Thursday 12 January 2012

Viv Schwarz's character design workshop

Hello lovelies! 
Long time, no see.  I hope you're having a good new year so far.
(hmm, what date does the year stop being new?).


Anyway, this afternoon I've given myself a bit of a fun break from Photoshop and emailing clients and I've been following some fun character design idea instructions from the wonderful Viviane Schwarz's blog.


It's a really simple and refreshing way to get a new perspective on character designing and you can end up giving life to characters you didn't know were hiding in your brain. 
Parts of the process were developed by another immensely talented illustrator - Alexis Deacon.


http://vivianeschwarz.blogspot.com/2011/09/character-design-workshop.html


That's the link just above my head.
I won't type the process through step by step, but I'll post the photos of my adventures here for you to see what I've come up with!




Snip, snip, snip, snip.
Switch and swivel and swap.




My three new best friends




Oh dear, sweet, admiral seagull - I never knew you were so sensitive beneath your harsh exterior!



May you fare well on your adventures Sir.


So, yes, I didn't ever really expect to draw a seagull admiral with deceiving appearances and a heart of gold... but that's the beauty of this exercise! 

Go and get out your paper, scissors and pens stat! There's so many new friends to make.

p.s. Take a look at all of Viv's beautiful work http://www.vivianeschwarz.co.uk/

p.p.s I have a hoard of new work to show you soon.