Art Talk#1: Character design (Patreon)

Here we are with one of the first insight post, talking about my workflow and so on. This post doesn't feature Damsels in Distress pics (no worries, those will come soon as well!) but I thought would be nice to discuss the way I work on my characters and illustrations. It contains instead some exclusive design sketches featuring my Space Damsels characters (more infos/previews about Space damsels books on my website http://loz.theroguesgallery.com/Space/index.htm or on Pawfeather store https://www.pawfeathercomics.com/store/c18/Space_Damsels.html )

While we'll go onto more technical matters on future posts, this one will focus on more conceptual aspects of drawing.

Character design is one of the funniest tasks I get to do, because it makes me create my own world and let me learn A LOT about my characters while I draw them. Here are my usual steps:

1. Gather infos! Before you get to draw, I get all infos, and references about the kind of characters I wanna draw: what's the setting, what could be considered similar characters? What has been done on a similarly themed design? Infos are important and help you focus and find the direction for your character. I never underestimate this step, as it lead to have some nice inspiration (or why not, it helps understanding what to avoid for your character design). When I got to design Fuyu, I gathered references from many ninja themed manga/anime and illustrations. I wanted to be sure her design was recognizable enough but I wanted to be sure to start from a solid basis. This is considered a pre-production step, much like when, before starting to program a videogame, or doing a movie, they do TONS of design and illustration tests, to be sure the design works well enough.

2. Sketch sketch sketch. Get your ideas on paper, try crazy one without worries, even if they don't work, you tried and maybe a detail will be helpful later! On paper or on digital files, shouldn't be a problem to sketch lot of ideas, for hairstyle, outfits, shoes (!), toerings (?!?) and so on.

3. Color palette! Colors can tell A LOT about a character. Making an object (or a character, or a product, or else...) recognizable since its appearance and colors is something common in design. So when I test various color ideas for a character, I can better know the character as well, since it tells me something about what Elvina (or Fuyu, and so on...) would or wouldn't wear. What colors may appear not so well on her so on. In general the point here is: try! Test options and have fun while doing it ;)

Hope this introduction to my approach to characters is helpful :)

(The title pic is an old, unused picture for Space Damsels Syrielle. Someday I want to do a story with her and Nadia set in that sci-fi world indeed!)