As I’ve mentioned before, I’m taking a character design class online from Stephen Silver at Schoolism.com. This week’s assignment was another two-parter. Part 1 was to sketch a page of hands.

Next to the face, the hands are the most expressive part of the body, and therefore one of the most important features in any drawing. Its easy to get lazy with the hands, because they can be so stinkin’ hard to draw. I think there are two reasons so many artists struggle:

1. Hands are incredibly complex. I think there’s something like 27 bones in the hand and 15 joints, not to mention all the little muscles, tendons, etc.

2. Hands are always moving, and they can move a zillion different ways. There is no “standard” hand pose.

Stephen spent a significant portion of his video lecture analyzing the hand and pointing out how to break it down into manageable parts to make it easier to draw. Then he told us to go draw a page of hands, using either our own hands or photos for reference. I did my sketches from this book.

This was a great exercise and I highly recommend it. It made me realize how lazy I’ve been getting with hands in my own drawings.

Tomorrow: Part 2 of the assignment.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m taking a character design class from Stephen Silver at Schoolism.com. Our assignment for Lesson 3 had two parts. Yesterday I described part 1. Today is part 2.

Last week we were told to choose one of two stories (Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, or Oliver Twist), and start thinking about designs for the main characters. Our first step was to fill up at least one page with thumbnail silhouettes of possible designs, thinking about what we could say about the character with just the overall shape. Stephen then critiqued our thumbnails and told us which ones were the strongest. As the course progresses, we will continue to develop our character(s).

I chose Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Part 2 of this week’s assignment was to take our best silhouettes and develop an actual design for Stephen to critique. This is what I came up with. I’m fairly happy with how Mr. Hyde is coming along (the big guy on the right), but Dr. Jeckyll….not so much. I like the overall face shape, it’s a strong silhouette, and both characters look like they could be the same person. But Jeckyll’s face feels “tacked on” to a generic body. The silhouette of the body doesn’t really echo the shape of the head. Also, I wanted him to have an anxious look, as if he knows he must give in to his internal monster and drink the potion, even though part of him doesn’t want to. But I don’t think it was successful. I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t communicate deep anxiety and angst. Instead, the pose just feels noodly and awkward. Maybe I’ll see it more clearly after a good night’s sleep.

It’s frustrating because these assignments are so much fun, I’d love to spend days on each one. But I’ve been swamped with freelance work lately, so I’m lucky if I can spend half a day noodling around. But I’m still learning a lot, and the good news is I can continue to do these exercises on my own even after the class is over. As long as I take what I learn and put it into practice with future projects, in the long run I know I’ll reap the reward of being a better character designer.

As I’ve written before, I’m taking a character design class from Stephen Silver on Schoolism.com. I just finished my assignment for Lesson 3, which was actually two parts. Here’s what I did for part 1 (part 2 will be posted tomorrow):

For part 1, we were given photos of four different men. First, we had to do a straight-forward sketch of the person, not really pushing the shapes or getting too cartoony. Just do a standard portrait. Then, after finishing the portrait sketch, immediately put it away and get rid of the photo. From memory, draw the person again using three different shapes: a circle, a square, and a triangle.

The goal was not to do a dead-on likeness and squeeze it into the shape, because that would be almost impossible. Rather, we were to take the features that defined that person (i.e. eyes wide apart, big chin, small pointy nose, whatever) and play with those features within the shapes to create three new characters.

There are several benefits to this exercise. First, it forces you to really focus and study while drawing the portrait, becuase you know you will have to do the rest by memory.

Second, it forces you to think about the placement of your facial features within each shape. You can say very different things about your character’s personality based on how high the forehead is, or how wide the nose is, for example. Keep in mind that every feature effects every other feature (for example, as the nose gets bigger the eyes, in contrast, should get smaller and pull closer together). Its amazing how much of a difference it makes to simply play with the size of the facial features and their relationship to one another.

Third, it forces you to simplify. When you know you will be drawing by memory, there’s no point in trying to memorize every little line and shape on the person’s face. Instead, you train yourself to study the overall essence of the person and figure out how the individual features interact to make that person who he is.

It was a really fun exercise and I was pretty amazed at the results. Not that these are my best designs ever, but I was surprised with how much variety I got out of the characters simply by starting with a different shape and then making a conscious effort to really think about how the different parts of the face interact. I encourage every aspiring character designer to try this exercise.

Artist David Colman (his blog, his website) has recently published a book, “The Art of Animal Character Design”. I just got my copy and overall I am very happy with it. Colman is extremely talented, and this 174-page hardcover book is filled with great eye-candy. While light on text (Colman’s writing is short and to the point, which I like), he sprinkles the book with great little tidbits of advice on character design. (One of my favorite quotes: “Drawing is more thinking than actual drawing.”) The sketches are loosely grouped in “chapters”, each of which focuses on a different aspect of good character design. Even if you are more of a “people artist” than an “animal artist”, you will find a lot of principles and tips that will apply to you as well. I should mention that there are a few sketches of the nude female form in the chapters “Humans and Animals” and “Creature Design”. Still, in terms of artistic inspiration and advice this book has a lot to offer.