Captain Character: Constructing Character Designs from Primitive Shapes

The foundation of strong character design is in the primitive shapes. The strongest designs tend to consist of just a few shapes which can be reshaped, moved and distorted to no end without breaking the illusion of the character. The key is simplicity. I have decided that my character will be tall and gangly, reflective of characters such as Daria from Beavis and Butthead, at a later stage, but all while retaining a sort of child-like wardrobe aesthetic reminiscent of a character such as Coraline.

As always, I have started by designing the head and hairstyle, as this is the area in which I am most comfortable in conveying character through facial expressions and gestures. Here I tried experimenting with bowl cuts and straight fringes which reflect my character's rigid, uncompromising personality. To portray her as uptight I tried a design in which she had her hair tied back in a bun, but eventually I settled on a sort of spiky punk fringe, as I feel this best reflected her 'prickly' personality.

Next was designing the body. I decided early on that my character should be wearing dungarees, in order to highlight this innocent-childlike wardrobe aesthetic to contrast with the character's prickly personality. The dungarees incorporate primitive shapes in the buttons, name-tag and pockets, but the sleeves are also quite blocky and straightforward.

In order to emphasise the lankiness of my character I made her sleeves overlong and exaggerated in proportion to the rest of her body. Her neck is also extended to resemble that of a model in a piece of fashion illustration. I also tried giving her more of an hourglass figure, but I feel this takes away from the simplicity of the character, making her look too glamorous and slightly sexualised.

The key to a strong design is the ability to change around features without losing the essence of the character, so here I changed around the positioning of the facial features. Though I do not see them representing my character all that much its nice to experiment with form in order to gain a greater understanding of what makes a strong character design.

Here I also experimented with body type to see if a smaller, stumpier design would fit my character any better, though upon reflection, I feel a lanky design is the way to go going forward.