Sketch "Why" for Character Design

Hi, Friends, did you have a wonderful weekend? Yes, I had! Hey, nearly at the end of 2012. Time flies like an arrow. Many annual exhibitions and next year competitions' invitations are coming. 

Now, this post is to answer for the Q , how to do draw figures alive and lively. Actually, these steps are for my character design for children picture books.
Friends, already you know, sketching is my hand's thinking. My brain thinks nothing.

Preliminary research = Observe WHY
With a great curiosity, I always look at people. Such as... why does that person behave so? How s/he picks up food and pays money over a counter. Why that person looks like a typical music player? Face expression, body language, emotion, movement etc, etc. My eyes seek a character.  

Sketch WHYs
When I find a why, I draw it. Often only ONE why is pinned down with two or three A4 pages spent per person. Quick! A few minutes is enough. Don't worry details. Only get a focal point. Rough lines make very lively people on paper.

Put Colour On the Spot 
Colour at once. I'm a very colourful person and so my work is. "Capturing a mood" is very the best advantage of direct work. Light, sounds, sensations, weather, etc, etc. Above all, a model's emotion fascinates me most. They are wonderful info to make settings to illustrate texts, which will involve readers well.

Then, my brain works from here in a studio.
Each sketch is categorized into files as references for use.
I look through collected references .... 

Analyze Collected WHYs
I always check social conventions and prototypical images in sketches.
Focused "whys" tell similarities and differences in same subjects   such as women. Analyzed common elements show the "features" of subjects. Collected differences reveal "individual uniqueness." Particularly, for picture book illustrators, it's very important to understand social schema and use them in work.  

Use Learned Features to Caputre Character! 
Social schema and learned features are powerful tools and subtle techniques to create a character. It convinces readers well. 

Playing up "features" creates a stereotyped character and an exaggerated personality. Making caricatures is a good idea to check what whys will work or not. After sketching the sax player, I enjoyed these cartoons.

If individual "differences" are concerned, a fine portrait turns out.

"Mismatch between features" makes quite a funny and unexpected image, but also it would be a very sophisticated joke, nice for political cartoons. 

Did you enjoy this post? So far, I've written on drawings that fine artists, too, can use for portraits. Furthermore, children picture book illustrators will work on given manuscripts and create characters in stories. If you like, I'll write on Character Design more in a following post.


The more sketch, the better hands and eyes remember. Daily training enriches techniques and improves drawing skills. A sketch captures the points and depicts what I feel in a model. A figure comes up lively and vigorous. At a glance, you can draw an interesting person smoothly. You can draw figures in a studio even by heart or from memory or based on photos, too. 


Sketches are golden assets for job. 
In my dictionary, creativity is another name of hard work that goes with fresh ideas hand in hand. 
Friends, enjoy daily sketching.
Happy Painting!!
 

Sketch "Why" for Character Design