Character Design

Last year I took a character design class online from Stephen Silver at Schoolism.com. One of the lessons dealt with memory sketching, which I've written about here. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhD_70XlG_o&feature=related] Here's a video of Stephen Silver doing a memory sketch and discussing it as he draws. Fun stuff. If you have an interest in character design I'd highly recommend taking Stephen's class. You'll learn...

As a character designer I'm fascinated with product mascots. A good mascot, when combined with a strong ad campaign, can be an enormous benefit when promoting a product or service. My favorite freelance projects are when clients hire me to design a mascot or character, either for advertising or animation. To help illustrate the power of a mascot I thought...

On Saturday NBC aired another episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! for which I did some character designs. The plot centered around a malfunctioning time machine that sends the penguins' space ship into the future where they meet their future selves. (The lesson for kids was about respecting the advice of our elders.) The original penguins were designed several years ago when...

As a freelance illustrator I work on a variety of projects, but my specialty is character design. I periodically get calls from ad agencies, design firms, and business owners wishing to hire me to design a mascot to help promote their product or service. Mascots are powerful, which is why so many companies use them (like the well-known brands pictured above)....

life.jpg Yesterday I received my copy of Stephen Silver's latest art book, Life. For those who don't know, Silver is an amazing animation character designer whose credits include Disney's Kim Possible and Nickelodeon's Danny Phantom. He's a versatile artist and I find his work very inspiring. Silver also teaches an online Character Design course through Schoolism.com. I took the course last year and I learned a ton. It's expensive but well worth the investment for anyone serious about character design. Silver has published several popular sketchbooks in the past, each one jam-packed with his amazing drawings.