Character Design Workshop

On Wednesday 30th April, children's book author and illustrator Elissa Elwick came in to do a character design workshop with us. It was a really useful workshop and I have gained some really good advice on character development. The area I chose to explore within the morning session was how shapes can hep to define a character, for example a circular shape is seen as soft and safe, whereas a triangle might be more dangerous and sharp. Using only geometric shapes, I created a rhino and a unicorn. Using this technique has also helped me to better grasp the basic shape of my characters and to retain the memory with ease so I can draw each animal in the future starting with geometric shapes.

Using this technique has also inspired a different style of colouring as I had limited materials on me during the workshop. I really like the different shaded shapes within the rhino after I outlined the rhino and unicorn. Using collage and mixed media would work effectively in these shapes to put my own twist on the rotoscoping, to make it more my own and add lots of colour in the animation.