Creating a character continues …

How simplifying my character, taught me a lesson about drawing.

I looked at the time and saw that I drew the third frame of the storyboard for at least 20 minutes. Just that one! “I cannot draw the whole thing like that. It takes too much time,” holding my frustrated head.

Also, the quality of the drawing went down from the second to the third frame. More messy not finished lines. “Whatever, I would finish it!” Some copying and a next half an hour later, I finished it.

“I cannot draw like this. This should be fast and simple.” Even the program was getting slower. A lot of motivation from all around to simplify.

So, I went back to the character creation.

Today, I encountered a ghost like hands, when watching YouTube video and I thought: “I would try to do something similar.”

I liked the guys especially, and her too. There was still something missing. She was hunched, all the time. It felt like granny more. “Lets add neck and see.”

Then I met him.

The one in the middle. And I thought: “Hey buddy. How are you?” I felt this connection. I tried to draw him again, but I had harder time getting why he is so “Hey buddy.”

This is what sometimes happens. You create it, but then even though it is so simple, you don’t hit the feeling of the drawing exactly again.

Took them to another paper and tried to do the whole family.

I was close but still. I wanted to really get the feelings with another ones. Oh, and now he has a sister too! She is cute.

You can see here that I am trying to draw the difference between the adult ones and children. When I looked at the guys I thought: “I could differentiate them a bit more.” So, I tried some things here and there with shoulders.

This is what I got with boys.

I was inspired by the middle one. Even though I couldn’t recreate the feeling of the god-damn right hand. (I probably can.)

Initially here I planned to say: “Hey now see the difference look at neck one is longer …” but I somehow didn’t feel like it. Just to pinpoint it like that. To close it with a thought: “Yeah necks are what I change”. I would rather say:

“look and feel”.

This is probably the most important thing to note here. (I just came back to add it here, after drawing them multiple times.)

You are trying to draw the feeling.

Don’t try to make it thought based: “And now, I would elongate the neck and it’s the adult.” It may not fit, all together.

It’s strange because you want to take something from the previous one, the feelings that it evoke but at the same time the moment you hit the paper, you draw a totally new character.

That’s what my advice would be. Try to hit the same feeling pick what shapes or curvature you liked and redraw it.

Just feel and draw again.

I can already see that I would make slight changes here and there. Mainly to make mom, more happy.

Yeah, what I wanted to show by this character creation process is that, sometimes it is just playing around and then finding out where one feels “Hey buddy” connection and trying to learn how to draw the feeling again and again.

Okay, I would not spam you with more drawings, so take care and see ya tomorrof.

Bye.

Luke