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zimatrix β Character Design
#character #characterdesign #childrensbook #illustration #marionette #puppet
Published: 2015-01-18 12:26:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 558; Favourites: 19; Downloads: 8
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Description
The 'final' design of a character I'm creating for a children's book. Not much else to say, thanks for stopping by!Related content
Comments: 15
Thanks 
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Adorable :3 I really like the styleΒ
he looks like an interesting character tooΒ
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This is too cute. What is your children's book about if u don't mind me asking...
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I don't mind at all 
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omg it's sooo cute. I kinda reminds me of the wizard of oz with the whole going to a new world and having people help her. I really can't wait to see the finish product and the works leading up to it.
is there like a certain process you go thru when you draw and come up with environments, character design, story boards etc. for your story?
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It was definitely inspired by both Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland
Honestly my process is really sloppy XD I basically come up with a rough scenario or character and work from there. This story literally started with the line 'The girl who lived at the edge of the world' I thought it was an interesting idea so I started thinking about ways to turn it into a story. I pictured the edge of the world as a road leading to a gate and then a straight drop - which got me wondering what would happen if you went through the gate and over the edge. So as far as coming up with the idea, I just think of fun or silly ideas and then start trying to imagine what they might look like and ask myself questions until I have something that starts to feel real.
My process for character design always starts with really basic shapes, this character was a circle head, with a really small square body and then long arms and legs - originally his legs went straight into the belt but his proportions felt weird so I added the tunic. I'm afraid I'm not the best person to ask about environments, it's something I need to practice while I'm writing this story. As for storyboards I try to imagine the story playing as if it was an animation. Then I just takeΒ mental pictures of the important parts.
My overall process for writing a story goes like this - rough idea, character design/writing plot outline, environment design, storyboarding, final illustrations - during this whole process I'm constantly refining the writing and character designs as I see fit
The main thing I aim for is clarity. I don't want my story to have any parts that feel pointless, I want my characters to be simple without being boring, when designing storyboards I aim to make the composition read easily so you're always looking at the important parts of the picture and to make sure the illustrations tell the story as well as (or better than) the text.
This reply is getting really long 
Oh, here's some colour work I did for this character too, just to give you a rough idea of how I decide what colours to use jake-sketches.tumblr.com/post/β¦ unfortunately I don't really record my process much but if you look at my tumblr you can see some sketches of mine. I used to livestream so if some other people show interest I might consider starting that up again
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Well his nose is pointy but it doesn't grow
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I still think he's adorable.
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haha well thank you
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So cute! Love the design, well drawn, nice colours.
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Thank you
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