Finals Project Requirement

 

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PART 1 - AN INTRODUCTION TO MAKING CHARACTERS

Hey there and welcome to Artist's Haven where we can talk about anything as long as it's about developing as an artist. Now, you must have already read the title, and yes! We are going to be trying to create a character of your own.

Now, first let's look at these beautiful examples of people creating their own characters. Pretty cool huh?

Now this is just beginning, aight? I know some of you are skeptical, thinking, "Oh I don't need my own character I'll just draw characters of other people no need to spend time on those kinds of things, there are already countless original characters out there right?" WRONG. Having a character of your own, at least in my opinion, makes you grow further as an artist. You know why? Because being an artist is about creating and expressing yourself through different ways, different mediums, and if you can express yourself through a character then good for you! Dare I say it might even help you develop as a person and not just an artist, because then you'll discover more about yourself and most characters that you'll make will be, one way or another, someone that reflects something about you! And not just through appearance, but also through personality. Now see that? See her hair? It mirrors the artist's appearance, and through some ways, also their personality, as how you look will be a reflection of what you are.

Now that you've gotten a crash course on what characters are and why these characters are, then let's try out the how these characters are made with a simple exercise. Using the following pose as a reference, try and create your own character along with these guidelines.

You can go and pause the video here while you're still working on the activity, and when you're done, just play the video.


PART 2 - CREATING YOUR CHARACTER

With the previous  exercise done, let's start with another one! You're going to be filling up this basic information sheet of your character. This is the basic of the basics, and obviously you'll need these information if you're soon going to be creating a complex character right? It might seem tedious, but this is necessary. Much like how your parents have a birth certificate of you, this also signifies the characters birth.

Now if you're done with the information sheet it's time to think, yes, THINK, again. But this time, it's about who your character is, and I'm not talking about what their name is, or what their sign is, but their CORE. Their personality, in other words. Using the information sheet as a reference, you must already have something in mind right? Are they joyful? Constantly sad? Haughty? Kind? Evil? Righteous? All of these things will soon come together in the next step, which is...

Sketching your character. You are an artist, you create, whether it's through verbal means like spoken poetry or singing, through illustrative means like graphic designing or painting, or even through literature through stories or calligraphy. So if you're here, you should have some basic techniques already learned, like creating a face. We all know that we start with a circle, then some lines, then some basic sketches of facial features, then you just fill in the blanks! Just keep in mind that the appearance of the character will reflect their personality. Here are some examples. A smile basically signifies happiness. Now what about some other complex features? Ah yes the typical snobby rich girl. A crazed madman. The mysterious cloaked character. A hip hop dancer. And many more.

4. The clothes maketh the man. I don't really need to add anything more, but to tell you to appropriately clothe your character or characters according to who they are. Obviously you wouldn't give a snobby rich girl a simple dress right? Unless it's Gucci, but that's besides the point. Knights wear armor, magicians wear robes, samurai wear hakamas etc etc, it's just about matching. It's also the same with their accessories.


PART 3 - FLESHING OUT YOUR CHARACTER

Backstories, most of the time, start with your characters childhood. Now if your character is a child, I guess there's no need for this, but obviously they'll still have past experiences, however few. It's not as if they're a newly born infant right? Unless your character is in a fantasy setting, and they have actually been reincarnated into an infant, in which case they have many many experiences. For a tragical story setting, most childhoods of the characters are traumatic, which will then mold the character into what they are now. It's like evolution, but not as epic as most would think. Here's an example, you know Pokemon right? Now how about eevee?  We know about their various evolutions, and most of them you won't get through ordinary means like simply leveling up. There must be various factors to be taken into account before eevee evolves. Most of them are about exposing eevee to various items, which we can substitute for experiences, which will then make her evolve. See how these different things made eevee change into different forms? It's the same with your characters. See how everything all interconnects and give new meaning to present experiences? If they were exposed to something bad then they might be traumatized, if they were exposed to something good, then in the future they'll still like it.  All of these things, childhoods, environments, genetics, experiences, circumstances, they all mold and dictate what your character is. And with that, you now have a fully fleshed out character.


PART 4 - GROWTH OF YOUR CHARACTER

Growth is something everyone does, even fictional people. For now, let me give you an example, how about Monkey D. Luffy from the famous shonen anime, One Piece. Now I'm not going to specifics and technical jargons that only the fandom can understand, but if you still haven't watched One Piece then be warned for there will be spoilers ahead. Here's Luffy in hid fight against a Pacifista, unable to fight back and can only keep dodging until soon the enemies have overwhelmed them to the point where he had fallen in despair. Sometime later then he had realized just how important his crew was to him, and in the timeskip, he's now a little bit more serious, though still an idiot, because he can't risk losing his beloved crew. An obvious observation would be that he had gotten stronger, ever more so than before. Garnering new skills and a newly found strength, he goes to beat up enemies that he couldn't before. And even if he's already stronger than before, he still trains to new heights so that he can protect his crew and beat up those who oppose him.

See that change even though he's just a fictional character? Crazy right? So the same thing can also be said for you and your character! You can grow more by going out of your little artist bubble and talk to other artists! Interact with them and talk to them, make artist friends! Commission them, collaborate with them, be involved in the community and you and your character will be growing in no time.

So that's all folks! Hopefully this video helped you in creating, understanding, and developing your character. Bye.