The Importance of PLAY
This week has been dedicated to painting…and some real progress has been made with two paintings finished this week…so far.
With that said, I have been receiving a bunch emails about character design and construction.
With character design one of the most important elements is PLAY.
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Ward Kimball once told me he did about 300 designs to get Jimminy Cricket…The character began very much as an insect and worked it’s way to the little dude with the tophat.
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| Here is a drawing with non descript characters - just playing around with some structure |
Here are few fun sketches I found as I was going through some drawings…these are play sketches with no particular purpose in mind except to just play with some character ideas.
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| Here are a few lady characters |
For me this is the most fun part of designing characters….
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| I had to make up a folder about online lessons and a few minutes later this guy was on my board |
These kinds of drawings are usually drawn in sketchbooks while at the local cafe.
Remember to keep it fun and PLAY …do tons of drawings!!!
September 16th, 2007 at 2:14 pm e
Out of curiosity - some of your characters in neutral poses tend to hold one arm and hand at a slight angle and/or stretch out their pinkie fingers. Why’s that?
September 16th, 2007 at 7:47 pm e
Hello.
Actually, I naturally pose a lot of my characters in a slight 3/4 pose. It give me a chance to “play” with the forms and to think in terms of strong silhouettes….as you know, straight on poses flatten the character out.
The extended pinkie has become a bit of a trademark on my characters. It shows they have a bit of class - such as when a person holds tea cup with their pinkie extended…”don’t you know”.
Thanks Chris…