Generating Ideas

Lesson 2 in Character Illustration

Lesson Information

In this Lesson, you will start creating your own character. You'll begin by visiting the Brief Builder to create a set of guidelines for your illustration, giving you the same kinds of constraints you might have when working with a real-world client. After this, you'll gather reference material, organize it, and dive into Photoshop to start sketching. This is where the basis of your character will be formed, so keep an open mind, be ready to iterate on your ideas, and have fun!

Homework

Building Your Character

Start by doing 5 figure drawings, each with a 30 minute time limit, to sharpen your understanding of anatomy and gesture.

Once you're warmed up, use the Brief Builder to lay out the foundations of your character. Create a general mood-board with roughly 10 loose sketches to start generating ideas. Then combine the most promising ones into a single, more detailed sketch for further development.

Extra Credit

Expand the briefing to 3 characters in total. Whether these three are part of a fellowship, arch-enemies, or completely unrelated to each other, they should all feel like they live in the same universe.