Character Design Contest

Another competition I came across that I thought would help me build up a portfolio was the Character Design Contest. In 501, 503 and 504, my focus has been on character concept art and the evolution of character design so it only makes sense to find a competition for 502 that incorporates that focus.

The aim is to design an original character, that fits the current theme which is "enemy stereotype". The first ideas that came to mind were more villainous, such as a witch or a crime boss. As these were my first ideas, I thought they would be too obvious so I tried to think of another stereotypical enemy from another angle and that's where I got the idea to make a bully.

I was originally going to design this character in a turn around sheet however, when looking at previous winners, none of them had done proper turn arounds. Instead, it would be a drawing or two, next to a short description of the character. So, I did this instead.

The deadline for this outcome is the 26th April 2020.

I believe I am getting better with shading and that I'm becoming more experimental with dynamic posing. I usually draw very skinny, long-legged characters so I also tried something different by making this character top-heavy. While I think the pose on the left looks good, the middle pose is definitely the weakest design.

While I'm trying to make the characters look less stiff, the shot of him wedgie-ing someone especially, still looks quite stiff so I need to work on being more fluid. If I had more time, I would take some photographs of me doing certain poses and then draw from reference. This should have been my first step so in the future, I will always work from reference.

© Emily Kate Mullis 2020