Project Four: Character Design
Inspiration/Research
Fundamentals of Character Design
Defining the Character
One of the first things to consider when chacter designing, is what do you want your character to be like? What did they go through to be who they are? Is where they are from represent their design in clothing and their physical appearance?
Questions you should ask yourself as you design:
What is their name? Their name can shape their design especially if the name has meaning.
What is their past? Their past can be the cause of scars on their back, or a white strand in their hair.
Where are they from? This can drive their clothing choices depending on the weather of the place ect.
What is their personality? This can help when it comes to figuring out what expressions the characters wear.
When you design experiment with different things and fill out a bunch of design plans before settling on one design.
One of the first things to consider when chacter designing, is what do you want your character to be like? What did they go through to be who they are? Is where they are from represent their design in clothing and their physical appearance?
Questions you should ask yourself as you design:
What is their name? Their name can shape their design especially if the name has meaning.
What is their past? Their past can be the cause of scars on their back, or a white strand in their hair.
Where are they from? This can drive their clothing choices depending on the weather of the place ect.
What is their personality? This can help when it comes to figuring out what expressions the characters wear.
When you design experiment with different things and fill out a bunch of design plans before settling on one design.
- Name
- Age
- Height
- Eye color
- Hair color
- Defining physical characteristics (scars, blemishes, moles, etc.)
- Birth home/current residence
Balancing a Color Pallet: 60/30/10 RuleBalancing your color pallete in any peice is very important to keep the character clean and organized. If their is to much color, or unbalanced tones and shades, the character and overall vibe can be thrown out of harmony. The 60/30/10 rule, is a rule that is mostly used in Home Design, but I personally use this rule to color the characters main features (Hair, Clothes, Jewls ect)
60% of the piece is the main color of the piece. This would probably make up the the main color of the clothes, or even the color of the characters hair and eyes. Its the main color that would be associated with your character. 30% of your piece is the secondary color. This color is used to support the main color, but is enough to give the room more interest. The 10% of the room is the accent color. Its usually the bright accents that tie the colors all together. This color would mostly be used for the accessories the character wears, or the main weapon. This rule is to keep the characters design clean, and this rule is mainly used for Base colors. Shading, and adding more accent colors can also bring the entire character together. |
These are the main base colors I used for my design. The 60% of the color is a wine red, the 30% is the royal purple, and the 10% accent color is the gold.
This is not the colors I used for shading, or to exaggerate the clothing/hair/etc it is just the base colors i chose to follow. |
Process
Line ArtLine art is something that I find tricky to do, for this drawing, I didnt have a planned sketch before hand just went for the right away lining. As you can see the hair is already done using a select brush (A way to fill a specific area without filling the entire peice). I had to do the hair first before any of the other colors to be able to get the feel of what i want the rest of the peice to use since the hair has most of the colors im going to use to design the clothes. To give it shape.
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Base Color
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ShadingThe final product has the line art finally colored in. All the shading is completed, and final renderings. I personally like how the pants turned out the best, how the folds actually look like baggy pants I was going for. The Tail is made just like how the hair was, using the select brush and layering colors on top of each other to create flowing hair. Insted of having a base color like the shirt, the skin, and the pants, the hair and the tail are made of specific layers colors to give the separate shading look.
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Expression Sheets
Expressions are important to be able to represent the characters personality. My character, even though he is a theif, is very charming and overall a happy person. Therefore smiling in alot of his references.
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His outfit is a black sleeveless crop top with a black arm sleeve that only goes on the bottom of his arms. Its connected to the middle of his stomach and equally at the same level on the back.
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Character Notes
- Name: Brady
- Age: 18
- Height: 5'8
- Eye color: Purple
- Hair color: Red
- Defining physical characteristics (scars, blemishes, moles, etc.): Wolf-Elf Hybrid Long fingernails, Red and purple wolf tail. Legs of a Wolf (Paws on feet) Stripes of red coloration on his upper arms.
- Birth home/current residence: Main elf city as a thief.
ACT
- Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your work? Creating stories and creating original characters was something that interested me since the beginning of me learning how to draw. My theme this year for my art is fantasy, so i wanted to create a fantasy character that could fit into any other project that requires a character to be shown in the main piece.
- What is the overall approach(point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration? The over all approach i wanted to go for in this piece is staying true to my own personal style and preferred medium. The colors where all up to me in the end, eventually going with more brighter simplistic choices along with focusing on how the bold black brings the piece together. The design and color choices all tie into something that is meaningful, while also sticking with the new process of the 60/30/10 rule i discovered.
- What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration? That being true to ones personal style and medium choice can create more of a creative boost than being refined to a project that is told to be created. My interest only furthered to research how to create more characters to use in future pieces.
- What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research? The color choices and how to stylistically put that into play, staying true to my interests and personal meanings.
- What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research? That there is many things that can go into creating the meaning and the execution's of ones work to make the character relatable and interesting by first glance.