Character Design Exercise 1

I wasn't overly fond of doing this exercise, but it was an eye opener to how different shapes can determine a character's personality. For this task, we were asked to draw our characters based on the three basic shapes, square, circle and triangle, and be quite literal with using them.

Here we can see the basic shapes behind the drawings, as well as the sketchy lines.

Left: This is the character of 'Average Joe' who I always thought of as being a very uptight (but not stuck up) character, where he's almost always tense or anxious about something, but is kind, although not very strong, which is why I thought that the shape of the square didn't suit him very much, but it suits him more that it would have the River Man. Added curved edges give the impression that he's not a bad guy.

Middle: River Man v.1 where I tried to use the circle, but I found it near impossible, so I stretched it to make an oval. This makes him seem slender but friendly and also agile and strong (hence the shape of his legs). I also tried making his hair more curvy so that the shapes were pretty outstanding.

Right: This one was very difficult because of the way that I tried to make the shape obvious, but I ended up making him a bit out of proportion. I don't very much like this design, as it just seems a bit too realistic, and the shape of the triangle doesn't suit his personality of being friendly and strong, but makes him look weak and cold.

The neatened version without the shapes and sketchy lines.

I added shading to give them some life and to emphasise on the personalities.

A slightly different approach to 'Average Joe' who I made more lanky and not as strong looking. This also shows you his shapes, leading to his more detailed form, and finally shading/colours. I prefer this version of him, because it suits his personality much better.

Average Joe

River Man

While this task has taught me a lot about character designing, I still believe that I could improve these, such as the one on the right, his hair could be shorter like the one in the middle to really make the shape of the triangle stand out more.