Character Design – Develop Your Own Style by Dan Kelby

Learn how to play with the proportions, shapes, and expressions of your protagonists using professional stylistic techniques

Through character design, you can visually translate the emotions, sensations, and personalities of your favorite protagonists. Designer Dan Kelby creates colorful characters for animation, illustration, comics, and games and has worked with clients including Disney Television Animation and Netflix.

In this course, Dan shares his expertise to help you bring your own characters to life. Learn the principles of character design and, more importantly, when to break them. Are you ready to draw outside the box and break the rules with style?

About this course Begin by getting to know character designer Dan Kelby. He takes you through his journey from working in graphics to becoming a full-time character designer. Then he shares the artists and influences that have inspired his work over the years.

Dive into the key principles of character design and style including shape, silhouette, gesture, and proportion. Then learn how to analyze a reference photo and experiment with exaggerating your drawings. Explore color and its ability to convey mood and personality before discovering how to structure your files for flexibility when coloring.

Think about the character you want to draw and create a brief with them in mind. Dan shares his advice for finding references and talks you through creating a mood board you can use as inspiration throughout the design process.

Time to create your character! Begin generating ideas using silhouettes and shapes before exploring how to use thumbnail sketches to inspire you. Choose your favorite ideas and refine them using a mixture of analog and digital techniques. Sketch a variety of heads and faces for your character before bringing everything together ready for coloring.

Learn how to color your character in Procreate. Add texture and linear effects to make your protagonist stand out on the page. Then discover how to unify your color palette, sharpen your image, and add your signature to your work, ready to be posted online.

Find out how to study style and why being true to yourself is an important part of your work. To finish the course, hear Dan’s tips for creating a professional portfolio and starting a career in animation.

What is this course’s project? Design an expressive character in your own artistic style using shape, color, proportion, and lines.

Who is it for? This course is for anyone with an interest in designing compelling characters for animation, illustration, comics, and games.

What you need Basic drawing skills and experience with Photoshop are recommended.

In terms of materials, you will need access to digital drawing software like Photoshop or Procreate.