First Outside Grade!

Hey all! I posted around and I have people offering up their characters to be graded on my little system! The first of which is Argo, the villain from an up-and-coming game, Auro, by Dinofarm Games. Check out their website! Dinofarm's lead artist, Blake Reynolds, was kind enough to let me take a crack at analyzing this pentagonal paragon of evil.

Let me begin with a recap; my system of grading is thus:

Redraw-ability: Can the character be recreated easily multiple times, for multiple iterations? Can fans of your character recreate it without wanting to bang their heads against a wall?

Originality/Creativity: Is the character something unique and interesting or is it something we've all seen before?

Aesthetic: Is a character's shape palette nice and distinguished? Is it too simple? Too complex? Also, how is the character's coloring? How well was it drawn? How is the pose?

Style: Is the character distinct stylistically? Does it have a personality?

Silhouette: Can the character be distinguished by its silhouette? Is it clean? Is it murky?






So! Keeping all this in mind, let's begin!

Argo, from Dinofarm Games' "AURO"

Redraw-ability: ***** Argo seems to be very able to be redrawn

Originality/Creativity: *** Argo is very nice to look at, but he does smack of something I've seen before, with his color palette and his general appearance. Beat up armor, tattered cape, giant evil-looking crown all scream evil despot. Granted, this is a difficult character to do in a really unique way, but I think it's a challenge that Mr. Reynolds could and ought to address.

Aesthetic: **** This grade was difficult, because various aspects of the character pulled me in higher and lower directions. The grade remains high, however, because of Mr. Reynolds's impressive drawing ability. First, the good. Argo's design demonstrates a clear consideration of shapes. The palette is clearly defined with the pentagonal shape, echoed in his armor, trim, crown, and, most delightfully, the shape of his ears. The pointed chips in his armor occur also in the cape's tears, as well as Argo's haircut. This attention to detail is really charming. Now for the bad: Argo's color palette is subdued, but far too much for my tastes. Even one more accent color could really make this design far more visually captivating. Also, I'd argue that the careful attention to detail in the shape palette is a double-edged sword. Though I love how the shapes repeat, they repeat just a little bit too much; the damage on Argo's clothing now looks systematic and very odd. Also, Argo's pauldrons do not fit this rigid shape palette, and seem odd. In a design where the pentagon is echoed so distinctly in SO many places, these seem a little distracting. In another nitpick; there is something very odd about the way his blue trim comes up on the right side of his neck (our left). The dark being so near his hair causes competition, and create another place where the viewer's eyes get stuck. Finally, his pose is a little weird. His legs and right (our left) arm are rather static, whereas his head and left arm are in a very charming pose. This causes a jarring argument between these two aspects of the pose. If his legs and right arm were more involved with his maniacal motion,  he'd be in a far more dynamic position. That being said, I feel Argo's general features are very fun and whimsical, and Mr. Reynolds's drawing ability pushes his grade in this area up to four asterisks/stars.

Style: **** Argo is clean, adorably deranged, and his overall body proportions make him distinguishable and stylistically interesting. Argo falls just short of a perfect score because I feel the need to nitpick at this level of craft. Argo's every feature is clearly considered...but his eyebrows. With those bizarre rectangular ends, they do not gel with the design, and easily distract the onlooker. That being said, it deserves high marks for how pleasing the style is.

Silhouette: ***** With Argo's distinct crown, haircut, pauldrons, and moth-eaten cape, his silhouette is one that we can easily distinguish time and time again.

OVERALL SCORE, AS DETERMINED BY MY CALCULATOR: 4.2 out of 5

I decided to add an overall score for the sake of drama. Also, as an art-student, I rarely get to practice my maths.

At any rate, thank you very much to Blake Reynolds and Dinofarm Games for submitting this to me! I really appreciate it!! Hopefully this will also convince any curious readers that I do not bite, and that EVERYONE should totally submit characters to me to be graded!

Thanks all, and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post here, or email me at jennybrentcharacters@gmail.com!

First Post and Criteria

So I'm finally getting around to actually doing the whole designing part of the character design deal. I am going to post two to make up for lost time, and also because every time I log into blogger, it is an ordeal and a half remembering all of my account nonsense. I then get frustrated, scream obscenities, and drink lots of diet rootbeer in anger. I shall endeavor to get over this, however, and post regularly in the future.

Before posting the character designs, I felt it necessary to give myself a set of design criteria that I can grade myself on. After quite a bit of thought, I settled on the following system: I'd give myself one to five asterisks (*) per category. A good character should be balanced in all the following categories, so I think grading myself will show areas where I can improve. Also, if anyone who actually follows this blog is also an aspiring character designer/just designs characters for fun, I would gladly grade you in this criteria, if you were so inclined as to send me your characters; I could post it on this here blog. You could get notoriety. It'd be fun.

So after much ado, here are the various categories for grading:

Redraw-ability: This is super important, and one I don't pay enough attention to in general. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the all-too-common issue of "This drawing is GREAT! I can't wait to draw this character AGAIN and AGAIN!" only to realize that the character is nigh impossible to recreate.

Originality/Creativity: Let's face it. We've all seen original characters that look like something we've seen before. We've all made them, intentionally or unintentionally. Space pirates, steam punks, zombies, anthros; it's hard to do truly original things nowadays. Sometimes you'll be all: "OH MAN I AM SO CLEVER" only to realize that you had seen your character design somewhere before, and the idea lodged itself deep inside your subconscious. It's hard to be original.

Aesthetic: Brass tacks: does it look good? Does it have a consistent visual language? Are the shapes constant? Is it drawn well?

Style: It is hard to make something look truly unique/interesting in a stylistic way. I feel I lack an interesting style in general, so this will be an area wherein I will probably get low marks.

Silhouette: One of the most important things to keep in mind, by and large. Can your character be distinguished by only their shadow? Mickey Mouse has his signature circle ears. Sponge Bob is a wiggly square. Flynn Rider has broad shoulders and a swoon-causing hair cut. The list goes on and on; it's hella important.

So, let's get started!

Ingrid Stockett, formerly "Lottie"

First up is a character copyright sheet (albeit sloppily done) for a character I have designed and redesigned time and time again. Her name is Ingrid Stockett (tentatively; it's a working name). Neurotic and obsessive compulsive, all Miss Stockett wants is to be a princess. The story takes place in is a fantasy setting, so her clothes are unusual, but indicative of the specific world she's from. Her hair used to be tied up, but I decided it'd be far more hilarious if this woman who wants so desperately to be a prim princess was constantly unable to tame her own hair.

Grading:

Redraw-ability: *****
Originality/Creativity: **** I feel her outfit could use work in this area.
Aesthetic: *** I think I'll redo her boots; they don't seem to work. I like the rest of her shape palette, though, with the bell and pointed shapes
Style: **
Silhouette: *****

Next up is the male counterpart to Ingrid, who, after a long and arduous series of brainstorming, has a much more solid and definite name: Horatio Bolt.

Horatio Bolt

A little bit on Horatio as a character. Known as the Rag King/Beggar King (also in the works); he wants to overthrow the natural order of things and become a king. However, under the surface ,he's motivated mostly by a desire for equality, though is overzealous in his ideals.

Redraw-ability: ***
Originality/Creativity: **** I am a fan of his hair; perhaps the coat could use embellishment.
Aesthetic: ****
Style: **
Silhouette: *****


Wellp, that's it for now. Hopefully this was interesting, and not too rambling! Leave me some feedback on the above if you'd like (specifically referring to the designs), or just general comments, or, if you really want me to grade and post one of your character designs, leave me a message or something! Perhaps I'll grade existing cartoon characters too.

See you around, and thanks for supporting me on my quest!

Why (A Retrospective Introspective)

I know the first post should be a character design I've done this week, but I just feel rather in-my-head tonight, and felt like posting some musings. They do pertain, however, to character design, but most specifically the beginnings of my journey to understand what it is I want to do with my life. It's hard for me to write about myself, so feel free to skip over this particular entry if it bores you; I won't be offended.

Have you ever felt like your entire life, you've been getting clues that hint at what you really want to do with your life, but you just don't see them? Or maybe you're too stubborn to see them. You want to do X so you totally ignore anything but X, and then you realize that X isn't what you want to do. You want to do Y, and the cycle repeats, and then by the time you get to Z, you feel like you're tardy to the party, and your whole life becomes a game of catch-up. Have you ever experienced this sensation? If you haven't, I envy you. My younger brother is like that. He just has always been interested in music, his whole life practically, and now in college, he's doing music. I however have bounced from one hobby to another (I still have far too many), and only now, in my junior year of college, realized what my true calling may very well be.

Character design. Storyboarding. I want to make animated movies and cartoons, and I could have arrived at this conclusion a hell of a lot earlier if I had actually paid any attention to the clues my life was giving me.

What were these clues? You ask. Oh, subtle things. For the longest time when I was younger, I would refuse to watch shows or movies that weren't animated. Sure, that's a very childlike thing to do, but this feeling persisted as I grew up, and I still have it right now. I'm far more inclined to watch an animated show than a non-animated show, and the same applies to movies. That isn't to say I don't love shows like The Office or Breaking Bad, or movies like Stranger than Fiction, but I love the comfort and familiarity of animation, and still frequently prefer it over live-action movies and shows.

That's one clue, certainly. I suppose the other would be that I've always created and embellished characters, in my own stories, comics, and roleplays. Upon writing that sentence, I want to slap myself for never really thinking about this as a thing to do with my life. As far as I was concerned, the only visual arts that existed were the Fine Arts, and Graphic Design. It may sound cliché'd to say that I blame my high school art program, but I definitely do. Any drawings I did that were cartoon-y or anime-like were immediately dismissed or looked down upon by my teacher. Illustration was simply not done, and it was often regarded with scorn, and the attitude that it wasn't "real art". I stupidly adopted these views, and until I met my roommate in freshman year of college, I didn't know anyone who wanted to be an actual illustrator.

There are other clues, I like to think: My penchant for things regarded as juvenile that has lasted my entire life (stuffed animals, children's books, children's movies, sweets), my eccentric, costume-like wardrobe (complete with miniature hats and petticoats), and my ability to understand the art of children (I work at an art center and can always decipher their scribblings) are just a few more that went unacknowledged.

Looking at all of this, in the grand scheme of things, I am a fool. The pieces fit together so well, yet I never really thought about it... or so I'm inclined to think at the moment, and hope that there aren't some other pieces hiding in my life that point to another life's passion.  But I'm going to hope for the best:that I've interpreted my life correctly up to this point, and that I will do my best to stop ignoring signs that point me toward a promising future.

Our Quest Begins...

I'm a graphic design student who is a bit misplaced. What I want to do with my life is be a character designer, and take part in the conceptual work that is required for animation. I don't understand a lot about what this entails, aside from the fact that I want to do it, so I've created this blog to chronicle my progress in learning the specifics of this career, and to keep me designing a character every week.

I have another blog, http://doctorateincartoons.blogspot.com/ , wherein I write about the deeper meanings and musings behind cartoons, if you want to check it out. Feel free to follow me if you're interested in my work, or the other blog.

Thanks for your time!