Character design process

Here is a really awesome article on Character design from the folks at Privateer press - I want you to see the connections between the process shown here and what you are doing in your own projects.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-04-29-2016

This is the type of process I want you to try out!


Another incredible article from PIXAR http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/character-design.html which includes the following:

Pixar's Tips For Designing a Successful Character

When a Pixar artist is designing a character there are a number of areas they explore to ensure a successful character design.

Research and evaluate
It can be helpful to try and deconstruct why certain characters and their characteristics work and why some don't.  Study other characters and think about what makes some successful and what in particular you like about them.

Who is it aimed at?
Think about your audience. Characters aimed at young children, for example, are typically designed around basic shapes and bright colours. 
Visual impact
Whether you're creating a monkey, robot or monster, you can guarantee there are going to be a hundred other similar creations out there. Your character needs to be strong and interesting in a visual sense to get people's attention. 
Exaggerated characteristics
Exaggerating the defining features of your character will help it appear larger than life. Exaggerated features will also help viewers to identify the character's key qualities.

Colour
Colours can help communicate a character's personality. Typically, dark colours such as black, purples and greys depict baddies with malevolent intentions. Light colours such as white, blues, pinks and yellows express innocence, good and purity.

Conveying personality
Interesting looks alone do not necessarily make for a good character; its personality is key as well. A character's personality can be revealed through animations, where we see how it reacts to certain situations. The personality of your character doesn't have to be particularly agreeable, but it does need to be interesting (unless your characters is purposely dull).
Express yourself
Expressions showing a character's range of emotions and depicting its ups and downs will further flesh out your character. Depending on its personality, a figure's emotions might be muted and wry or explosive and wildly exaggerated.

Goals and dreams
The driving force behind a character's personality is what it wants to achieve. TOften the incompleteness or flaws in a character are what make it interesting.

Building back stories
If you're planning for your character to exist within comics and animations then developing its back story is important. Where it comes from, how it came to exist and any life-changing events it has experienced are going to help back up the solidity of, and subsequent belief in, your character. Sometimes the telling of a character's back story can be more interesting than the character's present adventures.

Beyond the character
In the same way that you create a history for your character, you need to create an environment for it to help further cement believability in your creation. The world in which the character lives and interacts should in some way make sense to who the character is and what it gets up to.

Fine-tuning a figure
Question each element of your creation, especially things such as its facial features. The slightest alteration can have a great effect on how your character is perceived.

On the road the the Apocalypse: Drawing Exercise/Design for context

Monoform projects are those where many artists take on a singular object/shape etc. and put their own spin on decorating and redesigning it. Some great examples of this include THE VADER PROJECT and the populist sculpture/Vinyl toys project done in Grade 11 here at NCC.

Examples of this type of thinking are not limited to the world of fine art - but rather can be found all around you on a regular basis. A great and creative example of this is in aftermarket wheel design for the automotive industry - custom and decorative wheels are all made of the same basic circles in standard sizes yet give a wondrous opportunity for creative decoration and design!

In this particular exercise you will need to work towards what is generally referred to as a concept drawing.
The sketchbook portion of this task is to take the simple circle (at least 4 inches in diameter) and redesign it to create a great visual impact as the custom wheels of a car or bike. Aside from simply designing the object concept, however, you will also need to give consideration as to the type of vehicle it will be attached to. You will have to explain how it relates to the design of the vehicle in terms of form, function, colour, shape, audience/consumer and your general design choices. In explaining I would encourage you to give some thought (and include notes/pictures or sketches) as to what kind of car you are designing for and how this wheel would relate to the overall impression of the vehicle. Does it subtly compliment the overall look? Does it use contrast to create additional focus and specifically draw attention? Does it rely on the vehicle having additional customization/colours etc? Does it add function or is it purely decorative?

Mild or Wild - the choice is now yours!

Sketchbook by Ruriko

A beautiful sketchbook by Ruriko - Grade 10

Sketchbook by Mbirize

Sketchbook pieces by the very Talented Mbirize.

Compositional Gauntlet

 Compositional studies

You must complete 12 of the following pieces in your sketchbook. Please focus on creating strong and interesting compositions. You may use photography for up to a maximum of half (6) of the pieces.

Each picture must be at least 4" x 4"

1. Formal Line (contour) Organic
2. Informal Line Organic
3. Formal Line Inorganic
4. Informal Line Inorganic
5. Formal Line Negative space
6. Informal Line negative space
7. Formal Colour Organic
8. Informal Colour Organic
9. Formal Colour Inorganic
10. Informal Colour Inorganic
11. Formal Colour Negative Space
12. Informal Colour Negative Space
13. Formal Shaded Organic
14. Informal Shaded Organic
15. Formal Shaded Inorganic
16. Informal Shaded Inorganic
17. Formal Shaded Negative Space
18. Informal Shaded Negative Space

Formal : Focal point centered, Closed, Symmetrical, Visual movement is horizontal/vertical/circular, Visually calm
Informal : Focal point off-center, Open, Asymmetric, Visual movement is diagonal/random/elliptical, Visually tense


Definition of "organic" (ref dictionary.com):
Fine Arts - of or pertaining to the shapes or forms in a work of art that are of irregular contour and seem to resemble or suggest forms found in nature.

IB External Assessment 2 - Process Portfolio - the evolution of the RWB!

External assessment task #2 - Process Portfolio
Part 2: Process portfolio 40%
EXAMPLES FROM IB: 1, 2, 3
 
"All students should use their visual arts journal to carry out their explorations with techniques, technologies, effects and processes and to record their discoveries. They should chart and reflect on their experiments with media, their decision-making and formation of artistic intentions. Students will select, adapt and present what they have recorded in their journal as the basis for material submitted for the process portfolio task." Weighting: 40%
  

Students at SL and HL submit carefully selected materials which demonstrate their experimentation, exploration, manipulation and refinement of a variety of visual arts activities during the two-year course. The work, which may be extracted from their visual arts journal and other sketch books, notebooks, folios and so on, should have led to the creation of both resolved and unresolved works. The selected process portfolio work should show evidence of their technical accomplishment during the visual arts course and an understanding of the use of materials, ideas and practices appropriate to visual communication. They should be carefully selected to match the requirements of the assessment criteria at the highest possible level.

The work selected for submission should show how students have explored and worked with a variety of techniques, effects and processes in order to extend their art-making skills base. This will include focused, experimental, developmental, observational, skill-based, reflective, imaginative and creative experiments which may have led to refined outcomes.

Structuring the process portfolio

Students will have pursued their own interests, ideas and strengths, and their submitted work should highlight the key milestones in this journey. The submission may come from scanned pages, photographs or digital files. The process portfolio screens may take a variety of forms, such as sketches, images, digital drawings, photographs or text. While there is no limit to the number of items students may wish to include on each screen, students should be reminded that overcrowded or illegible materials may result in examiners being unable to interpret and understand their intentions.

The selected screens should evidence a sustained inquiry into the techniques the student has used for making art, the way in which they have experimented, explored, manipulated and refined materials, technologies and techniques and how these have been applied to developing work. Students should show where they have made independent decisions about the choices of media, form and purpose that are appropriate to their intentions. The portfolio should communicate their investigation, development of ideas and artworks and evidence a synthesis of ideas and media. This process will have inevitably resulted in both resolved and unresolved artworks and candidates should consider their successes and failures as equally valuable learning experiences.

Examiners are looking to reward evidence of the following:

1. sustained experimentation and manipulation of a variety of media and techniques and an ability to select art-making materials and media appropriate to stated intentions
2. sustained working that has been informed by critical investigation of artists, artworks and artistic genres and evidence of how these have influenced and impacted own practice
3. how initial ideas and intentions have been formed and how connections have been made between skills, chosen media and ideas
4. how ideas, skills, processes and techniques are reviewed and refined along with reflection on the acquisition of skills and analysis of development as a visual artist
5. how the submitted screens are clearly and coherently presented with competent and consistent use of appropriate subject-specific language.

Students must ensure that their work makes effective use of appropriate subject-specific language.
Art-making forms
 For SL students the submitted work must be in at least two art-making forms, each from separate columns of the table below. For HL students the submitted work must have been created in at least three art-making forms, selected from a minimum of two columns of the art-making forms table below. The examples given are for guidance only and are not intended to represent a definitive list.

 

Submitted work might well include experiments undertaken during (and reflections upon) taster sessions in particular media, demonstrations of techniques, workshops, master classes, guided experimentation and studio practice experienced as part of the core syllabus activities outlined above.

Formal requirements of the task—HL  
 HL students submit 13–25 screens which evidence their sustained experimentation, exploration, manipulation and refinement of a variety of art-making activities. For HL students the submitted work must have been created in at least three art-making forms, selected from a minimum of two columns of the art-making forms table.


Submitting assessment work

The submitted screens must not include any resolved works submitted for part 3: exhibition assessment task.


The size and format of screens submitted for assessment is not prescribed. Submitted materials are assessed on screen and students must ensure that their work is clear and legible when presented in a digital, on-screen format. Students should not scan multiple pages of work from their journals and submit them as a single screen, for example, as overcrowded or illegible materials may result in examiners being unable to interpret and understand the intentions of the work. The procedure for submitting work for assessment can be found in the Handbook of procedures for the Diploma Programme. Students are required to indicate the number of screens when the materials are submitted. Where submitted materials exceed the prescribed screen limits examiners are instructed to base their assessment solely on the materials that appear within the limits.

 

 

USEFUL FORM AND SHADING TUTORIAL!

Couldn't resist posting this link as I think it will be very helpful to some of my new/junior students in particular:

http://juliannakunstler.com/images_art1/3Dforms.swf

Not quite life drawing - pose portfolios

It has long been believed that working from Life is the best teacher, when it comes to learning to draw the human form. Most post secondary institutions will offer course in life drawing and anatomy for the artist. In the high school setting we are certainly limited by access and expense, so finding additional ways to supplement your usual drawings of the same forms (often your friends and family) sitting on the same furniture or having to pose for you in ways and outfits that suit your needs can be almost as challenging as getting them to help you in these ways in the first place.

While I don't have the perfect answer by any means I would like to suggest a couple of websites than can give your drawing a little boost and can assist you in figuring our proportions and forms or push you to develop strong skills for quick pose sketches (Super recommended if you are going to be doing this type of thing post secondary....)

Senshistock http://senshistock.com/index.php - is a great one to start with. The figures are non nude but wearing form fitting clothing so that figures and musculature are still relatively clear.  They have some programs and collections of poses for sale but also have a number of free practice forms in their "sketch section". When you click on this it sets up a timed posed image for you to draw. When the timer runs out it moves to the next image - just like a live session. You may adjust the length of the timer, skip images and pause it in its entirety. The pictures use a variety of lighting, expressions and - in contrast to many sites - a lot of props. My only real critique is that there are far more images of female figures than male. Overall a great site with some really useful images and an easy interface.

Pixelovely - http://artists.pixelovely.com/ - another great one with a slightly more complex but still really user friendly interface.  This one gives you a choice of figure drawing, animal drawing, hands and feet or portraits an expression. The interface lets you choose between specific genders (or all/random), clothed or nude and two styles of session - standard or class. A class set will give you short timed poses first working into longer poses with breaks actually built into the time! Pretty awesome. A great variety of figures and forms coupled with a lot of choice in parameters make this an excellent resource.

Those should really help get you started with gesture and form!



Look for future updates/reviews for: Quickposes.com & posemanicas

Intro Pages

Here are some intro pages completed by

current and former students:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you spot the key problem with this one?