character

ILlustration!

​We will be illustrating two characters based on five everyday objects per character.

​While designing your character, keep the idea of surrealism in mind: how would you make your character as surreal and imaginary as possible? Think of how you can use mundane objects literally to your character design. 
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Goals

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• ​Explore the art and creativity behind character design​​
• Learn new ways to look at objects through a surrealist lens

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LET'S GET STARTED!

​Overall, we will be making two different preliminary sketches of two different characters. (If you want to make more than one, feel free to make as many as you like!) After creating your sketches, choose your favorite and refine it by enlarging, coloring, and adding detail to create your final character.
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​Materials:

• For sketching (1st part): 
  • any drawing utensil will do
  • timer (physical or on phone)
  • 2 sheets of paper (any color and size)
• For refined drawings (2nd Part):
  • black sharpie
  • colored pencils
  • markers
  • crayons
  • ​pens
  • larger sized paper (we recommend 11x17)

​Steps

Step 1 (Sketch #1):

1. Pick a drawing utensil you want to use for sketches. 
2. Look at the first prompt and the five objects that it includes: 
   1. Prompt 1: Cow, Baseball, Cheetos, Flip Flops, and Microphone (Optional Movement: Dancing)
3. Set timer for 10 minutes and press start!
4. Try to combine all of the objects into a unique character! For extra fun, try to make your character doing the extra, optional movement to create more motion within your character. 
5. Continue to quickly develop your character until the 10 minutes are up.
6. Set your sketch aside. 

Example of 10 min sketch

Step 3 (Refining Character):

1. ​Grab your larger sheet of paper and additional drawing materials. 
2. Take the time to redraw your character larger and refine sketch details on the new page. Make sure to add color! 
3. Try to spend at least 20 minutes on this character- we will be using it for the second half of this project! ​

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Refining Tips! 

• ​Are there elements you want to change? Change them now! 
• Are there ways you can use strange colors or patterns to further abstract your character?

Short gif tutorial of the process of drawing the character!

Surrealist Tip! 
Try to think about combining these objects in abstract ways... can something be an arm? Can an element of an object become the nose? How can the shape of the object be included in the character? 

Step 2 (Sketch #2): ​

1. Reset your time and grab a new sheet of paper 
2. Start timer and complete same process for a new prompt:
   1. Prompt 2: Watermelon, Sweater, Teapot, Fish, and Banana (Optional Movement: Running)​
3. Decide which of your two (or more!) sketches you like the best and want to re-draw larger and with more detail. 

Choosing a Character Tip! 
We recommend that you choose the character that you like the most and is the most abstract. The more unique elements to it, the more fun it is to enlarge and refine! 

Ready for the second Part of the project? 

Click here to Create surreal environments

Our Character Examples: