Notes on Stylized Character Design

These are my notes as I navigate the world of character design.

Staying on model

'Staying on model' means to keep the character consistent through each drawing you do, it's most often used in animation, comic books or anywhere a character, object or place needs to be shown in different scenarios.

I found it pretty tricky to find info on how to get better at staying on model, but these are the few things I did find + some experiments of my own.

Character Sheets

Some quick head stylisations by yours truly from this post -> https://www.instagram.com/p/CYY74nsPY49/

So far I've found that character sheets and model turn arounds are a great way to keep a character on model.

They allow you to visualise the character from front, side, back and 3/4 views which gives you a lot of information to then draw them in different angles.

These are also what a lot of 3D artists use to model their characters as well.

Although character sheets are super helpful, I don't think they should be done first, I think you've got to keep it loose and find the character first before going into this stage.

A way I've experimented with charatcer sheets is to...

Starting with a front view
Then move onto the side view
With front and side views, you then have the information to accurately continue with the 3/4 view
The the back view if needed

It can definitely seem daunting to try and accurately rotate a character in 2D but here's a couple of tips that have helped me recently.

1. Keeping the shapes simple

It's much easier to draw and rotate simple, geometric shapes in space, rather than shapes with a bunch of detail.

2. Drawing guide lines across the character

These types of character sheets I find are less... 'artistic?' and more technical. They feel more like what an industrial design would create for a physical product (which I guess is what were doing right?).

The guidelines help me keep everything aligned and making logic sense.

3. Thinking about features abstractly

Sketch of Travis Barker

When trying to get a likeness of someone, but also keep it stylized, I've found one of the best ways to do this is to think about the features/charactaristics abstracly vs relying so heaving on reference material.

Being really relyant on reference photos when trying to stylize runs the risk of it transforming onto a stylistic no-mans land, where it's kind of realistic, kind of stylized, and it kind of looks like the person.

For example, this Travis Barker stylization had me frustrated for ages, until I started to think about the characteristics vs the features in isolation on a piece of reference.

I took a step back and tried to simplyfy my thinking with observations like...

He has deeper set eyes
His eye sockets are pronounced
He has clear, pronounced eye lids
His eyes are a little sleepy
He has a pronounced filtrim
His eyebrows arch, up at the corners
His lips are pouted slightly
His cheeks suck in

Using these observations as ammo, I can go ahead and start inventing shapes that best represent these charactersitics.

and breaking them down into really simple shapes can help as well.

Staying on model resources

Style and Stylisation

An illustration I did and posted here -> https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgee00prf9W/

Stylisation is a tricky word. It can mean many things from slightly caricaturised to a full on anime looking illustration.

Because it's such a broad term, I like to think about what other artists inspire me and the decisions they make to solve different problems.

To me, 'style' is all about different ways to solve different problems. Where one artist might choose one way to solve how to draw the eye, another artist might choose a completely different way.

A few artists I really love for their styles are...

Shiyoon Kim - Disney Style
TB Choi - Beautiful line-work
Max Grecke - Amazing shape language
Jin Kim - Disney Style
Hicham Habchi - Beautiful line-work & character design

How I'm developing my style

Don't just steal from one of your heroes, steal from all of them

Is a great little quote by Austin Kleon in Steal Like an Artist - 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative and is pretty much how I'm developing my style.

The more I get interested and I'm trying to learn and understand what other artists I admire are doing the more my 'style' naturally develops.

Now I'm not just doing a couple of copies and calling it a day... no, no, no. I'm looking to understand the why behind what they're doing and try to reverse engineer what, why and how their making their decisions and executing on them.

Take TB Choifor example. I Absoultely love her line-work, especially the really distinct drop shadows she puts in.

I'll take a bunch of her work that she's done, and break it down to see where she makes her decisions. I'll ask myself things like...

Is there a pattern to these drop shadows?
Why does she put them there?
Is this something she always does, or is it only in certain scenarios?

This is only a small example of something I do from line-work to rendering on all my favourite artists work.

Style resources

Character research

Girl with spear from my IG post https://www.instagram.com/p/ChUjTaSLw9O/

This was an interesting idea that came up during one of Michael Mattesi's live streams (I think it was either the one on How to stay on model or

and it was the idea of thinking about the character a little bit deeper than just "This looks cool".

For exmple, these characters live lives in these imaginary worlds we're creating, so how would their bodies react to their lifestyle?

Asking things like...

What does this character do in their life?
What are their hobbies?
What's their job?
What kind of things/activities do they find valuable?

By asking these questions, you can start to think about how their physiology may reflect that of their lifestyle. For example...

Bike riders might have larger thighs
Power lifters would have larger body mass
Sprinters would be a little more lean
Couch potatoes may be a little more...rotund

You get the idea.

These are some questions that I want to explore more as I delve into creating characters of my own.

Expressions

2 of 4 cumberbabe illustrations I did and posted on IG https://www.instagram.com/p/CdlN9UzPkBa/

Characters can express themselves in many different ways.

Your first thought might be that 'expression' is just about the face.

But once you start to take the whole figure into account, you can start to see how the body can express itself as well.

Facial Expressions

A few key areas I've found that are able to produce the most expression are...

The mouth
The eyes
- Take special note of the lids (particularily the lower lid)
The eye brows

Figure Expressions

There was a great post by Griz and Norm that simply stated "More acting, less anatomy" -> Heres the IG post

Hands

Elderly mans hands from this IG post https://www.instagram.com/p/CcQSs-uvZEk/

Another highly underrated part of the body that can express itself is the hands.

Hands can depict a great deal about a person like...

Age (notice how 'nobbly' the knuckles above are, depicting maybe a little bit of arthritis)
Weight
Gender
Profession

Let alone the pose of the hand giving even more information about a character, or the situation a character might be in.

The hands also have a gesture to them. Where a more femanin hand might have a little more 'flow' to it, a more masculine hand might feel more structural or sturdy (these ofcourse are generalities)

Although hands aren't as recognised as something that gives someone 'expression', I've found that they on par with the importance of the figure in telling a story and depicting the character.

More notes to come from Notes on Stylized Character Design!

I like to note down key people like Notes on Stylized Character Design...

Other Resources

🙋‍♀️ People Mentioned

Shiyoon Kim - Disney Style
TB Choi - Beautiful line-work
Max Grecke - Amazing shape language
Jin Kim - Disney Style
Hicham Habchi - Beautiful line-work & character design
Griz and Norm
Michael Mattesi
Ethan Becker
Austin Kleon