5-Week WORKSHOP

Force CHARACTER DESIGN

20th Oct 2024 at 10 AM IST

with MRITUNJAY VARUN, Anatomy, Character Artist

About Mritunjay Varun

Varun has worked on numerous 2D animation projects in four years and is currently working as a Figure Drawing Instructor on DrawingFORCE.com His Favourite topics include pre-production, ideation of characters, environments, illustrations and concepts. He is always open to new chances to learn and connect with others :)

He is a lead instructor on DrawingFORCE.com teaching with FORCE method creator and author of FORCE drawing books, Mike Mattesi, himself. He has taught multiple students across the globe, ranging from places like the United States, Europe, Australia, India, China, Japan, UAE, and many more. He believes that teaching figure drawing is always fun and it's even better with the FORCE way.

Instagram ID: mritunjayvarun_

ART OF MRITUNJAY VARUN

5-Week Workshop Modules

FORCE Character Design:

In this 5-week Force Character Design workshop, Varun will share the foundations of his unique and powerful FORCE Drawing approach, with numerous demonstrations that showcase the method's energy and vitality.

Week 1: All about character design, FORCE shapes and appealing shape design

What is character design
what makes a great character? The story of the character
Character design templates- Hand over a template for everyone to use during the workshop and later
Character design principles- Gesture, story, expressions, clothing, accessories, textile and anatomy
FORCE shape design intro, Good and bad shapes
FORCE shape- the triangle and appealing shape design
Contrast and unity
Breakdown of famous existing characters according to the FORCE shapes design

Assignment Week 1: Choose one of the character design topics from below. Two topics will be given and you've to pick one and design a completely different character from the given one.

Week 2: Beginning of the design, body types and pose

Different types of bodies- Ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph- The body type lineup images
Proportions, the Bounding Box Technique.
Body language and shape collaboration- how to bring body language and personality to life using shapes.
Drawing and sketching different character silhouettes
Selecting the final pose for the character

Assignment 2: Draw at least five character thumbnails and 5 poses for the chosen character

Week 3: Face and expression of the characters

What makes a great character expression- the simplicity of the expression
Eye & mouth masks
General head functioning
Drawing an expression sheet for the character

Assignment 3: Draw 5 character expressions for the character

Week 4: Clothing

Common mistakes while drawing clothing for characters- how to eliminate unnecessary details about clothing
Gathering references based on character type, according to it's personality, living, needs, wants, occupation, passion etc.
Clothing our character using references

*Notes on colour (optional; if time remains)

Assignment 3: Draw 5 character expressions for the character

Week 5: One-on-one feedback to all the participants

Final assignment: create a full character, focus on design and not rendering, create poses, and expressions and present a final sheet.

Prerequesties

Must have a basic understanding of character design.
Any suitable software either Photoshop, Procreate or any drawing software of choice
You can do the whole workshop on a sketch pad using a good set of sketch-grade pencils or a graphic tablet.