Transcripts
1. Welcome : We are drawn to appealing
characters in stories. Once that resonate and
form a connection. As an illustrator, I need to continuously make these
important connections in my art. Developing ways to
draw a viewer in by breathing life into
a series of marks. Fine form on a blank page. Well, some people might think
of this as a form of magic. Most creatives know
that it comes down to a lot of practice
and dedication. Through the years I've
created my share of characters by sketching,
studying other artists, taking classes, and
reading a lot of books, I began illustrating much
more engaging characters. In this class, I want to share the things that I've
learned so that you'll feel more encouraged
and prepared when creating your own unique,
engaging characters. Hi, I'm Lisa, and
I'm an illustrator who enjoys making whimsical
art for picture books, greeting cards in
station and airy. And in this class, I want
to encourage you to make more engaging characters by starting with some basics
and your sketch book. I'll be talking about
the techniques that I use when creating
characters and how I add small details to enhance my illustrations and make them more engaging
for the viewer. I will also share a few
tips to help you elevate your drawing and ways to add more personality to
your characters. The techniques that
I share in the class are easy to follow
and encouraging to this class is for beginners or any creatives who want to learn new ways of adding personal
details to their characters. By the end of class, I hope
you'll be feeling more confident about creating
your own unique characters.
2. Appealing Characters: The way I think about creating appealing characters or what I hope will be
appealing characters that will resonate
with an audience. First, putting in what I
love, what I love to do. If you draw from your heart that does come through on the page. So I lean into all those lovely
yummy little details because that's what I
like about illustration. Seeing those visual cues
and trying to come up with my own interpretation of the
artwork and the character. But also playing
in my sketchbook and asking myself questions about who this character
is as it's developing. So what do I want to say
with this character? How do I want the
viewer to react when they first see
this character? So if somebody is,
whether they're scrolling through Instagram or flipping
through a picture book, you want that connection. And I feel that
connection starts, or that connection
happens better if we ourselves have a really
good understanding of who this character is that
we're bringing to life Through the years. One thing I've consistently
struggled with is having characters that
look stiff or wooden. It's really one of the biggest challenges that
I have is an illustrator. So I wanted to share with you a few things you could do if
you're struggling with this. If you want people
to engage with your artwork and be drawn to it, especially in picture books, you need to have
more dynamic forms. I tend to ask myself
some questions. Does this look fun? Does it look playful? Does this drawing have depth
and does carry weight? Doesn't look like it's
ready to just leap off the page if I can
start answering yes. When I ask myself
those questions, I feel like I'm on
the right track. Comparing this boy to
the previous example, I wanted to give him
more personality. So I added little
details to his outfit. I changed his posture. They were slight changes, but sometimes those
small changes have the biggest
impact in our art. There are plenty of wonderful foundational
drawing tips out there, but I want to highlight a
few that I think can be very helpful in creating more energetic and
engaging characters. Using a simple S curve
as you're working out your characters and especially
in certain postures. It's just another
wonderful tool to have in your creative toolbox. You may have heard of this
before and with good reason. It's a well-known way to
visualize shape and volume. So a great exercise to
do in your sketch book. And one that I'm going to
suggest you try is to draw ten different flour sacks
expressing different emotions. Now, this is a great
drawing exercise because it's simple. You're not preoccupied
with adding features. Creating appealing characters. It does feel elusive at times, and art is very subjective. Certain characters have
more appeal than others. An example would be kittens. The majority of people
might prefer looking at a fuzzy baby kitten
versus prickly scorpion. And of course this is just an example because I'm sure there's some talented illustrators
out there that could make a scorpion
cute and appealing. It's important for us to have ways that we can
capture the viewer. Working out some of those early problems
in your sketch book. Really can help you
check all those boxes so that you land on a
very strong character.
3. Personality: When creating
characters, if we have a very strong personality trait, that greatly helps with
articulating who this person is. The simplest spot
illustration can carry a lot of narrative
if it's done well. So for example, this young
girl loves to garden. That's where she feels happiest. She's not standing in a garden, but she's clutching
fresh flowers. And she's wearing
her gardening smock. And her floral scissors are
tucked in her pocket with only a few visual clues where telling the viewer a lot
about the character. We can't talk about personality without also talking
about expression. Humans are drawn to
the face and it's such a clear indicator of
what a person is feeling. So as an illustrator, you have a lot at your disposal with facial expressions
and your characters, but also body
language to help you articulate the mood you really want to express through
your character. Comes down to style too, because you have some
illustrators who really love bold and exaggerated
gestures and expressions. And you have others
who are a little more subdued and subtle. There is no right or wrong. Sometimes it's fun to
be in the sketchbook and maybe try exaggeration if you typically don't do that, or if you do that, maybe you try something
a little more subtle. I think that's how
we learn best is experimenting through
creative play. So as you all know, I'm a complete nerd
for the details. And that certainly extends
to outfit selection. I feel you can play this up and tell so much
about a character based on the accessories that they have or the
outfit that they wear. So if you're stuck, this is a wonderful opportunity to help shed more light
on your character. And one of the easiest
ways to do that is if your character has a
special talent or hobby. So my Puffin, I'm
enamored of puffins. I actually went on to puff and cruise years ago and they are just the most charming
little creatures. And they're seabirds. Yeah, a little tongue-in-cheek, I guess to have him
as a fisherman, but I thought it was fitting. So he has his little
fishermen cab than the barber and
his fishing pole. They're simple
accessories, but they shed more light on
this little character. Out. Quick visual exercise. Take a look at
this illustration. What were some of the
things you spotted in the illustration
and did anything gives you a sense of this little girl and her
personality or interests. So since I'm the
one that made it, I can shed some light
on what I was thinking. It's a drawing that's based on my daughter who
was loved to read, always had her nose in a book. She was quiet, friendly, but definitely very
introspective, and she loved the
weather and cats. Having a personal
connection to the art, I think makes it easier because you know the character
that you're drawing. So ultimately draw
what makes you happy? Sometimes that makes
all the difference. Actually, most of the times that makes all the difference. We're going to refine our
character sketches so that we can now go into another
sketchbook exercise. And this time, I'm
asking you to draw a character with a distinct
personality trait. A simple spot illustration can have a lot of narrative
within its mark.
4. The Finishing Touch, Details: Adding those finishing
touches to our art through these wonderful yummy details is something that it just
brings me so much joy. I don't know how
else to explain it. Even as a child, I was
drawn to picture books. That appreciation that began in my childhood evolved into what I bring to the table
now as an illustrator. This illustration as an example, it is chock full of details. And that was an
intentional choice. I was trying to
evoke the busy-ness of this fairy tale
city that said, there has to be a balance. There's an intentional
process behind this. If you feel the illustration will benefit from
having a lot of details or that it's a little
bit quieter and it needs just a few to
get the point across. Now it's time to just sprinkle in those lovely
defining details. Think about how you can enhance the narrative
in the scene, or how you can tell
a little bit more about this character's
personality. What can you add that
will pull the viewer in. You want someone to just
sink their teeth into this piece of art and this character or moment
that you've created. Curiosity is a very
powerful thing, and we can use that
to our benefit. I learned this lesson firsthand several years ago at
an SEB wi conference. I had submitted artwork for
a live portfolio critique. I decided to take this opportunity
and try something out. I headland illustration
that I wanted to share. At the very end, I decided
to add one little detail. And I did it purposefully to see if it would
cause a reaction. Here's the illustration. Take a look at it and see
if you can guess what that detail was. It was the key. I added that little detail once the entire
illustration was done. Because I wanted to use
this art critique as an opportunity to see if I could grab the art
directors attention. And it worked. One of them picked
up on it right away. And she just had
so many questions. Seeing her curiosity and how excited she was
about this little key. It was such a light
bulb moment for me because I began to realize the power of having that
hook in your illustration. We send out postcards, we send out promotions. We don't always know how
they're received, right? And if you try something
and it doesn't have the success you
were hoping for it. That's okay. It's really
part of the process. Nobody hits it out of the
park a 100% of the time. I hope you're feeling
inspired and I hope I've encouraged you to have
the freedom to be messy. Sketch books don't need
to be perfect and neat. It really is a
place to figure out composition and nail
down your ideas. Then when you do,
you keep polishing, push the art a little more, see how far you can take it. And then add the color,
add the texture, add what makes your art you putting your
heart into something really enjoying what
you're doing does extend out and it will
resonate with people. Don't worry about your style. It's a natural thing and
it comes out of you. So the more you draw, the more you experiment, the more you make your characters
and tell your stories. That all comes into play and makes up who you
are as an artist. All these little details that
I sprinkle into my work, my simplified, sweet little characters and a
love of texture. All those things
make up my style. So for our last
creative exercise, I want you to write
down five things that you love about your style. You might even think
of more five things. So put down your top five. Embrace. What makes you the
illustrator that you are.
5. Character Drawing Demo: Before we begin drawing, I wanted to go over a few
tips, namely about sketching. So if you are
messy, that's okay. If you're neat, that's okay. If you want to use
reference, that's okay. I want you to have the
freedom to just explore and experiment and try new
things in your sketchbook, whether that's a traditional
one or a digital one. I'll be demonstrating
my process of coming up with what I hope to be
an appealing character and feel free to
either sketch along or watch and then be inspired to
create your own character. I'll be doing this demo using a bird character who
is preparing to fly south for the
winter because he's getting a bit chilly
here in New England. For this demonstration,
I'll be using my iPad and the procreate
app with my eye pencil. If you want to follow
along or draw with me, feel free to use either
traditional or digital methods. You could grab a sketchbook or even some plain white printer
paper works just fine. I typically draw with pencils. I like mechanical pencils
or a black wing pencil, but grab whatever material you
are most comfortable with. So this is how I typically
start sketching. If I'm on my iPad, I am very loose and
contemplated as I'm drawing because I'm already
starting to work out things in my creative brain. So knowing who I want this character to be and
the type of personality, some of the accessories, all of that stuff is already running through my mind as I'm figuring out the shape and
gesture of this little bird. I've noticed that I'll
probably run out of room there because I do want his wings or
at least one of his wings to be
pretty expansive. I'm imagining him waving, saying, Okay, I'm out
of here, goodbye. I'm heading to warmer climates. I really wanted to leave room
for that wing expansion. With my early sketching, I tried to keep it really
loose and just let my hand move across the page. I'm going to speed
this up here just so we'll still be
able to follow along, but it'll go a
little bit faster. As I'm drawing. I'm thinking about
how the wing is going to shape and
move and bend. Having already running
into my first dilemma. Because with that left
wing, I was thinking, oh, maybe he's going to
hold a little suitcase. The fold of the wing is a little bit
problematic for me there. When I run into a problem
as I'm sketching, I just take off to a different
part of the drawing. So I feel, the more
I work through, the more the creative
juices begin to flow. So instead of hamper my, hampering myself and staying
on one part of the drawing, I just move on to
a different area. I love drawing bird characters, but the beaks can
sometimes be a bit tricky. And because I've heard about the stiffness and my
characters and that's something that stuck with
me through the years. I pay special attention to that and I want to make
sure that this bird looks lyrical and
there's movement and that there's a nice
variation in the lines. And because this
little guy doesn't enjoy the colder temperatures, I am going to bundle him up. And I find scars or another place that
you can really show movement and have
some nice soft lines. Now I'm erasing part
of the scarf because I don't like how it's blocking a pretty important
part of his body. Losing a lot of the
bulk of his chest and it's covering up where part of the tail feathers would be. So now I'm thinking about
the placement of that scarf. Here's the first attempt
at my little bird. But I'm not loving it. So I'm going to move on
to a different variation. I think it's important to show the process and be
open and honest about the rounds of sketches
that artists go through. So this is actually
a time-lapse right on procreate of my
second attempt. And I really, that wing
was still bothering me. So I decided instead of the
bird carrying a suitcase, I was going to have him
wear a shoulder bag. I mean, really it would be hard as a little bird to clutch a tiny handle with
all those feathers. So putting myself in his shoes, I was trying to imagine the
practical nature of what this little character would have to fly south
for the winter. Again, just working
through really thinking more in trying to find
tune that gesture. I decided to add a cute
little palm palm hat, which the tassels provided an opportunity for
motion there too, which I loved and leg warmers. I was happy with
that messy sketch. So the next step is
adding a layer above it in procreate and just
going in and refining. And I do this with by
outlining the character. Still trying to keep
my lines loose, but they're much neater. And doing it this way, I have a clearer picture
of how he's shaping up and if there's still
any visual problems that I want to tweak it, I usually can see
them in this part of this stage of
the illustration. Refining is such a fun part of this whole process
because you really see the character
starting to take shape and then it gets
even more exciting. And you can have fun adding those little details
and elements. Most of my color work
is done digitally. I've found once I was
able to mimic how I work traditionally in Procreate, it just streamline my process and it was just a
faster way of working. Plus you don't run out of
supplies, which is great. You always have them
on hand and procreate. I've always loved
watercolor and gouache. So that's how I work. I start with the basic. I'll do a flat layer
using a watercolor brush to blocking color in
the more fine details. I go in with a pencil brush
that I made that I just love having to those details. This is what I tend to
do at the very end. Because as I see this
character really come to life. I keep wanting to sprinkle
in a few more hints. It's really my, one
of my favorite parts. I just love adding those sweet little details
to an illustration. And for me, I enjoy that. I enjoy seeing that and other illustrations just
baked into my creative DNAs. And I believe that's
a big part of what makes my
illustrations appealing. Those added details and touches like the
texture on the scarf, the pattern on the
palm, palm hat, the detailing in the
little shoulder bag. Appeal is elusive. It's not going to be appealing. What you make won't resonate
with the entire world. But that's okay, is
when it reaches and sparks interests in an audience, whether that's an audience
of ten or 10 thousand, it's just so nice
to know your art has touched someone and maybe just put a smile on their face or made their
day a little bit brighter. That's just a great feeling
to have as an artist.
6. Final Thoughts + Project: As we wrap up class, I wanted to leave you with a
piece of advice that I was given from a creative friend of mine that has stuck with me. It's to take what you need
and to leave the rest. Creatives get a
lot of advice and some is helpful and
some may not be. It's knowing what to keep with you and how you can
use that in your art. Being able to differentiate
between that helpful advice and the advice that may be just doesn't pertain to you at
this moment is important. Because not only will it
help with your confidence, but it will also allow you
to level up in your work. Speaking of creative friends, I hope you can surround
yourself with good people, creative people who are in the trenches just like you are, because having that support
system is so important. Definitely think about joining
an organization if you haven't already or
a critique group. Whether you meet in
person or online. A wonderful thing to have
people in your corner who can motivate you and
offer encouragement. For our class project, you are going to create a
character using some of the techniques we
explored in class. Feel free to download the class worksheet if you
want some help planning out your character or
go ahead and use the bird that I created
as inspiration. I want you to pick
whatever medium of choice that you would like. Once you've outlined
your character, you can start sketching and
refining and then add color. Once you're all done,
upload your character, you can just click right on the Create Project button to share your illustration
with the class. Thank you for spending time talking characters
and sketching. A promise that the
more you draw, the more natural this becomes for more illustration
and inspiration. Make sure you check me out on Instagram and for
updates on new classes. Follow me right here on
Skillshare. Happy creating.
Lisa Griffin, Illustrator
