FIRST CHARACTER DESIGN JOB
Hello! It’s been such a long time.
Life got busy to say the least. A week ago my first Character Design job came to an end and I just wanted to speak a little about my experience without breaking my NDA.
The first thing to say is that I did not apply for .a position I had seen online, it was based on a recommendation from someone I already knew - networking is so so important!
The role itself was very insightful:
The first thing I was surprised at was how long was spent looking for references and how particular the Creative Director was about the references to make sure the ideas were fresh. This helped me to be more critical and is definitely something I will be taking into future roles as well as my personal work.
Secondly, most of the drawings I was proud of were overlooked in favour of drawings I just added to make up numbers. This is why so many people say don’t get precious about your drawings.
Thirdly, simple is definitely better.
Apart from the above there were a lot of things I realised I need to improve on (there is no hiding place for weaknesses in the industry) like anatomy, posing and expressions.
To remedy these I have started by going back to Life Drawing and buying an anatomy book recommended by a friend which seems to suit me better than others I have tried in the past.
Looking forward to more learning and growth!
Until next time, God bless!
WEEK 15 - RESULT OF HELPING OUT A FRIEND
Hi people,
I just realised I did not post the final design for the dog I showed concepts for a couple weeks ago. Here you go
My friend love it. I am currently working on designs for a Dad (human) in the same film.
Until next time, God bless!
WEEK 14 - Stay hydrated
Sometimes a word in season is like refreshing water washing over you. Feel the water, drink the water, stay hydrated! What are you on about man?
I'm on about the need to surround yourself with both people who will encourage you and people who will be brutally honest with you. If you do not have people who meet the criteria in your life I would suggest you:
1. Seek them out
2. Find online resources/ forums that provide both
I made some good friends on my Animation course who I can trust to give me honest feedback but as well as that I have sought out some professionals who would do the same (they have no reason to be nice to me).
Oh, and if you are a visual artist I suggest you listen to this podcast as it always challenges me and gets me to rethink my approach to things but not in a way that breaks my spirit: https://chrisoatley.com/visual-storytelling-podcast/
That's it! Happy hunting!
Until next time, God bless!
WEEK 13 - HELPING OUT A FRIEND
Hello there!
So, my crazy talented animator friend Christina asked me to help her out with some character designs for her new short film. I would have been a fool to say no as she is my good friend and her last film 'Leave a Print' was a smash hit! Don't believe me? Scroll to the bottom of the post.
Animals are not my forte but knowing Christina that is exactly why she asked me to design the dog - a french bulldog or boston terrier type. Good old Christina; always challenging, always kicking up the backside - these are the kind of friends you keep around.
'Enough talking' you say, 'where are the designs you've done?' Jeez, tough crowd. Here you go:
First rough concepts
I can't even lie to you, the struggle was real, but (learn from me young and or stubborn people) I told Christina I was struggling and she provided a lot of helpful references including other cartoon versions of those dog types. It was so helpful. Then I was motivated to come up with more concepts, some were slight variations based on feedback from Christina that she liked the body and head of 1 but the face of 3 and she wanted the ears sticking up.
From the above Christina liked 6 so I am in the process of finalising the design and posing the character and surprisingly enjoying drawing an animal. I will show you the final drawings. Much to your relief, I'm sure, that's all I have to say for now.
Until next time, God bless!
P.S. See below all the festivals 'Leave a Print' has been in so far! Is she a legend or what?
WEEK 12 - CONSTRUCTION MY OLD FOE, WE MEET AGAIN
As many of you know, I am currently doing courses through Schoolism Subscriptions (online art courses). I recently finished my Gesture Drawing Class with Alex Woo which highlighted all sorts of drawing weaknesses.
I have now moved on to do Fundamentals of Character Design by Stephen Silver. The great thing about these courses is that you can see feedback that the instructors give to other students which is incredibly useful. As Stephen Silver critiqued each student the theme of construction kept coming up again and again and again. Initially I almost turned it off because I use to construct a lot and all that would happen is that my characters would look robotic. I pushed through and listened to all of them and I realised that the way he was constructing was not robotic at all so I paid attention. Apparently, I don't hate construction after all. Apparently, it can make your drawing stronger. I'm being a bit facetious as I have always known the purpose of construction was to strengthen a drawing, I just didn't think it worked for me personally so kind of stopped bothering. Also, I now understand where 'drawing through' comes in and just why it is so important.
Silver advised one student in particular to practice construction from photos of real life and I thought that would be a good thing to practice too. See below:
These images are not mine.
These images are not mine
And of course, I had to practice it on stylised cartoons/ illustrations because that's what I am most interested in.
The great Ronald Searle
Aurelius Battaglia
It's fair to say my opinion of construction has changed and I will be practicing like this more often :)
Until next time, God bless!
Week 11 - Inspired
Earlier this week I watched the Incredibles 2. I remembered that I really liked the first Incredibles but hadn't seen it since I watched it in the cinema all those years ago so I can't really compare the two. What I know for sure is that Incredibles 2 is a great movie and it inspired me to want to become a far better artist. Also, I don't remember the last time I watched a highly rendered 3D movie and the whole way through all I could think about was much I wanted to improve my drawing skills.
This morning, I drew some fan art of Frozone because he's cool - literally!
If you haven't seen Incredibles 2, get to the cinema pronto!
Until next time, God bless!
WEEK 10 - PROPORTIONS
While doing my gesture drawing assignments this week I began to realise just how bad I am at proportions in general. When I have 30 secs to 1 minute to draw the figure I am getting better at capturing what is happening but find it impossible to do that and keep realistic proportions.
My way of addressing this initially was to find out what the actual landmarks of the figure are as for some foolish reason, I don't think I have properly sat down to work this out before.
Initially, I used a stock photo to work it out myself and then I had a look at a very basic but helpful proportion guide - both below
It was as if I had never really seen a human body before as I was shocked by most of the proportions. eg. The position of the chest, how long the torso is, the position of the shoulders.
This really proved to me the growing up I learnt nothing in art. I may well have been taught it but I did not retain any of it which is a shame. I thought I knew this stuff but had no idea.
Everytime, I want to move on I realise there are thousand more basic things I don't know. Drawing is so so hard!
Until next time, God bless!
WEEK 9 - Fanart
Hi all,
I missed last week as I had a very busy weekend but have been drawing as usual.
During the week I was listening to the radio and heard a song which reminded me of the Police Academy films. I love those films and had to start doing some fan art.
Here are some attempts at Hightower which I can't stand but I thought were important to share because there are some things I want to point out that I am aware I need to work on (apologies for the really bad cropping in the first image, I decided I wanted to share the rough sketches after I cropped it)
1. Trying to correct mistakes too early/ Drawing way too many lines - it just looks like a mess
2. Facial features - no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to let the face breathe/ have varying proportions without the face feeling squashed.
3. I can't seem to stop rushing drawings, especially digitally I get so impatient and just want to get colour on it
Any tips on any of the above welcome!
Until next time, God bless!
Week 8 - Gesture Drawing: Silhouette
Hi guys,
Hope you are well. This week on my gesture drawing course I've been learning about silhouette, which I know is a very important part of drawing but for some reason I have tended to completely ignore in my own drawings - I just get so caught up with the inner details which I began to address last week by thinking bigger!
Not much to say this week, but part of my assignment was to observe some silhouettes in photos/ art and make them better. Here is my attempt below:
Just to point out as well that these silhouettes were not all terrible to begin with but could be clearer. I also practiced this with cafe sketching which was another part of the assignment and as usual have been relating it to my characters. I may have some fan art/ original designs to post her next weekend.
Until next time, God bless!
Week 7 - Shape
Hi everyone! How you doing?
Another week, another update. This week I have been watching the 2nd week of the Schoolism gesture class again because I was very confused when I watched it last week. However, as a friend of mine pointed out to me, the great thing about the subscription is that you can do the course at your own pace so you can re-watch a certain lesson until you understand it. I still want to treat it as though I am on the live course just for the sake of my own discipline, but if I need to I will slow it down. The race is not given to the swift (biblical reference)
Anyway, in essence, I have been learning about how to use shape in gesture drawing. Alex Woo was talking about thinking big and thinking graphically/ not getting into the details too soon (my number one pitfall because I love details). He was encouraging us to look for the overall shape which describes the pose.
Part of the assignment was to find 10 pictures and look for that overall shape. See my attempt below. I'm not sure I fully get it yet.
As with a lot of principles, it is transferable and because my interest is character design my immediate thought was how can I think bigger in my design. The colour blocking exercise below was a good starting place. I pretty much knew what I was going to draw from the start but I began with bigger shapes.
I really enjoyed this exercise. Not only was it good for me thinking big with shape but also thinking big with colour and detail. I was also more conscious of the silhouette which Alex Woo will be talking about in next week's lesson.
Overall, things are slowly clicking and I am excited about the future, This gesture class, much like my Masters in Animation, arose from a need to build a stronger drawing foundation. Although I felt these courses were necessary, they are still a means to an end and the longer I wait to do a dedicated character design course, the more antsy I become. I am enjoying this course but hope deferred makes the heart sick (another biblical reference).
Looking forward to finishing this course so I can start a Character Design one. Just trying not to get ahead of myself which is really hard for me because it's no secret that I'm an eager beaver.
Until next time, God bless!