ADD POP TO YOUR CHARACTER ART

Alix Harris showcases her process for creating vibrant portraits that provide personality for your characters

- Alix Harris

For this workshop, we’ll be creating a portrait that gives your character, well, their character! Whether you’re a beginner artist or more experienced, a portrait can be a great way to explore characters. While the design can focus on anything from their build to setting the character’s tone, the portrait can show who they are at an intimate level.

Try to focus on the overall shape of the portrait design. Be aware of negative space around your character and how that can help with clarity, like how the hair can frame the face or the full portrait. As for colour, we’ll focus on a simple colour palette that compliments the design.

One thing to keep in mind is the expression. Try thinking of your character’s situation and how they would react. What would their expression be? Would it be over the top? Many people connect with an expression, which can make it pop.

We’ll be using Procreate for the iPad. This software is a great way to explore your character, from sketching to finalising a painting. We’ll use multiple brushes, layer modes and adjustments to achieve the look for you. Awareness of some basic digital art techniques will be helpful for this tutorial.

1 Start out with thumbnails

Using the Angular Sketch brush, create a few thumbnails of your character. Pay attention to the figure’s overall shape and use elements, like the shape of the hair and how it frames the character, to convey that shape. Play around with the head tilt, pose and expressions until you find one that works best.

2 Sculpt your rough sketch