Creating my own Characters Stage 1 :)

Creating my own Characters: Stage 1 Discovery

As a little kid I was obsessed with cartoons. Whether it was Scooby Doo or Spondgebob I was always fascinated by the colorfully creative worlds these characters lived in, I wondered how they came to be and who was behind these mischievous characters. As I grew up I learned about animation and bringing these characters to life on a TV screen, but it all began with a doodle from a imaginative cartoonists on a sheet of paper. While reading the book Draw with Jazza, Creating characters I remembered my love of cartoon characters the book has helped me lay out step by step how to create my characters and how to develop them.

Brainstorming my characters:
When brainstorming a character you have to go through a character breakdown process. Be clear on creating key aspects of the character both physical and nonphysical, "the characters personality will help you develop their physical attributes"(Brooks 5). Start with Personality and Motives. My characters are Vicky and Eric two teenagers a guy and girl, both are secret spies for the US government. Vicky is snarky, sarcastic with a lot of sass, and pretends to hate everyone but once you get to know her shes the softest person. Eric is the schools bad boy, he skips class, spray paints vulgar words on the side of the school building and is all around a intimating guy. Together they create the best spy group in the US, although they argue and insult each other a lot they make good friends.

Basic Body Construction
After I have envisioned my characters and i know their personalities really well I begin to sketch the physical attributes of my characters. Vicky and Eric are in their senior year of High School so they are moving on from the awkward teen stage and becoming adults and their bodies need to show that. I began to sketch Vicky, I covered all the joints, head shape, hips, and overall figure of a girl. Her curvy figure will enhance her sassy attitude and sarcastic comments For Eric I focused on a slim rather than muscular figure, height and body shaped was more important. He couldn't be really muscular because he needed to be agile and cat like to be a spy but still toned. Eric is going to be a lot taller than Vicky to strengthen their differences.

Body Structure for Vicky

While drawing a females body structure I recommend remembering that "most women have curves and that their body shape is a lot more delicate than males"(Brooks 23). Also remember that females tend to have wider hips than males.

Basic Body Sketch for Eric 

For Eric I made his body a boxed shape rather than a curve like Vicky. Remember to use more angled shapes for a male character.  In my opinion its easier to draw Eric's body because of the lack of curves.

 

Have you ever wanted to Create Cartoons? What Personalities would you give your characters? What Physical features? 

Brooks, Josiah. Draw with Jazza - Creating Characters: Fun and Easy Guide to Drawing Cartoons and Comics. Impact, 2016.