The Process behind Creating an Original Character

1. Introduction : Hi. My name is Sign. I am a non professional artist, and today, I'm here to teach you about my process behind creating an original character. Whenever I drop, no matter what the subject is, I start to imagine what events could have occurred in this place so why this character came to be. It feels like bringing life to something so still through adventure and imagination. It feels like building my own little world every single time. I am an in marital scientist by training and through my work, I actually have the pleasure of sketching specimens and places that come across. But a venture and drawing doesn't stop there. I've always enjoyed reading, be it books, comics, graphic novels, and one day, my dream is to actually publish my own graphic novel. That is why creating a character that actually has some real depth to the feels so important. In this class, I won't teach you any particular skills for creating the characters. However, it aims to help you organize your thoughts and creative process for a more polished result. If you think this process doesn't suit your way of working well, that's fine. You're free to tweak it as you please. I'm just trying to offer you a foundation to and build upon. This class will be roughly divided between the research part of building a background for your character and the sketching part where they will actually take form. You can use any drawing material you want, be it a pen and a paper, even as simple as that. Even though this class is catered for people with prior drawing experience, all levels are welcome to join in the fun and create something on their own. I hope you enjoy the lessons and I cannot wait to see what you come up with. 2. Materials: Inspiration can come from anywhere, a sentence from a book, a lyrical melody from a song, a picture. That is why, before sitting down and starting to brainstorm ideas from my characters. I'd like to gather as much information and inspiration I can. Throughout the years, I have created my own created library for inspiration. It is made of postcards from museum gift shops, of photo books of photographs I admire, art books from Artists love, and comics that I admire the style of. However, I know it can be expensive and take up a lot of space to accumulate materials for eventualities. Another and easier approach is to use the Internet. My favorite thing to do is to go on Pinterest or Instagram because there are so many great artists and photographs out there, and any image can spark a little bit of inspiration. That's why I create mood boards or I take screenshots, so I can keep them in a file and go look at them when I need inspiration. But just be careful not to copy or take any ideas from someone else. You have to create your own work. It's just for foundation inspiration. Sometimes, even revisiting old drawings can be a gold mine for inspiration. I have actually based the main character of my project on a really old character I had created. After looking through everything I have in my libraries and on Pintres and Instagram, there's two pictures, two images that came to me and gave me a little bit of inspiration for a character. This picture from Fred Bosa, photographer of two Greek shepherds and this beautiful painting of sunflowers by Gogan. Once you have gathered the material that has might inspire you. It is time to gather the physical material you might use while sketching for your character. As said previously, you don't need anything more than just a pen and a piece of paper. But sometimes, using different type of drawing materials can help you spark inspiration. For example, I like using what the colors are colored pencil, and it helps me choose the color palette. I'll be mood for the character. I usually prefer using paper and just a graphite pencil. But lately, I discovered sketching with the blue colored pencil or even just colored panes and actually thought it was really nice to do that. For this particular project, I will jump from sketching in my sketchbook and sketching digitally, since I'm transitioning between traditional art and digital art, and I don't know right now which one I'm more comfortable with. Now that you have all the material you need, it is time to brainstorm and build a believable background for your character. Okay. 3. Brainstorming: What is important to keep in mind while building a character is that quality is better than quantity. You might be inclined to imagine a super complex background story and make your character extraordinary by adding all these character traits and physical features. But being all over the place will make your character too busy and won't allow others to relate to them. Start with a small but coherent foundation. Don't forget this. This character is yours, and just like you, they can also evolve with time. With that in mind, I'll ask myself some questions. Why am I creating this character? What for? It could be used as a common thread in a series of illustrations, just like in an art challenge. It could also be used for a comic or graphic novel you'd like to start. It could just be for the fun of it. In this instance, I wanted to create a character for both this class and the art challenge created by one artist on Instagram called Ma Venture M. This will determine the level of detail I want to add to my character. Since it's just illustrations, I don't need to make the background of my character too detailed. However, there is more than just one illustration, so the background has to be detailed enough so that the illustrations are linked together. Plus, this challenge pumps is mostly adventure team. I know that this is going to be my overall inspiration adventure. Then while freely doodling anything that comes to mind from looking at the material I had gathered previously, I'll ask myself some basic questions, such as the gender, species, or personality of the character. For example, even though I am more comfortable drawing woman, I relate more to young male characters in books. That is why I'm designing my character to be a young male. I did say previously that adventure was going to be the overall inspiration. Since adventure is mentioned, I think of both explorers and fantasy novels. I might add a little bit of magic and my character might be a different species. But then again, I want him to be closer to actual explorers. I will make him a human. For the personality, I write as many traits I can think of and I go through them to see which ones would su best the personality I want to give to my character. Since I want my character to give off a lighter feeling, I'll go with Happy go Lucky and naive. Referencing the picture taken by Fred Bassino. I want to use it as inspiration for his outfit. But since shepherds also make me think of sheep, I want to give this character fluffy hair. It does go with the overall bubbly image of him. As a young, somewhat childish man, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of his body structure would be a lanky, kind of short and skinny body. To tie in the she vibe and contrast with his tin stature, let's give him a big woolen jacket. He won't be a fighter nor a super powerful magic user, so I will give him a simple outfit. For the cool palate, I'm going with sky blue and brightlo inspired by the picture of sunflowers. Since everything about this character is so bright, I want to add a bit of contrast to make him multidimensional. Since he appears so unthreatening, the saying a wolf in sheep's clothing comes to mine. He can look nice and safe at first glance, but be actually more of a daring and chlad. Regarding his background, since I'm creating him for a set of illustrations, I don't need to be too detailed about it. I also thought it would be a good contrast for his cute exterior to have a mysterious background where nobody know his age and where he comes from. In regard to his occupation, since the illustrations are going to be adventure tamed, that he has a mysterious background, that he is more daring than he looks, and his outfit is going to be inspired by the shepherds and Fed Basina picture. I want him to be a traveler. Now that I've figured out all this information and have a first pass at who my character might be, I'm going to start sketching my character in more detail. 4. Rough Sketching: Now that we have an overall idea of who our OC will be, it's time to straighten out the details. I like to do so by getting a bit more detailed with my sketches and not just doodling ideas. I also continue to write any idea that comes to mind, since sometimes I get inspired by the sketches I've just drawn. Here's a non exhaustive list of details you might need to figure out for your character. So you'll know right away, like I did for the color palette that I chose during the brainstorming session. Others will come to you later on. For instance, I only figured out his name at the end of the process. Let's start drawing. First of all, I need to figure out his physical appearance. I decided on the short and thin figure, so I sketched out several silhouettes until I'm satisfied. Same goes with the haircut and facial features. At the same time, I pick out the colors I use. I want the illustration to be colored with a bright color scheme so that gives a lively feeling. For his eyes and hair, I based them on my predetermined color palette and came up with several options. Okay. Now that I know what he looks like, I move on to the outfit. Brainstorming beforehand helped me narrow down my choices. I jolt down a few ideas. I know that I want him to wear a big and fluffy top and as a traveler, his outfit needs to be practical and lightweight. Since his background is so mysterious, his outfit shouldn't reflect a particular type of culture too strongly. But it can have elements that come from here and there, which will underline his traveling habits. The colors I chose for his hair and skin reminded me of non Europeans. So I added the loosely inspired latic pattern to his outfit, which, in turn, combined with the fluffy coat, made me think of arctic nomads. So I once again based the coat's shape on that notion. Coloring the outfit was quite straightforward. At first, I only wanted to use different values of blue and yellow like my color palette. But the travel needs to bend in even more when walking in the wilderness. So I went with a neutral and light color palette with only accents of blue and yellow. I did try a darker and more vibrant version and I fell in love with it. But in the end, it didn't fit my overall concept, so I kept the first one. You should always try to come up with options even if you're sure of your choice because you might discover something about your OC you didn't know before. Okay. Looks an outfit done. Now it's time for accessories. If you don't need any, that's great. But giving a few objects or even a companion to your OC can make them more lifelike. I sketched several ideas and ended up with these from a character. Walking stick, bags, foations and trikets from his travels. Weapons to show is not as docile as you may think, a mysterious mult from his background and flowers for his soft side. With all the details figured out, it's time to refine your drawings. 5. Refining Your Character: First, let's choose a style to draw our character in. This part is optional, since you may already have a defined art style. But for someone like me who doesn't have a set art style, it is necessary. However, even if you have use in one style, it can be interesting to explore options. You never know. It might help you evolve your art or just be fun to try out. Changing in line art, all the way you color can also alter the atmosphere of your illustrations, and one style might fit better with the vibe of your Os. I person you have three ways of drawing characters. The first one is in between realistic and stylized, with partially rendered colors, colored pencil line art for a more colorful result. Then, extremely stylized, simple thin figures with white features, clean line art and flat colors. Finally, simi realistic characters with flat colors a little bit of shading and black ink line art reminiscent of comics. For this OC, I chose to go with the cutest and simplest style I have. Next, I'd like to draw my character in detail. Whether it is close ups, full body sketches or putting them in different poses. Drawing them again and over again helps you get familiar with them and maybe figure out things you don't like or you might want to add. For example, I discovered while drawing that my seemingly dorable OC actually gets quite scary and angry, but still maintains his smile. Now that you know your OC inside out, it's time to present them to the rest of the world. 6. Project & Final Thoughts: It's time for the project. Having gathered all the information you created for C, I would like you to create a character sheet that would allow anyone who sees it to know a bit more about them. AC sheet doesn't have a set format. But for this exercise, the sheet should require at least one full body drawing of your character, a few accessories that are pertinent to them, and a small box with basic information on your OC. But you don't need to restrain yourself either. If you want to add a few facial expressions, little scenes with your OC or even a simple background you're welcome to. B as creative as you can be without forgetting that your OC should be the main focus of the sheet. Here's the final result of my process for creating a new character, MD Sky. His name comes from the Word Cloud in Icelandic. I opted to add a simple monochrome background to help bring life to the environment he lives in and just a full body drawing as to not give away too much of his personality. I am excited to see what you'll create, and I hope you'll also share a process of what you wrote and your sketches in your project so that we can see how you came up with your character. This marks the end of the class. I hope it proved useful, and if not, that it was at entertaining. Thank you so much for following my first class and Skillshare. I'm sorry you had to bear with my bad editing skills and awful sound. But thanks to this amazing community, I plan on improving so that my next class gets better, which I hope you'll be interested in checking out. Have a wonderful time creating. Until then, bye.