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[Enrichment] Character Construction
Iruka
Registered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
Registered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
Character Construction
>>Enrichment Directory<<
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/construction
Character Construction
I have said that being able to render something as basic as a sphere is the first step to really leaning how to draw. From Simple shapes, to still lives, we have studied the ground work for being able to make things from imagination. Character construction is about consistency and volume. Using your knowledge of how to make a shape seem real, you then apply that knowledge to build a character as if out of blocks. Characters may be flexible and squishy, muscles may have rule sets for how they contract and extend, but when it comes down to it, if you cant make a block on top of a cylinder, you are going to have a very hard time.
You may choose to work on one, or all of the following:
Golden Age Cartoon Studies Bugs bunny has more bones than you think, and is harder to draw on model than you think. Challenge yourself to work from the bottom up, and put the character together based on you knowledge of shape and volume rather than trying to copy the flat picture
Your own Character model sheets Do you know what the standards are for your own characters are? This is important for any comic artist and animator, but is also good practice for concept artists who need to make turn arounds for 3D work. Create notations that will help you be consistent in the future.
Find the structure in a master copy Paint studies and draw over master paintings and find the basic shapes with in. Inform yourself of the volume happening by drawing grids over the form. Be studious and attentive to detail, and really work to gather as much knowledge from this activity as possible. old and new masters are fine for this, whatever interests you the most.
Inspiration and Resources
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/construction
http://pinterest.com/characterdesigh/
http://pinterest.com/pin/564638872002152796/
>>Enrichment Directory<<
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/construction
Character Construction
I have said that being able to render something as basic as a sphere is the first step to really leaning how to draw. From Simple shapes, to still lives, we have studied the ground work for being able to make things from imagination. Character construction is about consistency and volume. Using your knowledge of how to make a shape seem real, you then apply that knowledge to build a character as if out of blocks. Characters may be flexible and squishy, muscles may have rule sets for how they contract and extend, but when it comes down to it, if you cant make a block on top of a cylinder, you are going to have a very hard time.
You may choose to work on one, or all of the following:
Golden Age Cartoon Studies Bugs bunny has more bones than you think, and is harder to draw on model than you think. Challenge yourself to work from the bottom up, and put the character together based on you knowledge of shape and volume rather than trying to copy the flat picture
Your own Character model sheets Do you know what the standards are for your own characters are? This is important for any comic artist and animator, but is also good practice for concept artists who need to make turn arounds for 3D work. Create notations that will help you be consistent in the future.
Find the structure in a master copy Paint studies and draw over master paintings and find the basic shapes with in. Inform yourself of the volume happening by drawing grids over the form. Be studious and attentive to detail, and really work to gather as much knowledge from this activity as possible. old and new masters are fine for this, whatever interests you the most.
Inspiration and Resources
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/construction
http://pinterest.com/characterdesigh/
http://pinterest.com/pin/564638872002152796/
Iruka on
+1
Posts
Enrichment activities aim to encourage you to tackle a small but useful assignment every month. They are either multifaceted, or loosely defined, giving you the option to mold it to help you reach previously held aspirations. They will mostly be assignments that you can fulfill in whatever media, and commit whatever time you feel benefits you.
What Do I Gain From Participating?
If I'm at all qualified, I will try to provide crits and support to the people who participate. I hope that people in the thread also engage in a little more cross talk when they are working on the same assignment. I will do my best to not let anyone's work go un-commented upon. I will also try and load the OP with resources for everyone to draw from on the topic at hand.
May I post an old work if it fits into the topic?
You may post work that you are currently working on, or plan to revisit during the month. Don't post old work if you have no intention of touching it. If I spend time commenting on year old work and then you never do anything to it within the activity, I will shun you.
May I post inspiration and links even if I'm not going to really participate?
So long as this aspect doesn't get in the way of people posting work for actual crits, this is a great place to just throw up some art that is related to the topic and you think its helpful. Link the source, and spoiler images so they don't detract from people working on assignments.
May I suggest a topic?
Sure! If a bunch of people have something they want to work on, I'm happy to make that the next assignment. Just try and keep it something that all artists can do (like color studies) and not something that requires materials that are inaccessible to a large percentage of members (like ceramics, or metalwork) If there is something that members would like to do and it has a fairly low material buy in, like sculpey maquettes, I'm cool with that too.
Deadlines
I will pretty much rotate these out monthly without exception. Perhaps if there is a popular one I will let it run for two months.
Previous Threads:
2013
JAN-BrandYourself
FEB-Simple Shapes
MAR-Show Your Work
APR-Color Studies
May-Hands and Feet
JUN-Still Life
JUL-Character Construction
AUG- (off month)
SEP- Perspective and Environments
OCT- Thumbnails and Silhouettes
NOV - NatCoWriMo
DEC - Secret Santa.
2014
JAN- Resolution
I don't know why cartooning is so fantastic to me.
I kept going with my hipster Dave.
HMM.
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
He works out to be ironic.
not enough Sailor Jerry tattoos or weird inappropriate mustache
also where is his messenger bag and his bicycle
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
I didn't learn much from the first one other than the curves that wrap around a form are generally perpendicular to the form, which should have been obvious but it's not something I think about when I'm drawing. The second was much more educational, I really had to struggle with identifying where the sides of the large masses were.
I wish I had more time for life drawing, this would be great to do with a live model, or even just with a statute.
1 bugs from ref, and then three imagined bunnys who are clearly not bugs. Working on an goofy based on this sheet:
http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/4525/2278/1600/115939/veg12-big.jpg
Its better practice than I remembered, Drawing those characters on model is deceptively difficult. Its very easy to make a "sorta goofy" and not really nail the style.
first round of the head:
I tend to draw my designs straight without a lot of shape underlying. But it's all about what works for you. I've also done some character designs which were to be created in 3D. So, it's always interesting to take something you've done and imagine it in 360 degrees. Things don't always work from a different perspective.
like this
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DLqOGDNPGOM/S98MLpbZoMI/AAAAAAAAAIY/89D0ol0ze4g/s1600/turnaround_marcus.jpg
I like it though, is seems more consistent than your strips.
@seegru the enrichment itself helps for people who either have trouble with keeping charaters on model, or in general have trouble understanding interpreting volume when making up characters or trying to draw from 2D reference. Once you have a sense for those principals, you can certainly break them (if your cartooning is the type that needs to). Generally people who already have volume deeply ingrained are drawing with invisible guidelines in their head, but it helps to occasionally draw them out, and make sure your perception is correct.
I'm not really saying this directly at you, but I like to direct our new members/more beginner members to our enrichment threads. So often these basic exercises are glossed over when people feel competent in one way or another, but its more worthwhile to just see if there's a hole in your knowledge and give it a genuine try in a way you think will challenge you. Thinking things like "I'm just going to do whats right for me" can be really dangerous for new artists who still need to push way outside their comfort zone to gain the skills they need to push forward.
Edit: also I rounded out this page:
Based the character off my girlfriend's ferret, Lolla. Being a ferret, I don't imagine her standing still from panel to panel, ever.
Question - with a character whose midsection/body is slinky and serpentine, what do you do to maintain a consistent shape?
Situation excellent. I am attacking.
- General Ferdinand Foch
Wil E. Coyote is just the best thing to draw.
Also, would someone explain to me how to use spoilers? I'm a little lost... :oops: Thanks!
[spoiIer] <your thing here> [/spoiIer]
I had a bunch of backup files that were saved at various stages in the process of that little illustration, so I figured I'd plonk down a little thingy about it.
Thumbnail! The basic camera position, action, and composition are figured out here for the most part.
Construction! This is the first construction pass for the characters. Little me is mostly done with sketchy balls and cylinders. At this point, I'm still figuring my Kochioid out. The houses were done with with 3-point perspective. The wagon was a loose little box at first. Later on, I grabbed a model from Google Sketchup to look at and help me figure out a proper angle for it on the curved ground plane.
Second Construction pass! The image is flipped to give a fresh view of what is going on. Kochioid is getting properly sussed out. My body gets a little attention. I used the Transform Warp tool to adjust the houses a little bit so they'd look more like they were conforming to the roundness of the ground plane.
Final Linework! Tighten up the lines on me, Kochioid and the wagon. I also put some alpha masks on them, so that I can paint them cleanly and easily. I want the environment to be a little more loose and painterly, so I don't bother with final linework on all that.
Colour Rough! I should probably have thought more about my colours earlier on in the process, like just after the thumbnail stage. If you do that, you can properly sort out lighting schemes, and how the colours are going to impact how the eye moves around your composition. Colours are something that I don't really excel at, so I usually put them off and then take a long time to just noodle and grumble. Sometimes things come out okay.
It's not the best way to approach things.
Quick Rubbish Little Lighting Maquette! I was having a little trouble figuring out how the light was going to hit some of these forms, particularly on my Kochioid. So, I decided to learn how to use Blender a little bit and futz around in it. It's not a very attractive model, but it helped to inform how the light was going to hit some of the basic shapes in the illustration.
Painting! Here I usually jump all around the place, noodling on random areas. At this point, I'm also thinking about having some light hit a part of the foliage in the back to sort of halo the head of the Kochioid and maybe draw more attention to it. I eventually decide that would be silly and unnecessary. Also, it might steal attention away from ME.
More Painting! It is flipped and noodling continues. With the exception of the foliage and the two characters in the background, everything is pretty much worked out.
It's about constructing a character using 3 dimensional geometric shapes as a guide. What you've done isn't exactly a construction exercise, but it could become just that.
Since you're not really drawing eyes as such, really pushing and stretching and squashing the glasses frames would work wonders in conveying expression! And if there's anything kids are, it's expressive
(Also I think it's so awesome you draw your daughter and put her in your comics and wwuuhhguh i have something in my eye excuse me)
Ideally, I'll have a nice clean low-poly model all sorted out so I can include it in some quick 3D maquettes to use for future illustrations featuring the character.
With fresh eyes, I see that the angle of his fancy ruff in the front view doesn't quite match up with the other two. Also, his belt across the front doesn't really curve enough to be consistent with the belt in the side-view.
Early stages of the base mesh. Modelling is something I'm very new at. It is scary, but exciting. Modelling hands is extra scary.
This reminds me of the artwork style in Final Fantasy 9 I love it : D
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