes, hair in a bun, leg warmers, 

Clown: Wig, big red nose, big shoes, striped pants juggling balls

You get the picture!

Now these characters don’t have to be human, they can be animals, fish, birds, etc. And they don’t have to be comic.

Have a go at doing as many as you can in as many different styles as you can come up with.

Minature Canvas

How to Scale Your Artwork Up or Down

If you have ever wondered how murals are painted so accurately? Well there are a couple of nifty tricks artists use. Some use a projector linked into a computer to upscale their image onto the wall, but many use a grid system to scale their work up from the original size onto the wall.

We are going to look at the how the grid system works.

First the artist plans out their illustration or lettering piece.
Then they divide the image into squares. The size of the squares depend on how complicated the design is.
Say their design was on a piece of paper 20cms by 20cms. They would draw their squares 2 cms  by 2 cms.
Then they would upscale their squares and draw them onto the wall to 20 cms by 20 cms

Once they have this done, they will copy whatever is within each 2cm by 2cm square onto the 20cm by 20cm on the wall.
Then they fill in each square according to their original illustration.

Confusing isn't it? Don't worry we are going to go through it step by step in this exercise.
Unfortunately we don’t have a wall to paint a mural on for this exercise. However we are able to go the opposite way and turn our illustration or lettering piece into a miniature.

You will need
Miniature Canvas
Paper and pencil
Thin textas and/or paints
Ruler
Light pencil
Lots of patience

Take a piece of paper and cut it to 20cms by 20 cms. Draw out your image. Make it fit your whole page. Make sure your proportions are working well, your colours are clear and simple, any details you want to stand out are clear.

Tip You may need to draw you image in a simpler form and keep the details to be added after you have transferred your image to the canvas.

Now with a ruler and light pencil, carefully draw your squares, depending on how complicated your image is you can draw them 5cms by 5cms or 2cms by 2cms. Put a little number at the top of each square.

Now on your canvas draw in the squares half the size of  your first squares. So if you had 5cm by 5cm squares then you would reduce them to 2.5cms by 2.5cms and 2cms by 2 cms squares would become 1cm by 1cm. You get the idea!

Now the fun bit. Concentrating on each square individually, using your knowledge of shape and space, copy what you see onto the canvas, staying inside the reduced sized square. Continue until you have reproduced of your illustration in miniature onto the canvas.

Now paint or colour your miniature illustration using your original as a guide. You can use a fine liner to add any extra details.

Now that you have had a go see if you can scale your drawings up and down. The more you practise the more acurate you will get.

Adding Depth to Your Illustrations Using Shading

How to Add Depth and Drama to Your Illustrations

You will need:

Paper for practise
Nice quality paper for main piece.
Assortment of pencils including different softness ie HB 2B 2H
Eraser.
Fingers.

Let’s get started:

Using your practise paper, start by making some simple marks using the assortment of pencils you have. Try using the side of the pencil in as sweeping motion, long sharp lines with the tip of the pencil and some soft crosshatching. Use you finger to try and smudge these marks and see what effect you get.

Lighter shading can be used for contours and shadows on faces etc.
Dark shading can give your piece a feeling of being in dim light or a added drama.

The aim is to see which techniques work best for different parts of your illustration. Make a note of which pencil you have used.

Tip: By using your eraser you remove areas of your shading to add reflections or soften edges.

Can you see how I have used lighter and darker shadows depending on where the light is coming from. Sit for a minute and see if you can see the shadows on some of the objects in the room.

Take another piece of practise paper and plan out your illustration. This saves time and mistakes for when you do your finished piece. Draw out the elements ie figures, leaves etc and practise getting these to a standard you are happy with and can redraw confidently.

(I have been illustrating for many years and I find I still have to practise this, especially if it is something I haven’t drawn for a long time)

Now it is time to start on your main piece!
Using a piece of nice paper take your time to sketch in the elements using your lightest pencil.
 Now fill in each area with detail, still using a light hand, before carefully adding your shading. When you are happy with your results you can go over your work and add further highlights and details.

Tip: Different people like to work in different ways, and all are just fine! If you have filled in an area and don’t want to smudge it further, place a piece of paper under your hand as you work, moving it around when you start on another area.

Can you see how I have used shading to give my robot dimension by using darker shading on the side away from the light source. Do you think you can finish him for me?

Some topics for you to draw;
Things you have found in the garden
Mythical Adventures
Self Portrait
Fairytale or Story
Plants and Trees
Robots and Sci Fi

Monster Fun!

Felt Monsters

You will need:
Felt pieces

Threads

Beads and buttons etc

Stuffing

Paper and Pencil

Sharp Scissors

Needles

OK let’s begin!

To start this project you will an idea of who or what your monster is. Are they friendly? Are they shy? Are they gentle or are they ferocious? Where do they live? What do they like to do? Who are their friends? What do they like to eat?

Using some paper and pencil, draw your monster and the answers to some of these questions.

Use your knowledge of colour and shape to design your monster:

When you have an idea about some of the characteristics of your monster sort through your materials and and see what you have to relay the characteristics you have chosen.

For example: a shy monster might be softly coloured with only a few delicate beads or buttons; whereas a bold outgoing monster might be brightly coloured with loads of busy buttons and beads for decoration. A sinister monster might be a dark colour without any buttons or beads at all.

Now draw out your monster in a very simple form. When you are sewing you don’t want to many fiddley-bits, so make it as simple as you can without loosing it’s character.

TIP: If you don’t have the right colours or materials, go back and adapt your monster to fit in with what you do have.

Let’s get sewing:

Using a seperate piece of paper and draw an outline of your monster. One for the front and one for the back. These need to be exactly the same, just opposite facing to each other. A good way to get the pieces exact is to draw your body, arm leg etc shape on a seperate piece of paper or card.
Write an F on one side, and a B on the reverse. Draw around the F side very carefully. Flip over your template piece and draw around the B side really carefully. When you come to sew them together they should line up perfectly.

**not to scale**

• If your monster has eyes ears noses etc these need to be attached to the front of your felt before you sew it all together.
• If you are adding extra arms, legs feet etc they will need to be sewn together and stuffed before you put the main pieces together. Sew these pieces together, leaving a small hole big enough to push your stuffing through. You can poke it down with the end of a pencil. Then sew up the gap. 

Using a running stitch or a blanket stitch, sew the main body pieces together, catching any arms legs etc in the seams as you go. Don’t forget to leave a gap for the stuffing.

Stuff your monster and sew up the gap. VOILA!

TIP: Use your monster as a character in an illustration, story, graphic novel or comic.