CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - Character development

Collect as many examples as possible of different characters – newspapers and

magazines are a particular good source. Catalogue these characters as types – babies,

children, sportsmen, old women – create your own category headings.

Decide upon a character you would like to create. This might be one from a book or story,

or based on an archetype such as a businessman or vicar’s wife.

Begin to brainstorm around your character – perhaps there are characters from the media

or your own life you would like to focus on.

Draw your character from the front, from the side and from the back. It may help to draw

lines from the neck, shoulder, waist and knees as an aid to scale and to ensure a sense of

proportion. (This is known as 360o drawing.)

Draw your character over and over again. Get into role and adopt their mood, expression and personality. It often helps to work out what they are thinking or saying. Try moving the facial features around to extremes and using a few lines and dots to represent the face. Be conscious of the contribution clothing and costume makes in describing a character.

Then try another, different, character. Make sure you come up with someone completely different, not just the same person in different clothes.

Character examples

I have gathered various characters and organised them into categories such as baby characters, elderly characters, objects, food, monsters, and superhero characters. Including non-human characters would provide a unique perspective on emotions and props that bring a character to life.

Click on the image below for more characters.

Brainstorm around your character.

I was thinking more about archetype characters to brainstorm, and I came up with law enforcement characters and what would be the opposite of a policeman. Then, I brainstormed an evil guy/villain.

My brainstorming results led me to think about stereotypes. The villain/bad guy was muscular, with harsh features and a shaved head. The police officer also had stern features and a no-nonsense look but was mature and experienced.

Draw your character 360 degrees

Drawing people has never been a strong point for me, so I started by sketching out the shapes that make up the body in pencil.

I added more detail, such as the uniform, guns, radios and handcuffs. At this stage, I didn't really know what my policeman would look like.

Adopt their mood, expression and personality.

I found this part of the character really fun and exciting; I kept the process relatively simple.

I started off with different shapes, such as circles, butternuts, rugby balls, squares, etc. I then experimented with different skin tones, glasses, hair colours, and styles until I found the right fit for my policeman.

I found that a more oval shape worked well for my character, and I wanted a more mature look, so I used facial hair and played around with his expressions.

Final character

After my facial experiments, I went with a serious expression and styled him with handcuffs, a radio and a gun.

My proportions were not perfect, but I like how the marker pens give more detail to the overall look from different angles.

Second character

After creating my policeman character, I was excited to experiment with my villain/bad guy. I used the same approach as I did with my first character. I knew I wanted a big head, and I found a butternut-shaped head that worked, along with an exaggerated jaw for my character.

I got quite excited with my marker pens because I could overlay the colours to produce a shaved look for both the face and the head. This was the perfect look I wanted for my character. I could create stubble marks using a fine black liner and dotting the areas.

Final Second character

I encountered some challenges while attempting to draw this character, and as a result, I ended up with incorrect proportions. However, despite these difficulties, I created a character with a scary and mean appearance.

Reflection

When I first read this exercise, I wasn't sure what I would create. However, drawing the characters and exploring their personalities, moods, and expressions was a fun experience. Despite the occasional mistakes in body proportions, I enjoyed experimenting with different head shapes and adding unique features like facial hair, hairstyles, and glasses. My creativity grew as I added details such as handcuffs, clothes, and body shapes.

As I reflect on this exercise, I am surprised by the possibilities of developing the characters further. The idea of pushing the boundaries of these characters or even creating new ones to complement the initial two is quite exciting.