Monday, April 01, 2024

Character Design WIP

Here's some work-in-progress for a character I'm currently developing.

The top two images are stylistic experimentations.  I first drew the character using a ball-point pen, and then cleaned up that lineart in Procreate before adding color and value.  My lines are usually sharper and much cleaner when I'm working on finished illustrations, but for this I want to go sketchier.  I colored the top image with this in mind using the dry ink brush in Procreate to try and replicate what I normally do in traditional sketches.  The second image is a pass in black-and-white using the screentone filter to produce texture.  I like how this looks but I don't know if this is the final look I'll go with.  Nothing is set in stone at this point.

The bottom image is the gestures I've been doing for this character in my sketchbook to figure out their personality and acting.  The repetitious drawings also help me to develop a muscle memory for their unique shapes, sizes, proportions, and details.  I do use model sheets to help keep me consistent when working on longer projects, but I also want to have the big stuff memorized so things run smoothly as possible as I'm quickly sketching out thumbnails and tinkering with compositions.