In this first lesson, I will discuss my journey and showcase my progress over the years. Additionally, I will introduce basic design principles, such as the ‘sit test’ and silhouette, proportions, straight vs. curved lines, and provide examples of their implementation.

Let’s explore how to bring your character to life through acting and gesture drawing, focusing on the importance of hands (draw hands before arms). We’ll create 3-dimensional shapes and talk line-of-action and interesting proportions to give you an understanding of what shapes you can use for different body parts.

You can visually define your character with costumes, outfits, and accessories. Research and reference materials are extremely important and can help you understand how to convey your character’s story based on their environment, and in this lesson I will show you how I pull and use references from several different sources. We’ll also discuss the importance of hair, fabrics, and tiny details.

This chapter discusses the importance of developing a unique artistic style and experimenting with different techniques to stand out. We will look at examples of other artists’ work and what makes their styles so recognizable. I will also share my process for developing my personal style and share practical advice for artists trying to develop their own recognizable styles as well.

When creating a character design, it’s crucial to understand the character. While clients often provide a narrative, sometimes you may need to create one from scratch. A brief backstory for the character is helpful before starting the drawing process, and knowing how to “act” with your character can give your character personality. This will make it easier to bring the character to life on paper, giving them a human quality that audiences can identify with. I will discuss the importance of using reference to figure out what makes characters unique, and demo my process for using reference to add acting in character designs.

Creating turnarounds is a crucial skill for those aspiring to work in the animation or gaming industry. This skill is utilized in both 2D and 3D productions, enabling you to incorporate your design and details into the final stages of production. In this lesson, I’ll go over exactly what a turnaround is, why it is important for portfolios, and demo my process for creating a character turnaround.

This week, the focus is on facial expressions. The goal is to convey emotions that bring the character to life and make it more expressive. I will go over the importance of facial anatomy, do a demo adding facial expressions to our character turnaround from the last lesson, and show you how you can practice pushing facial expressions using reference.

This week, I’ll get into the theory of color. How do colors relate to each other, and how do we use that information to tell our story? I will show you how I gather inspiration to choose colors for character outfits and how you can simply change the look of your character by making adjustments to the lighting.

This week, I will show you how you can create your portfolio and present yourself as an artist. How you want to present yourself to others is all about taste, so in this lesson I will discuss some things to keep in mind when creating a website to showcase your portfolio, such as which images to include in your portfolio, what information you should share about yourself, how to present your artwork, what studios want to see, and what not to show.