Hey everyone! This is the curriculum for a three-part character design series.
we'll go through the entire creative process of designing and painting a
character in a semi realistic style. also in this series we'll be taking a look at
the fundamental art skills that are being used each step of the way. OK, you
ready? Here's the project brief. Vladimir is a
burly, sword-wielding psycho. He stalks his prey on the streets and fears no man.
and we got some clothing and age notes... let's get to work!
I'd like to talk about gesture drawing using this piece of reference. can you see the
overall 'C' curve running through this pose? also these secondary 'C' curves that
kind of rhyme with that action? Lines of action are what gesture drawing is all
about. So let's do a gesture drawing of this pose. I'll start with the main
action line and get in some of these secondary lines of action. Now, I kind of
want to plot out the head, because general proportion is a consideration in
a gesture drawing, even though I'm definitely not considering the actual
forms yet. So I'll kind of plot out where the shoulders are, where the hips are ...
that kind of helps me delineate the body... maybe kind of where the foot might end
up somewhere down there ... this foot as well. But more than anything, what I'm
interested in is feeling the thrust of the chest to the arc of the back. I'll
make sure everything I do here supports that c-curve rhythm I've established
through the body. This arm is a very subtle, almost actually kind of an
s-curve. Even the way the head kind of flows into the body ... it all connects
rhythmically. I'll even think of the hair as an extension of these rhythms. you
notice I'm using a brush that's not allowing me to draw any kind of detail.
I'm not even trying to draw a volume or form! Above all else, a gesture drawing
should evoke the brief moment in time that this pose exists in. Now, is this a
work of art in and of itself? Hardly. Is it a critical tool for
understanding the pose? Certainly! ...You know, another critical tool I use is Wix -
which is helping to bring you this character series. If you're an artist and
not a web designer, like me, you can get started with one of Wix's many templates.
Just pick one you like and Wix's editor loads up. Now using the editor we can
customize to our hearts content! watch how user-friendly this is: I'll
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So let's explore Vladimir's body language with gestures drawn freely from
imagination. And I'll try out different rhythms here, like maybe a curve against
some straights. And this is a start. proportions are a bit on the cartoony
side though. ok let's try something different for this one, maybe a more
exaggerated s-curve like someone ready to strike. 'Strike' is a funny choice of
word. This guy looks like a batter for the New York Yankees. So that's not gonna
work. Gonna go back to some straightness in the shoulders and arms which kind of
feels like a tense grip to me. A little bit more of a curvature in the body, like
he's moving into this pose. Maybe the angle of the sword mirroring the angle
of the arms for a dramatic kind of v-shape? I don't know there might be some
power there. Using an s-curve seems to offer a little more movement so I'll try
that again here. Although I'm already thinking this looks more like an
athletic pose rather than a hunter's pose. So, while I like the movement here I
don't exactly think it's suits Vladimir. OK so I'll go back to some C curves
mixed with straights kind of thing ... and I guess I like the movement, but it looks
like he's in a dance recital, not killing someone in cold blood. Huh. OK, this time
something with more straights. The straight arms just seem to be working
for me. I'll go back to that and try and
minimize even the curves in the body. I'll stretch his back leg far back as
though he's currently transferring weight to his front leg maybe? Hmm, but I
don't know, something about this feels posed ... and here's where I got lost in the
woods a bit. So we move on! Ah, twisting the upper body, that's a good idea.
There is a murderous intent to this pose that I didn't have before.
I like it! Gonna try a variation on that pose. Something more in the moment of the
strike. Gonna twist the upper body again. I think that works for the character and
yeah, I don't know we'll add it to the collection.
I'm thinking maybe Vladimir is less athletic than this. So let's see if I can
communicate "physically imposing" without the histrionics. And notice that even
though this pose is more static, it's not straight up and down. And for the first
time I think that could be Vladimir! Now I want to take what I learned from
that pose and bring it all the way back to my first pose actually. Getting a
static yet lumbering sort of thing. Somebody hunting, moving slowly,
methodically transferring weight to that
foot. Some nice contrast in the straighter left side and the more curvy
right side. Alright so here are my three favorite poses. I think this one really
captures the sheer physical presence of the guy. I also really like the
proportions on it however it doesn't really communicate his intent - and that's
a problem when you're trying to sell a character. This one definitely has intent
but it just doesn't look to me like how a burly guy would walk. OK this one
seems to have the intent, the plodding sense of weight, and the bullheaded
confidence of a man who is really strong, but maybe not professionally trained
with his weapon. I feel like Vlad lives somewhere in there. So let's move ahead
with this one!
Silhouette is a strictly 2D understanding of your drawing, so what I'm doing here is I'm just filling my gesture in with an
opaque black brush. Kind of guessing at the silhouette to start. of course having
that gesture kind of preloads my silhouette with action. alright but now I
can hide the gesture, let's make a duplicate of our silhouette, drag it over
here, and do some iteration. I want to see what happens like for instance if I move
the head over here and made him lean in more. Maybe I can tweak the action of the
shoulders, getting specific about where exactly they cross the head. Negative
space is critical as well so I'll start designing this piece of negative space
to see how it affects the readability of this pose. Also, because this is a
silhouette, I can just do crazy things like grab this leg ... maybe move the pivot
point up here and, like, bring this leg in. The reason I'm doing that is remember I
said that I like the straightness of this side? Well here it was kind of like
a little like that... and I want to make it more straight just to see if that works.
of course I'll have to straighten out his foot here. So let's speed up the
video a bit and just do some more iteration. tweaking shoulders and, oh I
really like that tweak! That series of straights really make it feel like he's
leaning into this. At this point I'll bring in my first piece of reference, for
these heavy-duty construction pants. I'm looking at the specific silhouette
shapes in here as the fabric collapses on to itself at the bottom here. The
thickness of the fabric makes very characteristic shapes and I think
putting some of that in here would really help my design both on a
silhouette level as well as a realism level. Maybe right around here as it
folds near the shoe. Now be careful here! see what I just did? I just made the same
shape twice. That is a design no-no! Repetition like that can draw too much
attention and it's so easy for it to sneak into your drawing. Undo it and I'll
try again - maybe I'll get rid of this one and go back to this one ... and maybe smooth
out that one ... have it only a little bit. I also like these pockets here. Reminds me
of like a saddlebag on a motorcycle. I think they add a lot of interest to the
silhouette and would fit this character's choice of clothing so I'll
put that in and see what happens. I'll be very careful
about navigating the negative space where it hits the arms. You see, what I
don't want to do is accidentally do this. That looks a little falli -- unfortunate. So
let's bring back that valuable negative space. See, the silhouette is your chance
to achieve the fastest and clearest read. These two photos both show me
holding a mallet. This silhouette communicates that information ... and this
one does not. Burying critical elements inside the silhouette is usually not the
best design choice. The viewer needs more time and more information to resolve
this picture, and that can be a real barrier to their interest. Whereas this
reads clearly and quickly, even at a great distance.
I find designing the silhouette really fun! It's a great place to experiment
with shapes. Here I'm trying out some complexity on the pants, but I think it
kills the straight too much. I'll remind myself that there's lots of room for
complexity later when I am dealing with the inside of the silhouette. Okay, just
making a few final adjustments and let's look at this. Here's where we started and
here's where we ended up. Before. After. I think we can all agree that's an
improvement? And I'd like to explain something else that I think is
contributing to that. Let's call it a rhythmical awareness. Look at this area
here. See how jumpy and staccato that rhythm is? Compare that to this rhythm
which is right next to it, and we get that longer sense of relief. It's a
visual cadence I was able to refine here that in this stage was not quite present.
Because in that stage I was focused on other things. Also, recalling these small
negative spaces, my personal philosophy is the smaller the shape, the simpler it
should be. Because a simpler shape is more likely to read at scale. All right
let's move on to the third topic of the day.
This is a drawing by one of my favorite figure drawing instructors, Glenn Vilppu.
This drawing has a strong sense of form, meaning three-dimensionality. Now, a
gesture of this drawing might look something like this. There's no solid
form there yet, but we can now build it. One thing I learned from Glenn is to
look at the axis of the shoulders and the hips. In this drawing you might think
those two lines are parallel. But that is rarely the case. In this example I think
it's more like this. Those two axes give me a starting point to lay in some basic
forms. Boxes have been used since forever to help artists understand the most
fundamental plane changes. But using two boxes: one for the ribcage area and one
for the pelvis area helps me visualize the different three-dimensional
orientations at play here. In fact I'll even draw a center line down the model
to embed this information in my drawing. I'll throw on some quick tone here and
now we're really seeing in 3D! I'll expand on this by adding some cylinders
for the arms. I like to figure out the start and end ellipses before connecting
them. And I'll do the same thing for the legs. Now at this point I could go in and
layer on things like anatomy, or more specific breakdowns of each part. But I'm
getting ahead of myself so let's go back and start building up our character. I'll
use the top planes of these boxes to help me understand their orientation. Now
instead of the box, this time I'm drawing an egg form. That's the ribcage. The
ribcage is a formidable volume and can really help your understanding of the
bulkiness of the chest. It's particularly useful here as this is a big burly
character. Now the ribcage still has boxy side and front planes, so you can imagine
both at once if you want. These are all classical life drawing tools! And
spending time learning them really revolutionized my ability to draw. Anyway,
I put a centerline in, and now I'm simplifying the head into a box form.
Underneath that, a cylindrical neck connects to the ribcage. And here come
more cylinders to help me figure out the orientation of the arms ... and back two
boxes for the hands. The legs are very simple cylinders. And by the way, if you
want to convert those cylinders into boxes, you can do that quite easily. You
know, what I'm doing right now is not even really 'character design',
it's simply understanding three-dimensional form. Which is a
prerequisite to good drawing. An experienced artist learns to see this
way naturally and is able to convey this information without having to literally
draw it. But I have seen a lot of people kind of skip this part of their learning.
And if that describes you, my recommendation is the life drawing
classroom! Now, I can start using that 3D information to work inside the
silhouette and figure out some tricky things - like how that arm is pressed up
against the chest there, and the mass of the shoulder behind it. I could even
start like figuring out the folds in the clothing. Now, that's something I'll cover
in the next installment of this series. Speaking of clothing though, I have this
reference, and I want to fit the chest piece around this guy's burly chest.
I can't copy the reference it's not the same character or angle. But I can use
its information. In this case the design of those overalls. But then reapply it
three dimensionally to my drawing. Those overalls wrapping around the form is a
great way to reveal the three dimensionality of the character, and as a
designer you're always looking for opportunities to do that. Here I'm just
painting away some of my construction lines so I can get a better sense of
what the actual design is looking like. And at this point I'm working on both
the 2D silhouette (that is, the outside) and the 3D inside. These straps on the
overalls wrapping around to the back here are yet another great excuse to
show the three dimensionality of the character. And I'll just quickly lay in
the head here with again some basic forms... essentially just figuring out the
eye line, the center line, setting the stage for designing the actual face
later. I can do other things like wrap lines around his waist, which might later
become a feature of his clothing - like a belt or something. Just gonna see if I
can punch up that strap a bit. Mass in some quick tone to separate the clothing
elements. Now, one unfortunate thing that happens to me when I draw like this is
my drawing tends to stiffen up. So it's never out of the question to blast out
an entire area and retry it! In this case, I think I can get a little more torque
in that shoulder. Recalling that upper body twist I had in some of my gestures.
And I'll do overhauls like this right up until the end! Like Drew Struzan said
once: "It ain't sacred until it's finished." Okay let's put ol' Vladdy in the corner
for a second. So, to me, 'Form' has two overall categories. The basic geometry,
which is what we've been dealing with. Then a second category: Anatomy. We'll come
face to face with anatomy in those gigantic forearms! Currently we have a
tapered cylinder. And that's a start but... uh... forearms are a little more complex than that.
So we have to increase the resolution here. First I'll map out the elbow, which
is kind of a mini box. And I need to indicate where the upper arm is so that
I can add this group of 'ridge' muscles. They originate from the upper arm and
wrap around the cylinder toward the thumb and are responsible for that
signature bulging contour of the forearm. Next we can map a line from the elbow to
the upper outer corner of the wrist. That's the Ulna - the bone. I'm also
converting the wrist into a boxy form. next i'm landmarking the lateral
epicondyle. That's the little dimple next to your
elbow. From that point comes a group of 'extensor' muscles. They too have a
twisting action, a kind of winding river like flow, culminating at the top plane
of the wrist. Also the extensors can overlap the Ulna near the elbow. Okay, a
third group of muscles, the 'flexors', originate from the medial epicondyle.
That's the other dimple hidden by the elbow in this view. They flow around, like
a lazy river, to the palm side of the hand. And they're responsible for the
other signature bulging contour of the forearm. Overall, the forearm is twisty
and flowy, but it's offset symmetrically. Not respecting that aspect of the
forearm is a common mistake! In fact I'll have to address it in my drawing - which
is currently too symmetrical! I think anatomy best fits into your
fundamental study after you have some basic 3D drawing skills. And where can
you study these forms? Well, the life drawing classroom, for one ... or you can go
to Proko's channel. He's got the anatomy thing pretty much covered! All
right, now let's take a closer look at the head. I'll show you how you can start
modeling this. I shot a photograph here of my Asaro Head. The first thing I'll do
is use the temple and cheek area to separate the head into front and side
planes, which is very valuable overall information. These planes here make up
the bottom two-thirds of the front of the head. This plane is oriented upwards,
more so I'll give it a lighter value for now, and now I'll use a darker value to
delineate the side planes of the head. Now, this is just a temporary design for
the sake of this breakdown. I want to be a little less rigid in
my actual design. But these are the underlying fundamentals I'll be using
later when I am designing more freely. Now I'm working out how the nose feeds
into the brow and carves out the eye sockets. And for the sake of this demo
I'll just mask the eye sockets completely in shadow - which does happen
quite often in real life. Then I can refine my contours here. Getting the
right thickness of the cheek, and protuberance of the brow. I'll work my
way down to the mouth here, figure out a general shape for it, and more
importantly, get in this under-plane. This one right here. It really helps describe
the depth of the mouth. Okay, the nose is very boxy. It's got clear front and side
planes. So I'll figure out where those go. Throw a little tone on the side just for
clarity. What I'll do now is think about, like, the nose casting a shadow onto the
muzzle. Deepening the darks and the eye sockets to show their depth. The
head casting a shadow onto the chest. I mentioned the muzzle just now. We
humans have muzzles just like animals do. They're just far more narrow. From this
angle, it has an egg-like shape, like this. And you can trace it rhythmically from
the wings of the nose, past the corners of the mouth, right down to the chin and
back. If you want a deep dive on this stuff, I have a 7-hour class that
focuses exclusively on the many planes and rhythms of the head. I encourage you
to check it out! Last but not least, the brow has a protrusion here known as the
superciliary arch. Say that 10 times fast! There's also the brow muscles underneath
there. Not only does this set off the dimension of the brow, but you can design
it to look very masculine ... which is probably what I'll do for this character.
OK, so I'll quickly implement these things in my design,
keeping in mind that this is a character design, NOT an Anatomy textbook! So just
enough anatomy to help move this thing forward. For the head I'll keep it
suggestive with shadow shapes for now. My preference is to leave the face for
later, when I'm working in color. But that's coming up next in the series. This
is just a little sneak peek at Part 2. We'll be getting into lighting and
painting and color... and start making our design look real professional!
And hey! I've got an art challenge going on my Discord, where you can design Vlad
along with me. And if you're a patron I just might feature your work! So stay
tuned - I'll see you in part 2 :)