PR02: Character Design 1

I started off my designs taking influence form TWEWY, but trying to keep the face much less 'anime' and more western. I enjoyed trying to add more curves to lines that I may otherwise draw straight, and the sharper angles were very fun to try to incorporate. As I did have a 100% decided on idea yet, I wanted to take this chance to experiment with vague concepts of what the characters could be rather than jumping straight into designing them. I think having this freedom first really helps me to get into it and figure out what exactly I want to do with the look the the characters (and by extension, the whole setting). I got good comments from classmates about the legs on all of the characters, and the sideburns on the last character. I think that the thighs on the last character are a bit too boring, and could be curves more although this might not be a necessity if the rest of the design does have a few more complicated shapes; I definitely love where the character's pants meet his shoes; it might be a little too much, shape wise, but I think it looks interesting and balances out all of the extra details and shapes at the top of the design.

I did wonder wether or not I would have trouble doing different body types, or much more muscular characters, so I want to try maybe some thicker arms and see how they could work.

I think that the leg and arm shapes of the first design are going in the right direction for this kind of style, but the proportions look awkward and boring. The other two characters on the page are even more boring, and not worth talking about too much; they've lost a lot of the interesting shapes and just don't stand out.

I had a little trouble exaggerating the character to be even more muscly; the second design is entertaining, but not quite there. The third is closer, but maybe wider shoulders, slightly shorter legs and a more squished down torso would emphasise the top-heaviness that I am aiming for. I think that it will be better to come back to this after deciding on the characters that I do actually need, rather than labouring over something that might not even be used yet.

I think that the first two characters on this page show their personalities quite well, partly through their postures. I really like the shape of their torsos, as they are simply but describe their body shapes well. I think, proportion wise, that the first design on this page is one of the more effective out of all of the ones that I've drawn so far, though his face is a little boring. I would definitely like to incorporate parts of this design into some of my later designs though. From feedback, I saw that people thought that the character further right's legs were a bit too thin, which I wholly agree with. Maybe the head and torso should be much more extreme and thinner to work with this, but it would be awkward to animate and just looks like his legs could easily snap, so I'll concentrate on using the sort of shapes that the earlier designs have.