5-Week Mentorship

Character Design

with Parker Nielsen

About Parker Nielsen

Parker Nielsen is a character designer and illustrator. He enjoys creating characters that are often humorous and full of emotion. His ultimate aim is to spark creativity and offer visually captivating solutions to any creative challenges that come his way. Inspired by observing the people and world around him, he strives to breathe life and laughter into my work.

Instagram ID: parker.nielsen_art

Website: https://www.parkernielsenart.com/

Parker's Artworks

5 Week Mentorship Modules

In this five-week program, you'll learn the art of the narrative approach to designing characters suited to your story. In this extensive 5-week mentorship, Parker will guide you through the process of creating characters based on a specific theme or story plot. Rather than just designing random characters, you will develop a cohesive batch of characters that align with your narration. This transformative journey will enhance your perspective on character design and the overall creative process.

Week1: Inspiration & Exploring Characters

Students will learn how to spark ideas and gather strong visual references to fuel their character designs. We’ll explore how to observe the world with a designer’s eye, pulling inspiration from art, history, culture, and everyday life.

Students will practice building mood boards, collecting reference material, and studying from life to develop a library of visual resources. From there, we’ll dive into the early stages of exploration—sketching loose concepts, experimenting with shapes, style, and asking questions about personality, story, and function.

Week 2: Dynamic LineUp

Students will focus on designing a cast of characters that work together as a cohesive yet contrasting lineup. We’ll explore how to use shape language, proportions, and silhouettes to create variety while maintaining visual harmony.

Week 3: Breathing life into your character

Students will discover how to infuse energy and personality into their designs through expressive poses and facial expressions. We’ll explore how posture, rhythm, and exaggeration can reveal a character’s mood, intention, and individuality.

Week 4: story moments

Students will showcase story-driven drawing through placing characters' story moments. We’ll explore how gesture, staging, and body language can communicate relationships, emotions, and intent without the need for dialogue.

Week-5: Preparing your Characters for the final presentation

Students will learn how to transform their finished designs into professional production-ready materials. We’ll focus on creating a clean and accurate character turnaround, ensuring consistency in volumes and proportions across multiple views. Students will also explore how to build callout sheets that clarify how the character functions in different contexts.

OTHER BENEFITS