How to Draw a Character

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Now lets get started, we'll start out with proportions. Messing around with the size of your character's body parts in relation to the rest of the body can give your character a different look. If your character is say 6-8 heads tall, you can have a    

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Now onto size. Just because your character may by 8 heads tall or 4 heads tall, it doesn't mean that they are that tall feet wise, you could have an elf who is 7 heads tall who might only stand about 5 feet tall and have a troll next to her who is on   

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You also want to understand where your character is coming from. Knowing and understanding where they grew up, how they were raised will help you with things like hairstyle, clothing, skin tone and color, and might even help you create their personal   

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Decide on a symmetrical design or an asymmetrical one and stick too it. Once you're devoted to one or the other, things start flowing easier. If you want to go with an asymmetrical you can pretty much free form it. However if you want a symmetrical l   

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Don't over invest your character design. You can go overboard, and then things start to go bad. Just because some fantasy games do it and make lots of money, it doesn't mean it looks good. Keep it to the point, you don't need all the belts, buckles a   

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Knowing your character archtype will help you decide more on their design. You could have a wise knight or a young experimenting mage. There are several different types of character you can explore. The Knight, the holy person, mages, demons and more   

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There are also different elements that you can add to your character. You can add a animalesc sort of element, making them seem catlike or fish like and giving them features that you might find on an animal...

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an organic element where you give them plant like features, such as seaweed for hair, plants growing out of their skin...

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or a non-organic element or man made element, robotic or machinery parts suck as robotic limbs or wires from the back of their head that connect them to electrical devices in the area.

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Mark your characters to make them stand out from others. Distinctive tattoos and scars on the body can give you both good design features and good things to add to their backstory, telling how they got the scar or why they got a tattoo. For instance,   

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Another way to mark your character is with symbols or patterns on their items that they wear or carry on their person. A holy symbol on a tabard or a crest of a lord on a guard's shield help show where a character is from or what sort of deity they w   

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When you're picking colors for your character try to stick to color schemes instead of trying to use every color of the rainbow to deck out tour character in. There are several types of schemes (four of them depicted here for you). There is complimen   

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Don't go overboard with the saturation of your colors. Use faint hints of color to help bring out features of your character.

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You can use lighting effects to help you draw the eye to distinctive features, such as a dragon-like face, or mechanical limbs with glowing LED's, eyes that seem to glow in the dark.

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Now bring your character's to life, giving them an interesting pose, having them doing something that they would do often, or putting them in a picture that tells a little bit of a story about them.

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Now we'll put together a character with the main skills we learned. We're going to make a timid changling (a fae creature) who has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and the arcane arts. She grew up in a high elf society, but because of how changel   

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Now we'll flesh her out a bit so we know where her muscles are and to show her pose a little bit better, we'll also map out her face.

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Now we'll do a rough sketch of her form, facial features and we'll do a rough sketch of what she is holding. Since she is a fae creature, she will naturally have long ears. In her arms, since she thirsts for knowledge, we'll give her a book. Changeli   

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Now we'll give here hair and sketch out her outfit as well. Since she grew up in an elven society and is aspiring to be a mage, she would wear robes that would both be practical, but also show off the features of her torso, sexy but not showing a who   

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Now we'll finalize and add a few last details and outline her. I added a title to the book and I also gave her a holy symbol around her neck for a goddess called Senahine, goddess of the moon and change. Also don't forget to shade in the 'whites' of    

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Released

November 17, 2010

Description: Here you have it. All sorts of tools, tips and techniques to help you create a character that is all your own, unique to you and your story. Every element that you need to get you started and see you through it right here for you disposal.

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