Creating my own characters Stage 3 Body and Face combined

Creating my Own Characters: Stage 3 Body and Face Combined

This is my 3rd blog post about the creation of my own characters.  In stage one and two I introduced the special spy duo Vicky and Eric. Stage one was the development of their personalities and qualities while stage two was about creating their face structures based on what we know about them. In stage three its about combing the face and body to create our fully developed characters, including the overall proportions of the body. there are a lot of difference between the proportions and structure of my characters and it took a while to get them just right.

Vicky

When sketching out Vicky's body proportions i started out with the head shape(go to stage 2 for more details), her torso would be the length of two heads and then draw a line there. Hips to pelvic area are another head length, draw another line. Form Pelvic and to knees is another head length and same for legs to feet. Overall her body is 4 heads long, not including her neck which should be half her neck and as long as you think is good. From her neck go straight down to her shoulders who should be about the width of her head but 0.5 cm longer on each side. Leaving the shoulders as they are and move on to the torso, making the chest area curved go straight down and make a curve where you desire the hips to be, from there go out and continue moving out to the the outer pelvic area making it into a curved point. Going back to the arms and shoulders, draw circles on either side of the on the same line as the hips for the elbows and a little bit below the pelvic area. Connect the each side of the circles to the shoulders to create the arms. "Don't make the whole arm the same width, starting form the shoulders make the arm a thicker and slowly decrease it whist going downward" (Brooks 53). The wrist should be the thinnest part of the arm. Go back to the pelvic area and start on the legs,draw two circles where you drew that line for her knees. The thighs can be as thick or thin as you like, but the  outer section should curve into the knees no matter what. Tip: The shins and shouldn't be straight lines curve them out a bit from the knee to show calf's but thin them when heading for the ankle. Hands and feet are not really important at this step, they will be talked about more ins stage 4 and 5. After the sketch of the body is done you can go back to the face and copy what you did in stage 2. After you are satisfied with the drawing you can erase all the circles and put in marks to signify where the elbows and knees are.

Eric

Eric's sketch is a lot similar to Vicky's without all the curves. Again start with the same head shape from stage 2,from there make the neck a little thicker than Vicky's because men tend to have thicker necks then women and make it as long as you want.  Do the same head length proportion lines to decide where the torso, legs, and knees would go. Eric is about 5 heads tall. The shoulders should be a lot broader than the females so you can draw lines a few cm away from his head down to where his shoulders should start. Draw lines from the neck and downward in a slightly slanted angle and stop when you hit the lines. From there stop and move down to the torso, "the male torso is a lot straighter than a female torso" (Brooks 53). Curve the chest a bit inward and then you can basically go straight down from there to the pelvic region. Go back up to the arms and follow what you did with the circles in the female figure drawing, but make the base of the arms a little wider to show that the character has muscles. Tip: Male Wrists are a lot wider than females so don't make it the same size as the females characters. I made Eric's wrists twice as larger as Vicky's if that helps.  Moving down to the leg region follow the same basic skills you used of  Vicky except a males legs don't curve in as much towards the knees as a females. Calf's and knees should be larger, depending on the height of your character. After your done with the body head up to the face and copy the face that you created in stage 2 for your character. Once done with the overall produce yo cna erase all the guidelines an circles to make your drawing look more professional.

That was it for Step 3, come back for step 4: Designing clothes for your Characters. 

Was it easier to draw your female or male character? What part was the easiest and what part was the hardest? 

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