Week twenty-seven

I have something really fun prepared for July! Introducing…

Character Champ is a series of prompts, guides, and tutorials to help get you familiar with designing and drawing your own characters. This month we’ll be exploring a variety of character types: humans, animals and creatures, and even inanimate objects. All the prompts are progressive to help you get familiar with making your own characters.

You may remember last year when I released the People Skills series. If you get stuck with the drawing skills aspect of Character Camp, I highly recommend watching or reviewing some of the lessons from that series. In fact, you may find me referring to them throughout the month.

You can treat this as a month-long course to introduce you to drawing characters. Whether you want a unique way to express emotion, illustrate stories, draw your friends, or just add more storytelling and personality to your art, I think you will really enjoy Character Camp!

Here’s the low-down of how this month will go:

Week 1: Creating a human character, one piece at a time
Week 2: Creating characters from animals and creatures
Week 3: Creating characters from inanimate objects
Week 4: Aging a character, from infant to elderly

What to Do

Start by reading my article, How to Develop a Character for Illustration.
Take some time to get inspired by characters! Look at the characters in picture books you own, in animated media such and television and movies. I’ve also made a Pinterest board full of character inspiration. Think about the qualities that make those characters unique!

July Prompts

character camp!

We are kicking off Character Camp by drawing a human. Drawing characters (especially people ones!) can be intimidating. But just like anything else, take it one step at a time. This week we are starting small, building a character piece by piece. On the Character Camp home page, you will see the day-by-day play-by-play about how to approach each prompt.

Monday is dedicated to defining who your character is and what they might look like. Make a character profile! To learn more about how to build a character profile, check my article, How to Develop a Character for Illustration. It will be your guide as you approach each of the prompts this week. And if you are afraid of creating a whole character from scratch, try using my Random Character Generator! It will supply you with a physical description and a little bit of the character’s personality.

Week 27 | june 29-july 5

build-a-character

Mon: character profile
Tue: clothing
Wed: accessories
Thu: hair
Fri: face
Sat: body shape
Sun: putting it all together!

Psst…Be sure to visit the Character Camp page to help you approach each prompt this week!

You can access each week’s prompts, with links to reference photos, at makingarteveryday.com

Making Art Everyday // Bardot Brush

We’ve got a Facebook group just for participants of Making Art Everyday and all things Bardot Brush! Come join our group of supportive artists of all skill levels, share your work, ask questions, and be a part of the community!