- Hi, my name is Lindsey Olivares
and I am the production designer and lead character designer
on "The Mitchells vs. the Machines,"
and I'm gonna show you how to draw Katie.
(upbeat, driving music)
So, Katie Mitchell.
Usually when I start drawing Katie,
I'll start with her glasses.
It's kind of like a rounded square shape frame for her.
Her nose is a little simple shape
that kind of breaks that glasses shape.
Then I'll come in here and fill in her glasses.
For her eyes, they can be kind of irregular.
Sometimes we'll play with one being
a little bit bigger than the other.
She's got kind of small pupils.
And again, having a little bit
of irregularity in the shape helps.
Let me clean that up a little bit.
The characters often have these
little lines around their eyes, too.
Give her little simple eyebrow shapes.
Katie has kind of messy hair
so she's got a couple simple pieces
at the top of the head breaking out
and this kind of bigger bang at the side.
It's got kind of three distinct kind of triangle shapes.
She's got a big kind of personality, somewhat big mouth.
She has a little lightning bolt earring,
a little pony tail, and, like, little loose hair.
For a lot of the look of the world,
we really kept some of the signs that it had been drawn.
So, they're not super perfect.
They have a little bit of irregularity to them
like you drew them.
I hope that the film resonates in a way
that people kind of appreciate
their imperfect selves, imperfect family.
As a core theme, it's something that
I hope a lot of people take away from it.
You know, there's kind of a simple message
that you don't have to be, like, a perfect family.
With Katie, we tried a lot of different designs for her.
In some versions, we leaned into
her maybe looking more like Rick, her father,
so it feels more like they're the same, but opposite.
I think she contrasts from Rick
but also has a little bit of, like,
a related quality that they all feel like Mitchells.
She took the longest to find a design.
I think it's always hard to get your main character right
but that was really fun to explore
and to find her personality
and find ways to kind of push her
that she can feel like an artist and a filmmaker.
I was always kind of imagining her, like,
touching her hair while she's thinking
and it has a little bit of a creative chaos to it.
I would say I identify with Katie the most.
I think there's kind of a artistic, creative energy
that's there that I feel like
I identified with on the project.
So, that was really fun to figure her out
and to think about her character.
I guess color gives us just another way
to tell us something a little bit more about the character.
A color that we used a lot for Katie is red.
It's, like, the color of her hoodie.
I think red naturally has, like, a boldness to it
which feels right for her character.
But we kind of talked about, like,
her hair being more dyed red, you know,
then the natural red.
We tried to make it seem like her roots were more brown.
Like, maybe they're more like the color of,
you know, her dad's hair or something
but she's trying to be her own person
and be a little bit different.
And so, it's just another way to, you know,
tell the audience more about our characters.
And then her shirt.
It's supposed to be, like, a little weird,
pinky-yellow, multi-eyed Monchi creature on her shirt.
There you have it.
Now you know how to draw Katie Mitchell.
Thanks for watching.
(upbeat music)