Final Characters

The character design process began with a series of thumbnails and examples of possible outcomes. There was experimentation dedicated to designing a characters face using a series of different facial expressions.  Different shaped heads were illustrated using big eyes that allowed a lot of emotion to be expressed in comparison to little eyes that were just dots. The eyes were essentially the most important part as they show how a character is feeling. Several diverse character faces, features, hair and body shapes were altered and eventually the final character was created. First the boy character was created. This character is based on the author’s brother who is autistic. He has being given the name ‘John’  The character has a rounded face. The round face is quite easily manipulated to pull different faces to express emotions. John has scruffy hair. His body is slightly chubby. The belly is curved to create shape. It also gives the character a huggable, cuddly feel. His facial features are quite minimalistic. Simple oval shaped black eyes. He has a turned up nose and a line for a mouth. The characters facial features have being kept simple because it gives the artist more to play with when it comes to creating emotions for the character. It allows the illustrator to exaggerate the existing features. It makes the character more animated and cartoon like. The stories are meant to be light-hearted and humorous. The cartoony feel to the characters works well with the theme of the overall narrative.

The character of John’s sister was created after this. She has being designed in a similar fashion to John. Again, her features are very minimalistic for the same reasons mentioned previously. The sister is John’s senior by two years so the age difference is minor. The characters look very similar to each other as they are related. Both characters are designed with a front, back, side and three quarter view. This gives the idea of how the characters look from these angels. The characters have also being drawn conveying a series of emotions. When it comes to the final illustrations these designs will make it easier to capture the shape and the personalities of the characters.

Character design was an important part of the design process. It is important to create likeable and loveable characters that the reader can relate to. In order to get that result a lot of back up work and designing needs to take place. This helps create the characters personalities and expressions.