Character Design Forum

COTW-MAR 30th

2007-03-30T23:22:00.000-07:00

This weeks character is wrestler-interpret as you will...we have spring break next week so take your time...due the tuesday we get back

No COTW this week!-work on your 5 drawing of the same character aging!

2007-03-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

CoTW-MAR 16th

2007-03-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

this weeks character is a Mechanic. Go nuts~quit slackin you guys. I'm working on mine right now!

Ricks:

Tim:

J. Ho:

JAG:

Anthony:

Cotw-MAR 9

2007-03-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

This weeks characer is not pc at all ~ its a Hobo. Draw dang it!

Jason get it done!

Tim:

Jacob:

No COTW this week!

2007-03-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

enjoy this week off or do a headhunter if you still haven't like Jacob Glaser:

Assignment #4 Turnarounds - Due Mar 8th

2007-02-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

Draw two kids (4-7 years old-ish) one boy and one girl that are arch enemies and frequently wage war with one another on the playground. After you've got your characters designed, draw a 4pt turnaround of each one on their own separate sheets. On a third sheet draw both kids and their imaginary friend.

So 3 sheets:
1st - turnaround of the boy
2nd - turnaround of the girl
3rd - group drawing with imaginary friends

Have fun but be accurate with your turnarounds and give these characters a lot of personality. Remember what we've talked about up to this point. Heads, expressions, body types, shape, pushing the pose etc.

Heres an example of a previous student's (Barry Kuan) work on the first two characters:

CoTW-Feb 23rd

2007-02-23T21:26:00.000-08:00

This weeks character is Headhunter. Enjoy!

Jason Ho:

Tim:

Chris K draws 2 ( I Feel Lazy):

Adrien!!

CoTW-Feb 16th

2007-02-16T16:21:00.000-08:00

This weeks character is a Mime! Sweet!

Dave James:

Jacob Glaser:

Tim:

This is mine (totally inspired by Dave's):

Katie:

JAson:

Jarvis wins the class contest:

Assignment #2 due Feb 15th

2007-02-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

10 expressions~

Use the character from the previous assignment and draw 10 expressions. They should be recognizeable (sp?) but must include the following 4:
shy
proud
frustrated
and I can't remember what the other one I said was...but the rest you can choose

Look at the Preston Blair book for some good reference! I'll post this until I get in trouble.

Look at your own face in the mirror. Use tilt etc to convey the emotion you're trying to capture. DRAW!

COTW-Feb 9th

2007-02-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

This weeks character is Burglar~intepret at will...for my students this is actually due tuesday, I'll try to get a better jump on the posting so we're on the same schedule but the routine is, we decide on the character thursday after class and then we look at them the following tuesday. have fun!

Kristina wins this weeks challenge for the class:

Jacob Glaser wastes no time:

Here the rest in no particular order:

Kevin Tong:

Adrien Rivera:

Nathan Kane:

Dave James:

Katie McDee:

J.Ho!:

Oksana:

Tim DePlace:

Character of the Week

2007-02-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

This weeks cotw is LUMBERJACK! Bring 'em in on tuesday and we'll look em over. I'll post them over the weekend.

Dave James kills it as always:

Jason Ho has mad styles:

Katie McDee! Cute!

Nathan Kane-awesome

Arien Rivera, dig this a lot:

Heres mine (a little rough but good enough for a quickie)

Chris Kawagiwa-nice one, stumpy arms and all-

Tim's Jacque:

Oksana's steamy rendition:

Kevin Tong's:

Assignment #1

2007-02-05T20:17:00.000-08:00

Assignment 1
9 Angles-1 head (your own)

After having talked about shape and then practiced drawing heads, it is time to draw your own! Develope a character/cartoon of yourself that is appealing and interesting yet still recognizeable. After you’ve come up with your character you may proceed to draw the head in nine different angles (see the bugs bunny page for angles). Don’t forget to use center lines and make sure your character is on model (consistent) throughout the excercise. Don't cheat your center lines! Draw them SLOWLY and accurately and use them to map out the features of your face. Remember I just want the head and nothing else. Enjoy!

Introduction

2007-02-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I guess I'll write a short explanation of what is going here in the near future.

FIRST: I'm an illustrator and I teach a couple of classes at Cal State Long Beach. One of them is character design which I'm really excited about teaching. My experience has been 99% print, but we'll using books written for animators because they are awesome and have tons of great information in them for any skill level. Besides, it all crosses over, good drawing is good drawing regardless of your discipline.

The first book is called "Cartoon Animation" by Preston Blair, best book ever. If you don't like it you're blind or have some serious visual impairment and shouldn't proceed.

The second book is " Creating Characters With Personality" by Tom Bancroft, also a very good book and filled with good stuff (in spite of the bad cover), although a lot of it is overlap with Preston Blair.

The third book is "Draw the Looney Tunes: The Warner Bros. Character Design Manual". I like this book but I don't think there is anything in it above and beyond the stuff covered in the other two. Besides that, its expensive. All the subject matter is obviously geared to drawing bugs bunny and the like but its got all the basics in there if you're feeling spry and want the book, knock yourself out.

There are a million sketchbooks by a million great artists out there as well but they are too many to mention here. If you're one of my students and you have a cool book BRING IT IN!

SO the plan for this blog is to post the assignments that are given to my class. I probably won't post lecture notes because that would require organization and planning, both of which make my skin crawl. But I will make sure that the assignments are as clear as possible, and I will hopefully be able to post any reference you may need to understand the assignment more fully (hopefully not getting in trouble with copyright laws but we'll see).

Then I will invite as many people as I can that are working professionals to do the assignments. They will hopefully email me their work, and I'll post it for all the world to see. Then we can all be amazed or unimpressed and hopefully learn from everyones triumphs and/or failures. I encourage everyone to draw in their own style and have fun, if its not fun why bother?

And so I'll shortly be putting up the first assignment...thanks and DRAW!!

Rick Reese
rick(at)sect.net
replace (at) with @...stupid spammers are killing me...