This is part 2 in my series of posts about the making of my “Once Upon a Time” picture book. See my previous post here: Part 1
The next phase I’m working on in my picture book process is CHARACTER DESIGN. This book has been on my brain for the past several years, so the artwork has gone through a few passes already. I actually got so far as to make a few full-color paintings. However, I was never really satisfied with them.
I never thought the character design and style was quite there. Looking back, it looks a little bland and generic.
So right now, I am DRAWING as much as I can as often as I can. I haven’t had a super amount of time to work on this project in the past week, but it doesn’t take a lot to doodle in my sketchbook whenever the time presents itself.
My goal is to draw and draw and draw until the personality and character starts to take shape and I am comfortable drawing them over and over again consistently. At this point, I tend to concentrate more on PERSONALITY than anything else when designing a character. I think of situations, expressions, and attitude more than the actual style or mechanics of the character.
These are some of my doodles so far:
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You inspire me so much with your passion for drawing! Thanks for sharing the whole process of making and publishing a book. I’m loving it!
You’re book is going to be soooo adorable!
Thank you so much for all these great resources :)
Dani I am so glad you blog and speak out to the illustration community. You have inspired me more times than I can count at this point.
In this post, it’s helpful to see you made it to finished images and then decided, they weren’t there and went back to sketches.
thank you
Dani, thanks for sharing your character sketches for this book (they are darling and full of life!) and kudos for biting the proverbial bullet of making work and getting it out there.
There have been very definitive lines between the comic industry and traditional publishing for a long time, so it’s nice to see someone, like yourself, taking the initiative on blurring those lines.
Digital publishing has been a hot topic at our regional SCBWI events and I’ve seen it’s scope growing in the last few years. Although I am uncertain it’s full impact on the publishing of physical books, I see it as an additional venue for illustrators to expand their business to.
I look forward to seeing this project as it unfolds.
Best,
Tami