C is for Character

Different techniques for creating a character

Oct 18, 2023

I love creating characters. It’s my favourite part of the picture book process and my story ideas usually start with a character. Some author/illustrators like to have the storyline written out entirely and tailor their characters to the needs of the narrative, but I tend to work the other way around. My characters seem to appear when I’m messing about in my sketchbook and I’ll get curious about who they are and what their story is. This blog is all about characters and how to approach creating them.

Draw something (animal, plant, person, object) just for fun and see where your curiosity takes you.

The idea for my picture book ‘I am the Night’ (my graduation project for my MA Children’s book illustration), started to take root when I was playing around in the print room at uni, monoprinting giant cats for fun. I felt stuck in my uni work, so I decided to give myself the afternoon off from my deadlines to draw cats instead. I think I’m not the only one who turns to funny cat videos online when they’re a bit sad, and so I was chuckling away at how cats seem to defy the laws of physics by fitting into any box or container they put their mind to and how some are basically shaped like potatoes. Printmaking these silly cats really freed my thinking and as I was making them just for fun I felt really playful and not precious about them. The result was me creating something that made me laugh and when I posted them online the cats really seemed to connect with others. From drawing and printmaking lots of cats a narrative came to mind about a haughty black cat who thinks their sole purpose on this earth is to be worshipped by all and my narrative developed further from there.

2. Shape theory - Simplify the shape

Once I have my character idea I try to simplify their basic shape and structure. This helps me keep the character look consistent in all my sketches. Determining the basic shape of your character can also tell you a lot about their personality. Shape theory, or shape language, is a concept used in illustration and animation to communicate meaning though basic shapes, like a circle, square or triangle. These shapes tend to illicit an unconscious emotional response in people. Circles are interpreted as soft and harmless, squares as solid and stable and triangles as sharp, dangerous and dynamic. This is something Molly Bang discusses in her book ‘Picture this, How Pictures Work’. The ‘flat, wide base’ of the red triangle that represents Little Red Riding Hood gives the character a stable and grounded feel, the three equal sides make the character feel balanced and symbolically the red triangle could also be seen as the actual red hood the character wears.

Shape theory suggest that we attribute different emotions and characteristics to different shapes and this is something animators and illustrators can use to their benefit. Animation studio Cartoon Saloon also base their characters on simple shapes, like in the film Wolfwalkers.

“We design the characters so they’re easy to draw over and over again. We have different shapes for different characters, it says something about their personality. The character Robyn is based on squares, triangles and rectangles so everything about Robin is angular. (…) Every character from the town is based on squares and triangles. Mabh is very different from Robyn, she’s completely made out of curves and circles.”1

This contrast between the two characters show their differences and where they come from. Robyn is based on squares and rectangles like the town, where everything has straight lines and is man made. Mabh is based on curves and circles, much like the forest where everything is lush and round.

The cat in my picture book ‘I am the Night’ is shaped like a soft and squishy potato (I have yet to find the theory to underline this shape). This squishiness is a big contrast with their haughty personality so you could also use shape to create discord between your character’s personality and how they come across and use this friction in your story.

3. Get to know your character by drawing them again and again (and again)

Now that we’ve simplifies our character to their basic shapes it will easier for us to draw them over and over again. Because we will be drawing them a lot. To really get to know my character I like to ask them lots of questions about what their hobbies are, what their zodiac sign is or what their favourite outfit would be.

Drawing your character in different positions, doing different activities and with a variety of facial expressions helps us to get to bottom of who our characters are. I like to use a grid to help keep the proportions consistent. I use a mix of free reference pictures from sites like Pexels or Unsplash, where I’ll look for specific poses or expressions, or, if I can’t find what I’m looking for I use a little mirror or take pictures of myself holding enacting the pose I’m after. Asking friends and family to model for you so you can draw them from observation is also a great way to get a specific pose down. Infusing your character with your own memories and childhood experiences will really help them come to life.

When I work from reference pictures I’ll study the picture for a few minutes and then put it away when I start drawing. This way I don’t get hung up on an exact copy of the pose and I find that by drawing this way my sketches have more life to them.

From Alfabeto Alemagna, the chapter Seeking:

“Endless questions, an alternation of rehearsals for works in progress and drawings spawned by observations of reality. For each work, this magmatic, constantly evolving matter evolves into a massive volume of sketches, in which Alemagna draws her subjects maniacally, seeing to achieve the exact “result”, an outcome revealed as such only through the process of being made, of being made and remade over and over again with minimal variations that, ultimately, become decisive.”

Quick warm up exercises:

Buy some googly eye stickers and stick them to objects in your house. You could also make them yourself by drawing a bunch of different eyes to cut out. Alternatively, you can also take pictures on your phone and add faces using the pen tool in your photo app. Pictures of leaves, rocks, acorns or other found things also make great characters.

Draw random shapes or blobs on a piece of paper of in your sketchbook. You can also cut out bits of coloured paper and glue them on the page. Now look at the shapes and see if you can find faces, animals or objects in them. Add eyes by drawing them in or stick googly eye stickers on them. This can be a great warm up exercise to get you started, or a character idea might appear that you can develop further.
Fold sheet of A3 paper in two and with very runny paint (any type will do) or ink, apply some shapes on the right side of the page. Now fold the page onto the wet paint or ink. Fold the page back and let it dry. Hopefully this created some interesting shapes and textures for you to draw into. Add eyes, legs and arms and maybe even a little hat here and there and see if anything comes to life.

Let me know if you find a character idea by trying out these exercises in the comments. Thanks for being here and see you next time!

Maris

Resources:

On Sarah Dyer’s Patreon you can find loads of videos tackling character design, I highly recommend joining her Sequence Group tier. Search for Character.