Tag Archives: how to draw characters

How to Draw Heads for Character Design and Illustration

Drawing heads for character illustrations doesn’t have to be difficult. A head is just a blob at the top of a body. The important bits are what you draw on top of the features that define the mood and emotion… the hats and clothes, glasses and beards that define the character.

Creating characters is not about accurate life drawing as a serious Artist – (capital A!).

Many characters only ever need one or two head-shapes for a whole book or series. Practice those heads and you can soon be drawing them easily. Even more complicated characters only ever need a small library of head positions, so concentrate on learning those.

In this video I discuss heads on characters drawn by great children’s book illustrators and then show how you basic head construction and how you can learn draw your own heads quite quickly. There are amazon links to the books mentioned below. (I get an affiliate fee to help pay for my website, but you pay no more.)

Subscribe to my channel on YouTube for lots more drawing videos  ??

Website https://www.shoorayner.com

music by http://www.youtube.com/cleffernotes

Everyone asks about the tools I use. Here’s a video to show you what and how I use them. https://youtu.be/QJwjV1FKdyg

Rotring Tikky Graphic Pen

http://amzn.to/2hLNgQo in the UK 

http://amzn.to/2zRyH4y in the USA  

http://amzn.to/2E3qL08 in Canada

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:23 Alice Teniel  https://amzn.to/3HkSYAS

00:00:35 Alice Arthur Rackham. https://amzn.to/3Hnocr7

00:01:22 The Queens Knickers. https://amzn.to/3vKQRnq

00:01:44 The Day the Crayons Quit. https://amzn.to/4b3vi1R

00:02:09 Supertato. https://amzn.to/3U4BgJE

00:02:24 Going Swimming. https://amzn.to/3TZI0sl

00:02:36 Where the wild things are. https://amzn.to/3Hm72Kx

00:04:01 One snowy Day. https://amzn.to/4b1SM7c

00:04:18 Little Mole  https://amzn.to/47FrdOc

00:04:41 Greek Myths. https://amzn.to/3tXiola

00:05:10 Tiddler. https://amzn.to/3O5KUIg

00:05:37 Arthur  https://amzn.to/3O8wS8B

00:05:51 Rupert Bear. https://amzn.to/48BKLEE

00:06:30 Where the wild things are Drawing

00:07:06 Turn faces into different characters

00:08:18 Differentiating characteristics

00:10:10 Different eye types

00:11:12 Different head shapes

00:12:47 Monster Boy

00:13:30 Conclusions

How to Draw Hands for Character Design and Illustration

So you want to draw hands for your character illustrations and… Dang! It’s hard. But there are easy ways to look at a difficult problem.

Creating characters is not about accurate life drawing as a serious Artist – (capital A!).

Many characters only ever need one or two hand-shapes for a whole book or series. Practice those hands and you can soon be drawing them easily.

Even more complicated characters only ever need a small library of hand positions, so concentrate on learning those.

rashidrafsan6117  asked me – “can you make a video about drawing hands and heads.. I really love your art style.. I am struggling to come up with new character ideas and drawing hands.”

Hands are notoriously difficult to draw. They are so versatile, can take up an infinite number of positions and can be viewed from every angle too.

You really need to study hands and draw lots of them, but take heart. Characters are not primarily about art but about telling a story. Make that compelling and you can “get away” with learning to draw only a few hand positions and then learn new ones if you absolutely have to.

In this video I discuss hands drawn by great children’s book illustrators and then show basic hand construction and how you can learn to draw your own hands quite quickly.

There are amazon links to the books below. I get an affiliate fee, but you pay no more.

00:01:11 Little Horrors https://amzn.to/3Hjt0Oq

00:01:30 Literary Life https://amzn.to/47CUcm2

00:02:01 Julius Baby of the World https://amzn.to/3vGyEaQ

00:02:28 Cat in the hat https://amzn.to/3tV00JK 00:03:20 Dorothy’s Dream. https://amzn.to/3HndJvV

00:03:44 The Man who wore all his clothes. https://amzn.to/3TYxj9n

00:04:12 Eat your Peas. https://amzn.to/3U4kJFM

00:04:45 The house that Jack built https://amzn.to/3U43DaR 00:06:06 Flower Fairies. https://amzn.to/47CtgCL

Create Characters by looking at real life animals and insects

Be inspired by real life to create truly original characters.

A beetle crossed my path on a walk the other day. I filmed it and took photos. When I enlarged the photos, there were elements of its design that inspired me to sketch out some ideas.

A triangle theme emerged and I developed that further, each time trying to simplify the character to make it easier to draw again and again.

Consistency is the secret to drawing characters – you have to recognise them in each frame of animation or page of book. So, simplicity and definite character identifiers are really important.

It’s difficult dreaming up new ideas from your head. Go out and look at what nature has already designed and work with those shapes and ideas.

Have fun and good luck! If you have drawing or illustration questions you would like Shoo to answer – put them in the comments box below through the contact page.

Subscribe to this channel on YouTube for lots more drawing videos from award-winning illustrator, Shoo Rayner ??