Character Challenge - Day 13: 26-40+ year olds

Day 13: 26-40+ year olds

Welcome to Day 13 of the Character Challenge! This is our last prompt and if you have made it this far, you should have worked on characters ranging from 2 years old to 25 years old as well as eyes, ears, noses, mouths, posture, and costumes. I have filled many pages of my sketchbook and I hope you have, too.

Here are the links to the previous posts:
Day 1: Head Shapes
Day 2: Toddlers 2-4 years old
Day 3: All About Eyes

Day 4: 5-8 year olds

Day 5: Noses and Ears

Day 6: 9-12 year olds

There was no post on Saturday or Sunday

Day 9: 13-17 year olds

Day 10: Mouths

Day 11: 18-25 year olds
Day 12: Costuming a Character

Today's prompt is 26-40+ year olds. Of course you can sketch older than 40 - that's what the + is for. The sky is the limit. This just means grown ups, adults, big people, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, people in the work force, people who entertain, people who you see every day. Remember that we are making characters here so don't worry about realism. Does that guy at the deli counter have big ears? Make them bigger in a character. Does that woman have spikey hair? Make it more spikey in a character. Take features farther.

On Monday, I will post a summary showing many of the characters that I created during this challenge on this blog. If you post a summary showing your characters, share the link in these comments so we can all see what was created. Don't feel that you have to spend the weekend inking and coloring some high quality character pieces - sketches, doodles, pencil are all fine.

Have fun and thank you for taking this challenge with me!

In January, I will be working on scenes (not focusing on the characters - just the backgrounds/locations/places) so if you want to do those with me, let me know.

Character Challenge - Day 12: Costuming a Character

Day 12: Costuming a Character

Welcome to Day 12 of the Character Challenge! You should be knee deep in doodles and sketches of 18-25 year olds. For me, designing adult characters is much more difficult than children. I don't know why - just is. In any case, at this point, we have worked on characters who are 2-4 years old, 5-8 years old, 9-12 years old, 13-17 years old and 18-25 years old. We have also worked on noses, eyes, ears, mouths and posture.

Here are the links to all of the previous Character Challenge posts if you want to check back or need to catch up:
Day 1: Head Shapes
Day 2: Toddlers 2-4 years old

Day 3: All About Eyes

Day 4: 5-8 year olds

Day 5: Noses and Ears

Day 6: 9-12 year olds

There was no post on Saturday or Sunday

Day 9: 13-17 year olds

Day 10: Mouths

Day 11: 18-25 year olds

Today, I am writing about Costuming a Character. Costumes are a lot of fun. Your character can be anything. Anything! Remember that this isn't the real world - these are your characters - your stories - your drawings. Do you want your character to get shot out of a cannon straight toward the moon? Go for it! Is your character a tiny fairy with super tall flowers surrounding her? Sure! This is fiction. Anything can happen. A good costume doesn't have to be complex, either. It can be appealing through straight forward simplicity. A pirate sword and an eye patch or a ray gun and pointy collared shirt can tell a viewer who this character is.

Take some of those young adults you are working on and add a king's crown and robe, doctors scrubs, space suit, fireman's jacket and hat, baseball pants, shirt, and hat (don't forge the cleats). Think of any job or make one up and try the outfit on your character. You don't have to do a bunch, just try one - sketch it. We're not looking for portfolio pieces in this challenge - this is a time to play.


Have fun!

Character Challenge - Day 10: The Mouth

Day 10: The Mouth

 

Welcome to Day 10 of the Character Challenge. So far, we have worked on characters in the age ranges of 2-4, 5-8, 9-12, and currently 13-17. We have also worked on Head Shapes, Noses, and Ears. Below is a link to all of the previous Character Challenge posts:

 

Day 1: Head Shapes
Day 2: Toddlers 2-4 years old

Day 3: All About Eyes

Day 4: 5-8 year olds

Day 5: Noses and Ears

Day 6: 9-12 year olds

There was no post on Saturday or Sunday

Day 9: 13-17 year olds

 

Today, I'll share a little info about Mouths. Mouths are a lot of fun to draw because they can be soo expressive (like the eyes). You can twist mouths in funky shapes to show different emotions. A tiny dot can show a character at a loss for words. A tilted line (along with a squinty eye) can show a character who is perplexed. Mouths can also be super wide showing amazement or anger. Doodle up some blank head shapes and try different mouths - you don't even have to add the nose or eyes or anything else - just go for different emotions with mouth shapes OR add some different moods to those moody teenagers that we are working on from yesterday's post OR just try some a page of mouths showing different reactions. Have fun with it.

 

Here are some mouth reference photos:

 

 



 

 

 

Have fun!

Come back tomorrow for the next age group prompt.

Character Challenge - Day 5: Noses and Ears

Day 5 - Noses and Ears

 

Welcome to Day 5 of the Character Challenge. So far, we have played with different shaped heads, created characters 2-4 years old, learned how eyes can change the emotion of a character, and worked on characters 5-8 years old. Below are links to the previous Cha-Cha posts:

 

Day 1: Head Shapes

Day 2: Toddlers 2-4 years old

Day 3: All About Eyes

Day 4: 5-8 year olds

 

The Nose:

Noses are fun to draw because they come in soo many different shapes and sizes. You can create anything from a tiny nose or a giant nose.

 

Small Nose

 

Large Nose

 

 

There are also angled pointy noses that are triangle shaped:

 

Here are several other nose shapes to try on your characters:

The Ears:

Since this is not a life drawing class and we are designing characters, don't go for anatomical accuracy on the ears. In my college classes, I was told that ears are between the eyes and nose and are this size and stick out this much and blah ditty blah blah. Our characters can have whatever kind of ears we want. Some boys have ears that stick out, some are flat against the head. Some girls have tiny ears, some are giant. Choose a size and shape of ear that compliments who your character is (this is why we were thinking about this stuff at the beginning, too).

There are a couple different aspects of ear design - the outside shape and the inside shape.

Christopher Hart demonstrates this page of examples of those differences:

Your female characters may be getting earrings as we get into older ages and these earrings also tell the viewer about your character. Is she wearing a tiny star or a giant dangle earing? Is there a skull or demon hanging off her ear or a rainbow?

Continue working on characters who are between Kindergarten and 3rd grade age but try some different noses and ears and see what you like.

Have fun!

Come back tomorrow for the prompt about our next age group.



 

 

 



Character Challenge - Day 4 - 5-8 year olds

DAY 4: 5-8 YEAR OLDS

 

Welcome to Cha-Cha! I hope you enjoyed drawing toddlers for the last couple of days. Starting today, we are working on 5-8 year olds. These Kindergarten to 3rd graders are taller, leaner and have lost most of the baby roundness to their features. They stand closer to 4 heads tall with most of the additional height in their legs. Their hands and fingers are more defined than the toddlers and you can now squeeze in that fifth finger without it looking too bulky. When they go to the doctor's office to get measured, their height and their weight might be the same. My son was a "square" for several years with those measurements being the same number.

Play with head shape, they still have big ears and big eyes. Play with hairstyles. Play with body position - sitting, standing, running, squatting. Think about the activities that engage a child in Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade. They are doing everything from tying their shoe to writing to reading to playing group sports. You don't have to draw your characters doing any activities - thinking about them just gets your mind visualizing who you are creating.

What is your character wearing? Shorts, t-shirt, skirt with tights, button down? Is he or she bundled up for winter or ready for summer activities?

Who is she or he? Is she into science? Is he into reading? Does he or she like tennis? Chess? gymnastics? Soccer? Drawing? Try to show the character's interests in his or her stance or clothes somehow. Is she shy? Is he outgoing? Is he or she loud or quiet, pondering something or actively doing an activity? Is he chubby? Is she tall and lean? Remember to try a character with glasses or even braces.

Check out how this cartoonist draws children who are 5-8 years old: CLICK HERE.

Once you have figured out a character that looks close to what you are going for, try sketching the front view, side view, back view and if you are adventurous and have the time, try 3/4 front and/or 3/4 back view. For a great, great, great short video about rotating your character, CHECK THIS OUT by Renee Kurilla. (Click on her name to see more of her illustrations.) This three minute tutorial made a huge impact on my approach to creating characters. Animation is a wonderful way to work on character consistency.

I'm not posting more reference because I want you to come up with your own characters so think about this age and start sketching.

Come back tomorrow to see another post about facial features!

Have fun!

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Character Challenge - Day 2 - Tackling Toddlers

Day 2

 

Welcome to the ChaCha (pronounced Kah-Cha!) or if you want the full name: Character Challenge!

ChaCha began yesterday with trying out different shapes for heads. Viewers subconsciously associate emotions and ages with different shapes used for the head, body, and features of a character.

The first characters to work on are 2-4 years old. These small humans are known as Toddlers and they have big heads. When they get measured at the doctors office, the doc is looking for an almost equal measurement around the head and around the chest. Their legs and arms are short. Hands and feet are small though playing with the proportion of these features will add humor to a character. While an adult's arms with fingers outstretched can reach to or even past their mid thighs, a toddlers reach might just get to or past their hips. In looking at traditional drawing technique, while an adult is 7-8 heads tall, a toddler might only be 3-4 heads tall. For characters, these young ones are typically only 2 or 3 heads tall. Their hands and fingers are also different from older characters in that their fingers tend to be chubby and their palms less defined. Often these characters are only shown with a thumb and three fingers because the chubbiness is bulky when trying to squeeze in a fifth finger.

Circles usually work well for very young children because they tend to make a character look young, cute, or retro. Placing the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears low (but not looking down) also helps to make a character look young. Christopher Hart states that, "The lower you put the features on the circle, the cuter the character will be."

Look at some real toddlers (or check them out on Google images or Pinterest) and note that their eyes are large and their noses are small. Big eyes makes a character look full of wonder and gives you the chance to play with eye shapes and angles to make them expressive and give your little boy or girl emotion. Tomorrow's post will be All About Eyes.

Play with head shapes and trunk (body) shapes. Play with hairstyles for little ones - is her hair in pigtails? Is his hair spiky? Maybe he or she doesn't have much hair yet. A hairstyle can help a viewer understand the age of the character.

Does he or she have freckles? Play with posture, standing, sitting, running, leaning, bending.

Here are some reference pics for you...

 

http://www.zebtoonz.com/proportions.htm

 

 Have fun!

 

Share your Toddler Character doodles on the Facebook Group page for Doodle Day HERE.

 

Come back tomorrow to check out the post All About Eyes!

 

 

 

Doodle Day Update and a NEW Challenge

Doodle Day started May 1st and never stopped! It was all May long with a new prompt and a new blog post daily and the group of participants on (Facebook in the Doodle Day May group) just grew and grew. We were at 60+ doodlers by the end of May. Doodlers continued posting their daily doodles throughout June and the number of participants continued to grow (even though the challenge was technically over). In July, (at the request of many doodlers) we started posting prompts again. All new, every day! Thanks to the fabulous and dedicated doodlers, I had guest posts for more than half the month. These fantastic guests posted doodle prompts, samples, reference photos, and suggestions on my blog and theirs and our group of doodlers continued to grow. We are now 21 days into August and the Doodle Day participants is at 106! If you are interested in doodling with us, there is a list of August prompts posted in the files at the top of the group page on Facebook. WOW! More than a thousand doodles have been posted with many more locked in the privacy of doodler's sketchbooks. (You are not required to share to be a recognized participant in this challenge.)

As Augusts is coming to a close, we have a new drawing challenge approaching. I have been giving hints and talking about it all summer. This new challenge will run from September 8-21 and here it is...

Character Challenge

which you can call ChaCha! (pronounced Kah-Cha)

 

 

Here's how it will work -

On Sunday, September 8th - We will kick off the ChaCha with a post and a drawing exercise to help you prepare for creating new characters.

 

On Monday, September 9nd - I will post the first Character Prompt. This will be a specific age group to focus on. You can create male or female characters at this age - we are focusing on humans for this challenge. We can work on animal characters at another time. You are not expected to create final, portfolio quality characters. This is an exercise in creating new characters. First drafts, sketches, loose drawings. You will have two days to work on this age group. After you sketch out a view you like, try the same character from the side or the back, 3/4 front or back if you have time.

 

On Sept 11th, 13th, 16th, 18th, and 20th - I will post a Character Prompt with a different age group to focus on. You will have a couple of days to work on each character design/age group. I will not post new prompts over the weekends so you can spend time going back to the characters you were developing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of that week. In each blog post, I will give suggestions for how to approach drawing a character of that target age. This information may include tips about body shapes and head shapes, websites with reference information, book suggestions, video tutorials from other artist about developing characters, etc... For this challenge, we will be focusing on characters who are younger than 40 years old.

 

At the end of this challenge, you should have at least 6 new characters you have worked on.

 

If you have questions, please post them in the comments below and I will address them. If this challenge sounds like a TON OF FUN, let me know that, too.

 

Until then...Keep Doodling

 

Hope to see you at the Character Challenge!