Creative Character Design for Animation, Games and Comics

For over ten years, I've been reviewing character design portfolios online, at comic cons and art school Q&A sessions.

In that time, I've met many artists with charming personalities and impressive technical skills.

…but a true Character Designer is extremely hard to find.

True Character Designers get consistent work.

True Character Designers sell lots of books and prints at cons.

…and some of them create characters who will outlive us all.

Here are some of my favorite articles and interviews that will help you transcend the trends and begin to create characters with soul...

The Rising Stars Of Animation: Betsy Bauer, Elsa Chang, Jessie Greenberg, Natalie Hall, Sarah Marino & Isaac Orloff: ArtCast #59

By Chris Oatley

I always say that the two secrets to success in animation are “Do great work and be great to work with.”

Sometimes, artists just get mad when I say that.

But more often, they ask thoughtful follow-up questions. …questions like “How, if I’m not already working in the industry, do I prove that I’m great to work with?”

Although I have a few responses to that question which I will talk about in an upcoming episode, I thought it would be clearer to just show you how it’s done.

So I brought together six of my favorite “Rising Stars” of the animation industry and interviewed them…

The Gustav Klimt Drawings: Inside The Mind Of A Master Draftsman

By Chris Oatley

I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was up to no good.

Her expression – eternal, enticing and vile – has, for centuries, lured many men to awful consequences.

Fortunately, a grumpy docent intervened and saved me from a similar fate…

Closing time.

He kicked me out and locked the beautiful, deadly spirit-girl inside.

I wonder if I’ll ever see her again…

Yesterday, I visited The Getty Center Museum (one of my favorite places in Los Angeles) for the special exhibit: Gustav Klimt: The Magic Of Line.

It was a collection of one hundred Klimt drawings, sketches, studies, thumbnails and the most elaborate color comps I’ve ever seen.

I almost had to leave half-way through.

…and not because I was trying to escape the tempting gaze of that ancient femme fatale The Getty curators call ‘Lasciviousness.’ I hadn’t even met her yet.

The awesomeness was just completely overwhelming.

In this post, we’ll go inside the mind of Gustav Klimt, The Master Draftsman and gather four lessons that will supercharge your sketchbook…

Five Tips To Make Your Character Designs More Dynamic & Believable :: PWP #9

By Chris Oatley

How can character design strengthen the emotional impact of your story?

Are turnarounds really a waste of time?

How can you avoid cliches in your designs, and make your characters both surprising and memorable?

In this episode of The Paper Wings Podcast, Chris and Lora give you FIVE tips that will help you make your characters more dynamic and believable.

Press PLAY, and get ready to learn how to set your characters apart, and take your stories to the next level!

READ ON to DOWNLOAD our FREE Character Design Cheat Sheet to learn how YOU can enter to WIN a WACOM Intuos4 Tablet and to download the episode Cheat Sheet!

Ten Questions To Ask Your Characters To Make Them More Dynamic & Believable :: PWP #8

By Chris Oatley

Do you struggle to write good dialogue for your characters? Are your characters flat and boring?

Do you avoid the writing process and race to the drawing stage when making your comics or cartoons?

What if your writing process could improve your character designs?

In this episode of The Paper Wings Podcast, Chris and Lora give you TEN questions that will help you bring your characters to life right on the page.

They also share the submission deadline and judging process for the first Paper Wings Challenge sponsored by WACOM Technologies!

This episode features examples from Batman, X-Men, Romeo & Juliet, The Big Lebowski, Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, LOST, The Godfather, Driving Miss Daisy and The Office.

Press PLAY, dig deep with your characters and let the design and dialogue flow!

READ ON to learn how YOU can enter to WIN a WACOM Intuos4 Tablet and to download the episode Cheat Sheet!

Alien Janitor: Process Tutorial (part 1) :: ArtCast #13

By Chris Oatley

Click Here to watch Part Two of this series.

This video was recorded in April of 2009.

The ‘News’ announcements are outdated. The quality of the art, the video and the audio aren’t as strong as my more recent but I believe that the content is still worthwhile.

In This Video ::

I recently had the tremendous honor of joining my friends Kevin Cross and Joshua Kemble as a guest on their awesome podcast Big Illustration Party Time.

It is an amazing resource for anyone interested in freelance illustration.

The topic that we discussed was character design so each of us did a ‘homework assignment’ before the episode where we had to design a “hero.”

I came up with an alien janitor in cut-offs.

I did a screen capture of the entire painting and I have split that video into two parts. The first part, this episode, will be accompanied by a series of audio clips from my guest appearance on Big Illustration Party Time.

In Part Two, I will go into further detail via voiceover about the process of creating and finishing this painting.

Check out my collection of Digital Painting Tutorials for Concept Artists & Illustrators!

Creative Character Design for Animation, Games and Comics

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