Character Art: Little Raindrop's Friends!

I've been sketching up some new friends for Little Raindrop to meet as he goes along on his journey through the water cycle!

Art © 2012 Melanie Linden Chan

Art © 2012 Melanie Linden Chan 

I'm sure there will be more to come, eventually! These guys might change a little bit too as I work on the story, but these are the first sketches of the group so far.

I got this awesome book called "A Drop of Water" by Walter Wick, and it not only has lots of water and science facts, but it also had awesome microscopic photos of actual snowflakes! So you'll notice on the second page of sketches I began with learning how to draw some of these snowflakes. And then I thought of how I would like to draw them in the cartoon style, and then what they would look like as water droplets! So hopefully their unique faces and other characteristics help viewers see the difference between each drop!

My personal favorite is the big guy with the giant brow. He looks like a tough guy! (But he's more like a teddy bear.)

Oh, and I've also drawn up Little Raindrop's parents, who may or may not turn up in the story... and a special other character that you'll just have to read about when the book is done!

 

Thanks for reading! :D

Red Panda :)

This little guy is from my next project! Will be posting more soon! :D

Little Raindrop: Character Art

Hi there!

Today I focused on narrowing down Little Raindrop's character design. The author and I are deciding whether to use the big round eyes or the little oval pupil thingies for the final character. This was a good exercise for me anyhow, because it gave me the opportunity to explore LR's emotions, and I also found a great little animation blog that features some excellent character art.

So these were my original LR sketches:

And these are what I came up with today:

I'm sure you'll notice it took me a bit of time to loosen up, but I finally did and then that's when LR started to have a mind of his own! I'm also working on a few more characters that LR interacts with, but those aren't nearly as developed, simple as these characters are.

And I don't know if I'm just slow, or if this is normal, but those sheets of characters took me 3 hours! However, those hours are worth it for a solid character foundation. :)

Off to sketch some more! Ttfn!
~Melanie

Building Characters builds... er, character!

Some of my most recent lessons (for both classes) have been about creating character profiles and character traits. For my illustration class, I chose to work with a little dude I made up years ago, who will be starring in his own picture book in the future. I've got his story all ready and waiting, so when I am finished with Super-Secret Project #1, and perhaps a #2, Bungee Bunny will become Project #3.

Anyhow, in the Introduction to Illustration course we talked about comic art, and the different styles it can be drawn, and how artists tell their stories with pictures.  But the number one thing of importance is your character, who needs to feel real all on his/her own. Our assignment was then to create a character, draw him from different angles, and show why he is special.

Bungee Bunny character art.
Bungee Bunny is the property of Melanie Linden Chan!

(Please forgive the watermarks, but as my little guy is so cute, he will be coveted. Kindly refrain from stealing him from me, because I have big plans for him and I'd rather my dreams not be crushed. Much appreciated.)

We also talked about this in the Book Dummy class; how your character must really be his own self, and look and act consistent throughout the story. Some students chose to draw their characters mimicking a favorite artist, (for example, how would Bungee look if Van Gogh painted him? What colors, textures, or lines would he use?), or picked out swatches of fabric patterns that their character would wear or like. Then we all did character art and turnarounds, although mine isn't quite web-ready yet so I will share it with you soon.

Character art is a great way to get yourself ready for producing a comic book, graphic novel, or a children's picture book. Do one for each of the characters in your story- you won't regret it!