Character Design: Designing Animated Women with Tom Bancroft

1. Introduction: Hey, everybody, it's Tom Bancroft, and we're going to talk about today about designing animated women. I first I was gonna call this designing like sexy women are attractive women and hopefully that's kind of implied, but I really want to concentrate on animated women. And a lot of that is because I want this to be different than some of the upcoming lessons that we're gonna have down the road from other incredible artists. And they're gonna want a spotlight, other aspects of drawing attractive women. Um, first off, you know what is attractive is always in the eye of the beholder. So I'm just shooting for sort of generic things here. Ah, lot of what we're gonna talk about isn't going to get in the ethnicity too much. Well, that may be another lesson down the road would also not gonna get into posing very much. This lessons really about the basic design shapes and principles of designing a female character and especially, hopefully an appealing and attractive one. So and spotlighting on more of an animated style to So we will get into style a little bit as faras. Maybe some animated kind of looks and some that are but my background being Disney animation, you're going to see that's what I'm gonna naturally slide to when we're just talking about generalities of drawing women. So let's get into it. My background is like I mentioned Disney animation. I was an animator, surprising animator at Disney for about 11 years and worked on films like Feeding the Beast in Lion King and Aladdin. Pocahontas in Milan on Guy Designed Mu Shu for the film Milan Little Dragon Character. So on. And since then, I've done a lot of Children's book illustrations, probably 50 different books that have illustrated on also wrote and illustrated to character design books, creating characters with personality and character mentor to check those out. So let's get into this. 2. Lesson 1 Part A: designing and drawing women. It's tough. It's This is something that early on at Disney, I decided are allowed in my career that I wasn't very good at drawing women. And so I just started practicing on my own. I started looking at comic books and animation characters and anything that I thought was an appealing kind of, ah woman character. I'd start to sort of practice that or copy it and hopefully already doing that at home. A short story when I'd already been at Disney for about, I don't know, about five years I've worked on rescuers down under Beating the Beast and Aladdin, Um, and then on Lanqing. So I already worked on about three or four feature films and up came Pocahontas. It was coming up, and as a studio, we're all getting ready to work on that. And what happens, and especially in traditional animation in those days, is you get cast on a film. You work on one character, usually for the whole film. And so I had my eyes on this main character, Pocahontas. I thought, Wow, that'd be a real challenge to work on that character and the great legendary Glen Keane was a supervising animator. He had designed Pocahontas already. And so a bunch of us animators were really interested in working on her. And we knew that he was gonna need help animating her because she was in, you know, 99% of the film eso work came down that the way they were gonna pick Glenn had really wanted the best artists that he could find people that knew anatomy and life drawing on not just it cartoony characters that up to that point, I had animated a lot of cartoon characters like Roger Rabbit and ya Go and, um and even Jafar was a lot more cartooning character. So he said, I want I want anybody that wants to work on my unit to work on four Kanis He said, I'm gonna have a a life drawing review and you need to submit a portfolio to get that chance. And so that was shocking. That had never been done before. It Disney to you know, once you got in the door and got your got the job, obviously needed a portfolio to get the job. But once you were in the door from that point on, it was just the films that you worked on, so it was a really surprised to hear that. And what that meant was I had to go toe life drawing quite event and start drawing from life and drawing women. And especially so I've submitted a portfolio, unfortunately, was able to get onto Glenn's team among with a number of others in California and Florida. But it was not. Everybody got got on, you know, it was a challenge to you had to really push yourself and think about, um and practice drawing women from life. So that was That was a hurdle I had to go through. And that kind of led me along a path of trying to get better and better not only on that film, but from that point on on how to draw when especially attractive because that's, uh, you know, someone once said, uh, you know that if you can draw pretty woman, you'll never go. You know you never go poor. So that's always been kind of stuck in my head, and I kind of agree with it. So let's see usually what I would say to you right now is okay. We're going to sit down and start drawing a character design and, you know, I'd say, Okay, you gotta ask all your all your questions to yourself, which is, you know, what kind of a character my designing is this for a film or a video game or whatever it ISS , um, or it's usually some story that you're designing a character for. And so what's the personality of the character? You know what? What? All the issues that you need to know about is there, you know, Is it a certain weight is a certain age is a certain race. All those things were really super important to think about and discuss with whoever you're creating this character for. But I'm gonna say, Let's kind of throw some of that aside and not really think about that as much because like I said, we're going to talk about generalities of drawing women. So more important is, you know, do you know, you know, human anatomy and a special female female anatomy, You know, those are the things that we're gonna be discussing more. But like I said, we're going to talk about animated versions of drawing women. So you know what might be even more important is how to simplify. So let's start talking about that. Um, first off, you know, when I draw a female, I'm gonna do this And grass, right, Because we're just gonna talk about, you know, just shapes. You know, I generally will start with this is a generic kind of, ah, character, female character. I start with a circle, just as as with most things, um, my kind of generic character, cute girl character. And they're usually pretty young. It starts with a circle, and I put the island really low. A lot of people normally we say, put it in the middle. But I like to put it low on the reason being that when once I add the jaw shape, which is generally kind of, you know, a triangle shape, Um, Now I have room for big guys because, you know, like with Ariel or some of those kind of characters or even especially anime characters, you're gonna have big eyes. So then I kind of put in my semi oval I shapes that are really big. Um, about where that bottom of that circle is is about where I put the nose and it's gonna be a little tiny oval shape just for, uh, just the breaking block in the shapes. And then about here's where I'd put the mouth about halfway in between the chin on the nose . Um, you know, little ears and generally ears, remember, they they kind of start the bottom of them is about at the bottom of the nose, and the top of them are generally about the top of the eyes. But because we have such big eyes, I'm gonna go a little under that, Um And then, of course, you know, we've talked about before making like, an eye mask, um, and what? This is for us to kind of help ground where those eyebrows are gonna be and make them feel like they fit above those eyes. So sometimes I draw on an imaginary mask and that won't be there. Obviously, you know, when it's all done, Um, but I'm just blocking it in and noticed that I have sort of, Ah, I'll flatten off the cranium a little bit. Um, and then generally I like to put very thin next that have a little taper a little wider at the base here but look at how small that is. And again, this is for an animated character. Um, and I'm gonna get into the body proportions in a minute, but we'll end this about here. Uh, and then I do, you know, pretty big guy pupils, and I like to like, picking up that top lid. Um, because basically, here's another way to simplify To is we're basically showing the eyebrow, our eyelashes as one mass, you know? So we're just showing a very thick, you know, and then maybe even just one shape here to kind of group them all together. And you'll find that in a lot of animated characters is that that's a kind of a cartoon shortcut is to. And then we may just picking up the bottom just a little bit again. I'm doing this pretty chunky, just so you can see it and stuff. We all had a highlight. And then the people Now, there's no expression going on yet, So, um, these were just very basic proportions, you know? And then, you know, highbrows will be a little thicker, maybe at the base and little thinner as it tapers off the nose. You know, you want it. You wanted you like a cute little, perky nose. So that's around it kind of shape. You might even see a little bit of a bridge. But you know, another thing Withdrawing attractive characters, especially females, is you wanna have a few lines on it is possible. So any more lines and little creases and things like that that you had to the face especially, is gonna want make it look older, the character, and then it's, too, is going to make it a little less attractive because all those little lines just come, uh, detail you don't need in general, we'll get into lips and stuff. But now I'm actually, you know, some middle cartoon characters. You don't draw in the lips that much. You know, a lot of times with the male character, you just drawing the outside and very simple way. But with females, it looks more feminine, more like a female. If you have that, the lips spoke top and bottom thrown in. So here's I mean, this is I guess what I would call like a Tom Bancroft character character. Um, is this kind of proportioned in this about this? That kind of a look a guest in style on, then I always, you know, another little tip. Here's whenever I add hair especially thick here because, you know, most kind of like the idea of having a female character with thick hair in general, I always add it well above the cranium. You could see him adding it way up here. And I'll generally trying to figure out a shape that I think looks, um, sort of stylized, you know, and generally you want more of it on one side than on the other. So there's this, you know, everything that we're talking about is still based on true human anatomy. We're gonna get into that a little bit more in just a minute. But while it is simplified or its or its cartoons or exaggerated, um, we still have real basic anatomy going on. Okay, so there's the basics I'm gonna go into, just aside the real quick, I'm gonna start with the same circle. But again, this is just There's so many different ways to do this and everything. This is just one, I guess, but a lot of times is how I start. I add a little more. It almost becomes an oval from a side view because you have more cranium in the back. And it's something that we all forget is to add that extra cranium. Um, but now, like in a job, too. Here we go. And the net kind of comes out more from the back. Add a little circle from the nose, Little oval here. And remember, now we have our eyes here, but they're they're flattened, you know? So I'm gonna make it almost like an oval standing up like that. And then we connect in the nose. It's a little stuck up, you know, little parking stuck up nose there. Now that eyelashes appointed forward from the side view in our eyes, just, you know, an oval here because we're only seeing you're from from this angle on our lips for you. I'll make him kind of sticking out a little bit here and notice. I have it at an angle here. I have the top lip out further than the bottom, and that might be something I do differently on the next character. But at least in this case, I think that looks kind of cute. Your chin, that kind of goes into the jaw here again. Still, human anatomy here are Here is a little bit further back halfway. I notice there's a flow and we'll get into that in just a minute. That goes through the cranium in the neck and into the back, and we're gonna get into the body in just a second. But I just wanted to kind of when we were talking about faces. Kind of talk about how that signed you, right? Look in the hair would kind of again go a pyre, you know, cover of the years, or have it tucked in behind the ear between the This is what he's gonna bring me to my next things that I'm just talking about fun, cartoony characters. And this is sort of my version of a girl, a cartoon character. But the next step is that you really wanted before you can't be even in this far is really Do your research. I did a whole bunch and went on that show something that says, I go photo reference that I pulled out and drawn reference from other artists and things that I like. I'm going to show a lot of artists stuff because it's probably copyrighting. Maybe they didn't get permission. They might get upset. But the photo reference I think I'm pretty safe with. And so this seventies air for costuming and summer for hair styles. You know, I'm a guy, even though I have four girls in my own. I don't really concentrate that much on what they're wearing that often. You know, you always get upset at me for not remembering what jacket is, who's or whatever, but you know. So I need to kind of use the reference and go on to see what our current fashions and things like that. So hopefully we'll talk more about that in a minute, but also hairstyles to but and in some for expressions to it's kind of fun that it's Miley Cyrus. So some of these are actual actresses. Um, but let's me put up some of that, You know, again, I've already scanned the Internet. It's very dangerous to scan the Internet and put an attractive woman or sexy woman. You're going to come up with all kind of bad stuff, so I may just do, um, you know, you know, popular hair, women's hairstyles or, you know, popular swimsuits, things like that that will give me things that are a little safer. So that's just a tip to on navigating Google. But let's they're talking about some more in depth now that we've done very basic proportions there. You know, I want to talk about the next step, which is the eyes. You know, the eyes are really the most important thing in whenever you draw a a character in general , but a woman, especially because the eyes are the windows to the soul. Um, and we always look at that. We don't realize that when we're talking to someone in general, we're always looking them in the eyes. And that's, you know, really important, especially in the US, where way really think that's important to us is that we look somebody in the eye when we speak to them. Um, so I've done a variety of different ice shapes here. They've already kind of pre drawn. Some of this is just to speed things up, but as you can see, it's still shape based on what everybody to remember that is that really, really simplify and get things so that you can not only repeat the drawing don't look at this yet, but you can see all the different shapes like some of them. I have, like, these might be a little bit more Asian eyes, and it's more flat on the bottom and and rounded here, but also very kind of long and long almond shapes. You know, while this is a little bit more based on a square, even more square eyes, and then I'll be a lot more stylized, thes air flatter on the top around on the bottom. These have got sort of s curve here through the eyes, but a little slight curve on the bottom, so very subtle changes. In some cases, these are actually kind of curved, a little bit up and then have a bigger curve on the top. Actually, poker on Iss's eyes were very similar to those these are more almond shaped, where it's a little curved on. Both sides were just a little more on the top on, then flat and then rounded on the top. So a variety of eyes. Some of these kids, uh, kind of show a little bit more of a nationality in some cases, or some, um, are just for a different style Onda variety and head shapes. That's why I've done this is I'm trying to show, you know, that some of these air different age, you know, some look younger and some look a little more mature. But I'm not really kind of trying to get into that. I'm just trying to show that your head shapes can be, you know, very long and oval here. This one's a little more oval, but has a little bit more at smaller chin. This has got a very why kind of chubby cheeks here. This one's a little more boxing with a, you know, a sharper job. Here's a round shape down here. Um, that's what's gonna be fun about designing your your girl characters is really trying to find as much variety askew can in the shapes. So let's jump over to a little bit what we talked about beginning, which is, you know, how to look at body proportions. This one I made up because, well, this isn't a great drawing, and it's generally loosely my version of a more realistic kind of human proportion. Woman Onda. As you can see, we start with kind of oval for the rib cage. Um, we have the pelvis here, which is kind of Ah, it's kind of between a square and rectangle and that it's a little wider on the bottom than it is on the top. And, of course, the arms and legs, you know, are just basically tubes. But your widest point, you know, on a woman is gonna be lower than than on a man. It's gonna be right here at the hips. So that's why it's kind of inverted, you know, rectangle where it's smaller at the top. Okay, then when we go move over to animated proportions, this is what the way kind of the proportions. I use a lot when I'm drawing least my kind of cartoon characters. And generally this will also make him look younger. Um, but assuming this this, I could also make into a teenage, more realistic teenage girl character assume that this is the same a teenage girl character about the same age but to make the animated cartoon proportions. And this is pretty close to animate proportions to see how much bigger we're making the circle for the cranium here than the rial proportions. So that head itself is huge right in comparison to the realistic proportions. Generally, the body is very similar. The legs are almost exactly the same. I have kind of condensed the weights to kind of take up the room for how bigger head is. And really, the head is that big, just so we can have huge eyes more than anything. Um, but along with making big, big guys, you know, I don't know if I mention it When I did the front view, this one. Generally you want to make small area small noses and small mouse. That's something I think really makes for an attractive, especially a younger character. Big eyes and small nose. Small mouth generally looks really cute. Um, that's something to keep in mind. As you decide you're attractive characters. I've done kind of implied that, too, with bigger cheeks and things like that that's going to make this area smaller. Um, note that this is again based on human anatomy. Our rib cage tilts tilts this way. It's not straight up and down. You can't see that from the front, and same with the pelvis. That little box in there is tilted forward. And so that's what also give us. You know, there's extra padding here, of course, but it also gives us the shape that we like. That's a very attractive is shaped is that you get a nice s curve through here. We're gonna get to s curve in just a minute. That's gonna be something that we're gonna talk about quite a quite a bit. But it's built into our human anatomy, female and male is that there's a flow to everything. So we're gonna and again we'll talk about that a little bit more. But as you can see, I've already kind of showed you on the other drawing how we do the side view, you know, the craniums a little bit fuller in the back and then, you know, But this is a side view. The rib cage is tilted. And that's mostly when I wanted to show you Here Is that this tilt hair? And this tilt here makes for kind of a curve here in the front to better bigger curve in the back. Okay, And then that continues on down into the legs. You know, generally, when we draw animated legs, especially, we have one side be a little straighter. and once I'd be a little more curved. And then it flips on the back on the cabs, this side more curved, and this is a little straighter. So great curve curve straighter, and it gives you a nice flow through the whole body. We do it again. Also here we have it on the front, where it's curved, curved, and this is a little more straight on the inside curve and curved. 3. Lesson 1 Part B: now I talked about the flow in your drawing and and then designing your characters with as much variety is as possible. Some of the things that I'm talking about flow and things like that. We're gonna talk about more in the next lesson, which is gonna be opposing your character. And like I said at the beginning, I'm trying not to get into posing. It's it's hard to do that in some ways because to meet, design an attractive character, the poses a big part of it. But just like personality is also a big part of it again. I'm trying to remove those two things and just talk about the design elements of how to design an animated character like this female character. So let's hit, um, designing a general, just a basic character again. Anatomy is important. So I'm gonna dio and I'm gonna try and think about flow. So let's start with the head here and again. I'm not gonna do anything that spectacular with the Post, but I'm gonna add a little s curve here, and the S curve is really important because not only does it help you create a natural flow throughout your character. You're going to see it. Repeat over and over again in any character you draw that has a good flow to it. S curve is a big part of that, and it also gives you the rounded corners. And things like that are also gonna feel very feminine. You don't want to have a lot of angles on a female character. So again, I'm gonna do sort of my generic kind of girl character. Um, and I'm gonna still can't keep it from a front view. Do this is because I can. Let's see again, there's there's the oval for the rib cage. I'm gonna throw the pelvis. It just a little bit of an angle. And like I said, we'll get into that in the next lecture more. Um, and I'm gonna run out of room here, but I'll put that leg kind of coming in and trying to follow that. That s curve a little bit. This one is gonna come here, A little tilt that kind of created. Now I'm gonna do the hands on the hips, so I'm just drawing. See? I'm drawing almost like a stick figure. I'm just blocking out. I don't keep this farm just sort of hanging there. But yeah, I like to draw because I'm imagining when I draw this, I'm thinking about proportions and not just throwing this down. I'm thinking about where the elbow is. I may just do this kind of a line, but I'm trying to remember where that line stops because where line stops is Justus important as where it iss. I'm gonna put in a blocky shape for the hand here in this hand here. As you could see, I already have an idea of a character and hopefully already looks a little bit feminine, too. I'm gonna just to keep things simple, put her in a little bathing suit. Um, again, the breasts are kind of important. So let's talk about that just for a second. In general. I'm just saying, you know, and you may not have learned this before. I'm gonna do a little side drawing here. I'm doing graphite. I'll do a 3/4. This is the rib cage, right? It's a little quickie anatomy instruction here again, this is the pelvis. And this is our line of action or through years. That is so 3/4 view. Okay, shoulders appear the breast is a clavicle. Uh, that's that bone that comes through here on top of your ribs and that it can almost be used as a link to try to figure out the breast So you can in the middle there it dips down right , but kind of go to the side of one side of that dip on one side of the other, and you're going to sort of make that help. You kind of trace down where the middle of that breast should be. So the big important just circles or balls right now are fine. Um, the important thing I'm trying to show that on a 3/4 view, this one is gonna be coming straight at us. This one's gonna be going almost a side view, and that's a mistake that a lot of people make. And I think it's worthy of mentioning right now. Um, is that they They're at angles. Okay, so I won't go into it any deeper than that, I guess. But it's important enough that I think I needed to discuss that because that's just drawing Botham going. The same direction is gonna be incorrect, and you're gonna lose some dimension to your drawing. So without going into that too much, I guess, um, I'm drawn the rib cage. I'm drawing the pelvis. And like I said, now we have sort of anchors. We know where that clavicle is and that this is going to be at a slight angle, going that direction where this was probably coming home or at us. I hope it's nail down where the bathing suit shape it's gonna go. Okay, so there is a lot of anatomy knowledge that the more you learn, um, especially a female anatomy, but it but human anatomy in general, he's gonna help you be ableto, you know, draw this little faster and a little more accuracy. It's very easy to kind of get on track, but as you can see, I'm just doing basic shape. So I'm hoping that this will help you. That's the goal Is that drawing these basic shapes is gonna help you to be able to do do this and feel more confident about drawing a female character? Yes, you can see I'm not adding a lot of detail, but I'm trying to create some flow throughout the peace. Throughout the drawing, there's I may have a few angles here, but I would soften them as I cleaned it up. Alright, Right here. Okay. Um and then here's my again was, uh I think your eyebrows or eyelashes on top, rounded shape, and this might be a good time to talk, and I'll just never looking off to the side. So big people's off to the side looking. I mean, she's got curly hair. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about lips. Um, here we start over here. When I was animating Pocahontas, one thing that we did was Glenn had designed folk honest with very interesting lips because part of the research that we had done and that the Disney studio done was they found that that that that's I don't know what kind of national I know. She was Indian, but what kind of in India, But whatever kind of Indian she waas, they had roots back to Asian culture and things like that. And that's why some of her on her eyes, a little more Asian looking. Her lips, also they found, were actually bigger on top. Then they were on the bottom lip, which was kind of interesting and it made for a new, interesting new kind of a lip for especially a Disney character. So it was almost like it went to a point to. This is kind of how we did Pocahontas his lips is that the bottom lip was a little shorter and rounder, but the top lip actually had kind of a point to it rather than having the dip in the middle sort of a stylized way to do it. Um, but the point I want to make is that don't just draw a lips the same. You know, every lip can be different to theirs variety and everything that you can design on a character. So even the lips, like making the top look thicker than the bottom lip is can be kind of, you know, a fairly life changing thing for your character. Again, most people will draw, and I think I do, to most of time a smaller upper lip and then maybe a fuller bottom left look house simple. I'm doing this. This would be sort of Ah, uh, a 3/4 view of Ah, a character. It's definitely thinner. Top lip, full bottom, lip. Full bottom lips tend to look just more appealing and and you stand there. You see it in real life, too. I mean, a lot of models especially, will have really big lips, especially the bottom lip. Now, you can also do the kind that has the divvy it the dip it in the middle and get this a little more realistic crying of lips. That's probably a little more realistic than I would do on an animated character. I tend to like to simplify the top lip into just a curve like that. I'm like I did here. Um, but, you know, that's the point being is that, you know, you can play with the size of lips. The biggest point I want to make a guess with lips is just don't make him the same. You know, um, I think if they're the same thickness, they just look less interesting. You know, I don't think that's eso make one. I guess Make that choice is what I'm gonna push you for us to make one a little bit smaller , then the other one, and I think it just gives a little bit extra design. So that's just a little tip. Um, let me talk about now. I did this beforehand. Just a show. All the different styles you can dio. Um, this isn't necessarily, um, a great example of all the different styles you can do. But as you can see, this, this is a little more enemy kind of a style. Really big guys. I went even bigger than I normally draw very small elements and nose and mouth. This is more of, I don't know, like a TV show. Our comic strip are kind of a character very stylized, but still, that has a lot of flow to it. Bigger hips, you know, think about how you can really play with shapes. This one somewhere. Ah, a little bit more realistic, but still very caricatures for us. A long face, everything but the nice, stylized kind of flowing hair. Um, and so, you know, that's what I want to kind of push you toward Next is to say, really play with as you're designing. And I didn't again for speed. I've already little rough here. Different proportions, different head shapes. Different, uh, sizes of eyes, nose. Really? That's the key to character design is playing with the shape variety. Um this one here. You know, there's the There's the chest here. This one's got maybe a longer kind of a chest and a very thin kind of a waste. But then maybe, Ah, bigger, bigger pelvis, you know? So we get bigger hips here, maybe breast there a little longer. And Andrew Pierre, you know, while this would become thinner and smaller, you know, more perky, but this to be sort of a little bit of an anime character, I guess. Uh, you know, my version of anime. I guess you know, some you pure pierced wouldn't wouldn't agree on then Here's a very stylized over here, you know, like almost this rectangle phase. Very stylized eyes and, um, just a very quick drawing here. Maybe it's, uh, she's the African American character, and we're just doing really big Afro or something, but hopefully no less attractive. You know, even with this little pencil neck, it's just a stylized kind of attractive character. Still, based on what you know, models and women look like but in this world, but we'll assume that in this kind of a cartoony like TV show or whatever it is world, um, she would probably one of the more attractive characters. You know that the guy characters air Justus ridiculous and their proportions and things like that again see the flow that we get through the legs even in this kind of, you know, where. I'm just making one line, one straight line and then two curves here show a straight on view. And then here it's a curve all the way down and that little feet and again I'm just drawing naked characters will get too close in just a minute. You know, maybe here risks are are wider. Now it's tapers, actually to the shoulder and wrist or wider how you start clothing, your characters. And again, that's where I start looking at my reference. And things like that, you know, is also designed. We talked about this in the character design lecture that I gave on another one where we talked about when you close your characters. You know, that's also designed how you break up the shapes. So let's start clothing. This character here, my semi anime character here, um, and I'll just look at OK, let's say she's scarfs are very popular right now, right? Let's add a scarf to her. And when I do that, I want to sort of droop it off to one side. So I'm thinking about design even when I'm designing this. So and then I'll have a piece that coming the that drops off and hangs down. Yeah, I'm doing this very sort of simply. But now I've kind of created a fund shape here. It's based on real fashion, just like everything we're doing is based on reality. We're just caricaturing. And now let's see if she got that, So she gonna have long? It's cold in a long sleeve shirt and let's maybe have it be baggie of it kind of bang. Get the rest here. Same with here. It's gonna hang down really low again at an angle. This other arm Here we have a this baggy sweater that's gonna actually hang over her hand a little bit. That's kind of fun. I don't really see the finger sticking out, I guess. Just jeans on. But, um and I'm trying to keep it, even with these details. Simplifying? No, because any time you're gonna animate, especially in two D animation, the character, you want a few lines as possible because you have to draw those lines over and over again. But even in computer animation, you know there's a simpler character you get. You can read their expressions a lot easier. It's just shading that skirt, you know, Here's another little hint to is that often times it's attractive to have a character whose head has turned away. But then the pupil was looking back at you, so that's kind of what I already have built in because I have an angle on her head. She's 3/4 away from us. Um, I can add the people nice and big right here in here. Looking back at us, we're looking maybe even the world further back bananas. It's attracted. I mean, it's just opposed That says she's she's thinking or she's doing something. It helps tell a little bit of a story again about Adam Little tiny mouth when I might tie it down or clean this up or in kid or whatever I'm gonna do is a final drawing was gonna show a client or or doing illustration with her. You know, I would I would. Some of these heart shapes I would soften. I would, uh, add more curse to it and things like that, especially in her chin and places like that. Cheek. Let's have her have some hair hanging here, you know, hair's, ah, whole. Another big subject. I guess you could say I'm trying to stay away from certain subjects and hairs. One of them we may do another. Another lesson just on hair. But how you do it in general is you try and find clumps, clumps of shapes that you can draw. It helps you kind of, especially when you're repeating that that hair from another angle helps. You kind of know what it's, uh, what it looks like from the front and the side and be able to repeat it. Okay, So quickly Again, This is just a different style, very different from this one, and this been somewhere in the middle. But I want you to concentrate on, uh, you know, the different sizes and proportions. Tiny. This rib cage is big, This pelvises it's more wrecking or more longer. This was just a big one here with kind of a longer here, too. This one's got a little more just cartoon fun, cartoony shapes to it, but let's talk a little bit of our again heads because I hinted at it already. But drying your face from different angles, that can be really hard. Okay, I mentioned a moment ago about the face and changing the angle on the face. And here I wanted to talk a little bit more about that. Um, and this is another little tip, I guess you'd say, um, imagine you have the front on the Okay, So this is a front of you. And actually, when I looked at research for you, no women's magazines and online it's amazing to me how many magazine ads and things like that are just straight on of a model straight onto you of their face. And I think a lot of that is because they're showing off makeup or hair something that's so there's kind of a reason for that. Um, but it's I'm just going to say that Yeah, it works sometimes for certain looks for drama. There's a certain dramatic effect that you get from that. Um, I'm gonna show you. OK, Front on view. Sort of. Ah, it was colic. Come hither. Look, um, sort of seductive, kind of lazy eyed. Look on a front beyond even kind of make the smile off to the side a little bit. That sort of slanted angle where it's a little more smile on one side always makes for that look to work real strong. Okay, But again, this is sort of the same basic proportions. I might have to add a little hair. Just just seeing involved is not as appealing. Uh, well, kind of Tinkerbell hair or something. Short hair. Okay, Now, if I then take that and say, OK, well, here's another version of that same look and tilt head not only down but away from us a little bit. Now, what I'm gonna get is again same kind of circle here, broken up with line down low circle here for the nose or oval. And I'll put the mouth off to the side on the other side. Um, my big eyes. But this I, of course, with perspective is gonna be more of an oval. It's further away from us. Um, but I want to show you that now I can have her looking off out of the corner of her eyes and because this people is a little smaller and this one's a little bit bigger. The Dement. We're getting a sense of dimension here now. And a little more visual interest in not only the expression, um, but her, You know, just drawing wise. We're getting more dimension. This is smaller over here. This is wider. More open over here. No, I'm going to slant the smile up on the other side to go with the angle. The tilt of the face even. Kind of have some of the hair hang in there, Hang in her face it that tilting it to now I have some more interest in the hair. You know, I have weight on that hair so I can do that. Where sort of falls in front of her eye and kind of cuts off part of it. Which also looks sexy, um, and more attractive. And they get a nice angle on the neck to in doing that. Sorry, I get kind of a lot of where this one's real straight here second, then slope is that into having this shoulder down in this soldier up. And we'll get into this more imposing as faras tilts go. But I do want to just suggest that given a 3/4 angle is a little bit better. Um, here, have you been done? And this will be maybe a slightly different look. I don't know. We'll do the same look, but here's just slightly turned, okay? Just slightly turned the head. Um, and I think even that we can get kind of an interesting a little bit more visual interest. It's because we end up with, um the eyes being a little bit different shapes, you know, because they're turned. This is a little smaller. Where we can pick the pupils are gonna be a little in a different spot. Not just so straight on. Um, and I think that automatically makes for more visual interest. So this is the more subtle version of that. I could have put my neck over here now, and, uh, we can create more interesting that. Then there's the dead on straight, and now it can kind of reverse the hair, have it really kind of flop in her face. So think about those things as your designing your poses and end your expressions. And again we'll get in tow poses and expressions more later. Um, but again, I'm drawing shapes in it, but I'm thinking about what are the most appealing way to show this character also So Okay , so they all work. I'm not saying that any one of them is necessarily better. It depends on what I'm trying to get across. And but, uh, to me, drawing wise, I think we get more out of this sort of, Ah, tilt a turn on a slight turn to the head. So just keep that in mind that, you know, it's not so straight up and down, and you're gonna get more flow naturally. So, like I said, we're gonna get in that whole lot more in the next lesson. All right, well, now, just to sum up, hopefully you've gotten a lot out of this so far. And you've learned things like the basic simplified anatomy of creating a female character , an attractive animated female character. The simplification that needs to happen of eyes and just the general just bring being able to boil down things. Eyes now is everything into shapes, um, and then be able to play with those shapes with variety, you know, bigger hips and smaller waists. And, um, same with the eyes, the different shapes, the eyes all those things that hopefully will now help you be able to have a tool box where you can create your own characters and make a variety of different female. 4. Your Assignment: So this is the fun part. I want to get on an assignment. So here's what you're gonna do you're gonna create between I'm reading this 4 to 6 different female characters in a lineup If you can do them all in one piece of paper. Um, I draw kind of bake, so I'm at best viewable. Probably do four characters, not six, but make each one different and, you know, put it in a slight pose if you want. That's not as important in this. If you want to just do straight up and down, arms down, really Concentrate on you know, uh, what shapes, you know? Are you pushing? You know, the head shapes and this one's more of a square this once more around it oval. But try and make them all look attractive, but in a very different way. So we're going to be a little taller, so I'm gonna be a little shorter. Um, those are all things that we've talked about that shape variation we've talked about in past lessons. But I touched on it, and this one also so really think about that, and that you're also striking for real feminine flowing forms and rounded shapes and things like that. So and maybe put them all in the same swimsuit if you want, or um, or different clothes. If you want to, that's that's optional. But I would put him in something and then also hairstyles to I mean, think about those things, do a little bit of research and find maybe this one's based on Miley Cyrus. This was based on a Reese Witherspoon. This was based on some other actress, and maybe that help. You kind of find different shapes and things to play with. But have fun with that and, um, pause and do that right now, but when we come back in a second, I'm gonna do the that same assignment myself. 5. Lesson 2: All right. Welcome back. Hope you had a chance to do the assignment and design your between 4 to 6 various female characters and hope that went well. What I'm gonna do now, if whether you did or did it, I'm gonna to do it now myself. And so hopefully you'll get something out of this. Just seeing me do it. Um, I'll that I cheated a little bit have already done a little bit of a rough, and that's more for time. Um, but let's see here. Like I said, I was barely able to draw big, so I was barely able to fit for different characters. Someone cheated paper. Um, but as as I did another, uh, other lessons, what I do is I start with a blue pencil were red pencil, and I like to do my sketching of the shapes and sizes and and poses and even a little bit of expressions with that. And then I go in with graphite, so I've kind of already worked out some shapes. And so here you're going to see, I have what I would call more sort of a generic, big headed, still semi animate character here. Um what this one. I went with an oval shaped woman, more long oval shape on the head, little more compressed in the waist area so that I could have still keep the longer legs. Here went even more so. I compressed it really short. Here's give me more stylized character than the knees. I kind of got a good variety of styles of how broad a character, character character it is. Teoh A little less so. But here she's really squashed in the middle with a long waist and then kind of kind of average long legs, but a real kind of, ah, diamond shaped head on here. I have a real long, oval shaped big hair, but I kept a real squatty body with big hips, so I'm trying to get as much of a variety as I can't, as you could see it kept. The pose is pretty simple, because again, this isn't about posing. But let me just start kind of adding a little bit more detailed of these, Um, and hopefully just hopefully this will be entertaining just to watch, if anything, but I'll try and talk as I go through again. This one's gonna be my big, big I'd kind of animal enemy character. All these have done in the 3/4 slight 3/4. So, um, if I was gonna think these or do you finished line things again. These air still tight sketches, but they're still sketches. Um, because I would actually be adding even more detail in some cases to the hair and really refining things a little bit more. Um, I'm just trying to find fund shapes for her hair. She's gonna be a little bit, you know, of your average cheerleader type. Tell me we're going to give her a low ponytail. Hair gets pulled back. Noticed that I've done clumps of hair in the front here, and it always looks good. Is too. Have your hair, um, kind of hangover, the eyes or things like that. It's always fun. Little cheek shape again. Live tiny mouth. We get big eyes. Big highlights. Okay, Just a generic. Uh, expression for the most part two. We'll even add little earrings here. Oh, now, one thing we didn't talk a little attacked a little bit about was clothing, So, um, I know, I'm gonna I will kind of clothe them like, put high fashion on anybody. Probably. Um I'm gonna add a little variety here to are her arms and add a little bit of flow here, and we'll thickness to the elbows. She's gonna have her arms on her on her waist. You could see that when I got to see a lot of the hands. Just a little bit. I'm gonna put her in a little I don't know, prom dress, I guess. Whatever it's gonna be we could see already put in that My, uh you know, my overall here. And then I already have indicated here my pelvis. So it was kind of handing the details. Oh, I fret when I had a little nice big ponytail to the back here, I see. So a little bow here for the sash and and I put it off to the side, you know, on purpose, because that, I think, adds a little more appeal than putting it dead middle or whatever. So, um and we'll just have sort of a little really short skirt on her again. If I was tying this down and really working this out, put more time into that, I promised these very simple shoes I don't know about you, but I'm kind of ours That does not like to draw shoes. So I know how much time and when I do need Teoh, that's when I get research, because otherwise my defaults used or not very attractive. Um, so that's working her out as quickly as I'm just trying to go through this quick but adding as much. And I'll put some bracelets on her. So every time that I've add a little something to her, I think it, you know, because I don't overdo it. It helps sell. I'm always trying to think about what kind of personality, and I'm telling a little bit of a story, I guess you could say, as I go with her sort of being this little prom dress. Um, let's see for her. I don't really have a story for her, but I'm gonna start playing with shapes. I want a partner here in the middle, but make it kind of, you know, big and cartoony. Remember, she's got long oval face. I'll give her a little form, he noticed. I don't just draw the over God, given the cheek shape, you do kind of a sharp nose, long nose here, and she's got more Almon eyes here and they're big, but they're not as big as our little enemy cheerleader over here after looking at us over here. Very simple expression, Teoh. Um, let's see. I guess I'll just put her in a very simple kind of tank top. I'm drawing this during the winter, but I seem to be putting everybody in summer clothing again. Just a different breast shapes to I guess I'm doing trying to keep writing everything. So and I'm gonna give her a really small waist a little bit more of a sharp point here, kind of leaning, leaning forward, a little bit of this shape. It will just have That's your tucked in. Start arms here. You see, I'm trying to really simplify as I go to, even though I'm adding details. I don't I don't wanna overdo it, you know, don't add too much, um, anatomy and things like that where I feel like then I'm gonna start, have losing the flow shapes and things like that. So as much as I can and try and keep those curbs and some straits and some curves and as much as I can through as I go through this was ever had little Vance or something are okay . So character to done now. Character three. This is actually my favorite one. I just said she's really different shapes and stop for a lot of fun. Kind of thinking of it. And I think she's got kind of personality already because she's got these. I'm actually putting glasses on her, but we're gonna see through those glasses just so you can see the kind of eyes that I was thinking she would have. She's got these sort of sixties kind of look who put high eyebrows appear, Um, and she might just have straight across eyes. She sort of a little She's got a loof. We're gonna make her a little aloof, so she's kind of unimpressed, But I'm keeping that simple shape here. Let's give her big, big, big earrings, I think, given her kind of big years to, but her hair's gonna slip back. They will make for a fun of fun shape. Now, we didn't her. She got very small shoulders. Well, I'm gonna give her like, you know, little tiny, perky breasts. Really pie again. I'm just trying for that up tight. Look, I guess Come but long sleeves their hands in their pockets here. But again, remember, we have really long waist here, too. She had a belt, Give her belt conceded. Really Give her just for style to a little bit. Baggy pants. Hockey to go over her personality. Very simple shoes. She's see Where's Tom's or something like that? Probably. Okay, cheap way. Let's just seeing her hair. She looked like she'd have dark hair. Now, you may not be doing it this fast. Um, it's OK. Um, I'm just trying to demonstrate this, so get it done before we're on a film. Okay? Now, I have an African American character here, and I'm, uh, very caricatured. Oh, um, and with her, I just wanted to really play with her shapes to so I can Probable. Bigger, kind of tall eyes. I guess you could say a variety. I should have given her a little bt pupils, but I didn't, but they were thicker eyebrows. Really? She's gonna be sort of a horse, you know, a TV style, I guess. Character. You see, I was trying to do a simple give her smaller earrings. Maybe she's got, you know, rapping here. That kind of comes exploding out of And, you know, I had more time. I really defined this trying to figure out this sort of when I want to do with this style, this hair. Right now, I'm just sort of throwing it together. So I just like the idea, at least a really big hair. And that's kind of really trying toe get across, I guess. Sees shapes, you know, trying to see the silhouette here again. Really high waist here. So that waste is a big hips. So we're just gonna come out of almost no waste big breasts. Think that would go along with the big, big waste, Get some nice silhouette here was give her a very simple be neck. Yeah, I'm not doing high fashion here by any means, but I'm also trying to keep it simple. So wide arms, and then they taper just like a small, small arrests here. We'll give her, like, little little hands, a variety we'll give her belt just to break it. Shapes. I mean, I like that big hips, you know, the goal here is just to get as much variety between all three of these yet still make him attractive. I mean, to me, at least that's my goal. And I'm thinking none of these are my attentions on her or something. These are all different forms of an attractive character. Okay, so let's see, That's where I ended up. Well, hopefully year happy with what? You came up with your 4 to 6 characters. And, um, you know, I put on online to on the instructions that you really like to see you. Now take this to the next level. If you if you're happy with it. If maybe some of what I did give you some ideas about how to push yours, go ahead and do it again and read and push him and exaggerated me more. Possibly, um, And then maybe do it ink and and or clean up and digitally color it or use markers, but do like a finished piece if if you're happy with it, and it might end up being in your portfolio. So thanks for joining me. And again we're gonna go on to do, uh, opposing attractive women. Next. Eso I hope you're You see that, too later on. All right. Thank you. Bye bye.