Character Sketch
Overview
It is very important that you read and understand how to make creative characters. If you do not understand this concept, it could hurt your final story and grade.
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When you create your characters, keep in mind the story structure that your storyline must follow to be sure you have characters to help in events like the twist, rising action, conflict, etc. You may not use the actual files you made for the Illustrator tutorials (e.g. Panda) or ones you made in the past.
Activity
Your characters are a huge part of your story that allows the reader a medium to relate to the story. Sketching your character ideas on paper allows your mind to freely draw. It does not matter if you are not good at drawing, just make sure they look unique and have personality.
Here are early sketches of some of the most famous cartoon characters, which were drawn in the 1920s. Notice the simple shapes and differing personalities/expressions.
To help you brainstorm, draw a bunch of character ideas for your story in your CA ideas book for about ten minutes in pencil, marker, or pen (you do not need to color them now). Keep in mind the country and children your story is intended for to make it culturally relevant. While you are working, play only 2 or 3 inspiring songs from the Internet using headphones in the background that helps you think better. When the songs finish, you should be finished with your drawings. While you are drawing, use your Macbook's iSight in iMovie to record you drawing. Make sure to show your face first before you start drawing to prove it is you. When you are finished, change the speed of the video to faster (double-click the video footage on your timeline and change the speed to faster) so that it is about 2-3 minutes and insert a song without any lyrics in the background and upload it to your YT. Later you need to include the video link in your posterous post (two video examples below).
Try to draw at least eight different rough sketch characters and avoid drawing people because they are difficult to draw but you may if you wish. Your characters should all have a similar style and people would guess the same person drew each of them. Here is a couple of examples of consistent characters that match each other. Remember to be creative!
When you are finished, place three stars next to your best characters that have the most potential and briefly color them (good example). Keep in mind a color scheme that you will want your story and characters to follow. Be sure to go back and add physical characteristic details and personality to your top three characters.
When you feel you know which character you will use as the top main character, draw him or her again on a separate page.
You will be the fourth character in your story using the green screen effect to insert yourself into the story. When you create your character, try to give him or her a somewhat significant role (does not have to be the main character). The more involved and interactive he or she is with the story and characters, the better (good example). Your character should be a unique character (do not be your normal personality or voice and dress up in a creative way).
Create character profiles for each of your four top characters (three plus you as a character) by copying the bold title's below and pasting it into a new email to your Posterous and write in the content for each (not in bold). For the character you will be, make sure to describe how you will dress up in the description; this is important.
Examples:
Four Main Characters
Character #1
Name: Apple Jack
Type of character: Frog
Age: 8
Gender: Male (in your story, at least one character has to be a male and one has to be a female)
Physical Description: Light green body with a red stripe, small body but big feet, likes to wear a red baseball hat
Personality Type: Very quiet, likes to party alone, does not have many friends
About: Lives with his brother, his best friend is a worm, he eats pizza for breakfast
Role: Protagonist (main character, the "good guy"), antagonist (the person or thing that goes against the protagonist, the "bad guy"), supportive character, leading character
Character #2
Name:
Type:
Age:
Description:
Personality:
About:
Role:
In addition to the character profiles in your post, take photos of your three chosen character drawings in your CA book and insert your YT link to include in your post to Posterous.
you will video record yourself drawing a
Use a tripod, stack o
Start out by drawing various character ideas; remember to be creative and each should look unique and have a personality.
After drawing at least ten various characters, each on a separate sheet or side of the paper.
When you are finished filming, speed up your video so it looks like you are drawing fast. Don't make it too fast that we cannot see your drawing process and make sure your camera angle and distance is appropriate.
Upload the video to YT and paste the link to posterous and post the top three character drawings that you may use (take photos of them) as attachments in the same email.
f books, etc to fix the camera in a well lit room or outside. Use loose white (no lines) or light colored paper with markers that write text cleanly and draw well. View the video below for a good example of how to set it up and the writing tools to use.