Have you ever tried to design your own character and realised how tricky the process can be? A lot of work goes into a good character design so it can be difficult to know where to begin Luckily, there are a few simple
Character design has always had a key role in the concept-design industry. Whether you are designing for film, TV, games, advertising, or a personal project it takes a lot of creativity and skill to create an effective character.
To understand what great character designs look like, one only has to look at the work of well-known mass-media company Disney, whose iconic characters remain common household names, despite some of them being introduced as early as the 1930s.
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However, Disney is just one example – there are many styles that can be used to create effective characters as long as you know how to use these styles. So here are 39 character design tips and tricks to help you create your own awesome characters!
Whether you are using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate, or any other software or medium, your character design process will start in the same place!
Every character design begins with an idea. This idea can often be in the form of a client brief or even a personal project!
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Sometimes finding inspiration for your designs can feel impossible! But don’t fret, there are a bunch of different ways to unlock your creativity.
Looking at the amazing works of your favourite artists can really help improve your creativity and give you new techniques and ideas to try in your own work.
For example, talented artist Ross Tran, aka @rossdraws, is well-known for his digital paintings in which he takes images of himself or everyday objects and turns them into a fantastical scenes. In the below image, he used heart candy as inspiration for some beautiful character art. Why not give this a try using objects from your own house?
Quick Tips To Help You Design Characters Like A Pro
Music can be another awesome creative outlet and because of this, many artists find music incredibly inspiring when creating character designs. For example take this drawing by
So, grab your headphones and listen to your favourite playlist. Try to find songs that remind you of your character and let the lyrics and melodies inspire you!
When was the last time you went to an art gallery? Both traditional and contemporary art can be a great inspiration when creating character designs.
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A lot of art galleries offer free entry. So go find a local gallery and go check out the works they have on display! Pay attention to the different styles, textures, and colours other artists are using, and start thinking about what techniques you can incorporate into your own designs.
Sometimes the best remedy for an art block is to take a break from your work and do something relaxing. The outdoors provide endless forms of inspiration, from people you see around town to the beautiful natural environment.
So, if you are struggling to pin down the final concepts for your design, take a walk and see what new ideas you can find!
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What is my character’s context? How does it look where they live? What would they wear for this climate? What time do they live in? What is their socio-economic status and how would this affect their design?
Once you have answered these questions, try to find as much written and visual information as possible. Compile mood boards and notes from your findings.
A well-researched character will have a lot more credibility and really resonate with their audience. When you are finished researching, you should have enough reference material to start designing your character.
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A good example of how to use your reference images can be seen in this example from our ‘How to Draw a Cartoon Character Course’ by Maria Lia Malandrino.
A key part of creating good cartoon characters is having a strong understanding of form and anatomy. Some exercises to improve your skills include:
Life studies are an age-old artistic practice that is incredibly effective for improving your character design skills. An example of this is the anatomy studies of
How To Make A Character Design Sheet
When you design a character, there is a tonne of different archetypes that you can draw inspiration from. Utilising these well-known character types allows your designs to be easily understood by their audience. Many character designers utilise archetypes in their designs!
Randy Bishop’s course, ‘Fundamentals of Character Design’ does a great job of going into detail on all these archetypes and how to use them in your designs.
Once you are aware of these archetypes you will be able to create designs that will clearly communicate your character’s personality. If none of these categories feel quite right for your character, you can always combine multiple tropes, or subvert them completely to create endless unique designs!
How To Design A Character
When you design a character it is important to know who your audience is. For example, a design that appeals to children may not always appeal to adults or vice versa. So before you start your design, take a moment to think about your audience.
Take a look at these two designs of Raven from Teen Titans. The first design is aimed at younger children whilst the second is aimed at teenagers. As you can see, more simplified designs are preferred when designing for younger viewers.
Shape language is a technique that communicates information about your character by using basic shapes that our brains are familiar with. The primary shapes you pick will decide a lot about how your audience will view your character, so it’s important to take each shape’s meaning into consideration.
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21 Draw’s amazing art book ‘The Character Designer’ is a great resource if you want to learn more about how to use this technique effectively in your work!
Circle: Characters who use circular shape language are usually friendly and outgoing- the kind of characters you really just want to hug. This shape is perfect for caregivers, children, and other gentle, innocent characters.
Square: Square shape language is great for strong, dependable, and confident characters. The cool thing about this shape is that it can be used to create really intimidating characters or very comforting ones depending on how you use it. You will often find squares used in characters such as heroes, fathers, and other characters with similar paternal roles.
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Triangle: Well-known as the evil shape, triangles are usually used in the designs of antagonist characters. Triangular shape-language can look quite aggressive which is why these characters are often considered to be sinister and unpredictable. It is important to note, that the more stretched the triangular shapes the more menacing your character will look!
Note: Your character does not have to include only one of the three shapes! More complex characters will often be a combination of the two shapes they most represent! For example, your character may be both strong and kind, or evil and confident.
There are a lot of different factors that contribute to the effectiveness of a character design. Here are a few character design tips to help you create good character designs every time!
The Basic Principles For Great Character Design
First up, let’s talk about thumbnailing. When you first design a character, it is super important that you create multiple different iterations. These should be small sketches and are usually referred to as design thumbnails.
Creating multiple sketches of your character allows you to fine-tune your design as it helps you identify the most effective elements in each iteration.
This process is something that a lot of professional character designers use to improve their work. As you can see in these concept art thumbnails of ‘
Kidscreen » Archive » In Photos: How To Create A Character
When creating memorable characters it is super important to think about what you are trying to communicate with your design. A few factors you will need to consider are character exaggeration, costume, and props.
If you want your characters to have a strong and lasting impression on their audience it is important to utilise exaggeration in your designs. Consider what parts of your character can be emphasized and which parts can be simplified to best convey their personalities.
A good character design is one that can be transferred into a very simplistic style and still be identifiable- examples of this include the designs of most popular superheroes- which have easily readable features no matter the style they are drawn in!
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To decide which parts of your character to exaggerate try identifying the primary traits of their personality and storyline. Maybe your character is a shy and really good listener so they have big ears and a smaller mouth.
Or perhaps your character is going on a journey but they are anxious and try to over-prepare, so they have a comically large back-pack. The possibilities of exaggerated features are nearly endless and depend completely on what you want to emphasize about your character.
A good way to work on building your exaggeration skills is to practice creating caricature-style drawings from real-life references. ‘Drawing Caricatures’ by LoopyDave is a great resource for those looking to give this a try!
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A character’s costume and props can be vital to the effectiveness of your design. A good character design is one with a well-considered costume that heavily reflects both their personality and context.
Before you
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