12-27-2014, 04:51 AM
Hi Lilly, it's so great that you set yourself assignments like this out of school, you're working so hard, I wish I'd been as focused when I was at school!
A couple things that might help you with your cards - firstly don't worry about how long it takes you, speed comes with practice as I'm sure you've heard before. That said when trying things out for something like this it can be good to do a really fast paced brainstorm - start with a page and write a few keywords down 'zeus' 'sci-fi' 'thunder' 'god' etc, then just start drawing whatever comes to mind, doesn't have to be a character straight away, could be a lighting bolt, a gun, a guy with a beard, part of a costume, some gesture lines for a pose - keep going with that and keep drawing, maybe set yourself a 2 - 5 minute timer or something and when it's up just start drawing something new somewhere else on the page. Keep it super loose, don't worry about getting nice drawings, drawing small can also help.
The idea is to get all the kind of 'cliche' and standard ideas out of your head and to reach deeper for more creative stuff. Maybe an eagle pops into your head, draw it, that might lead onto something else, draw that too - keep the chain going, doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with your keywords or initial idea, just keep going - you will engage a different part of your brain and disengage the part that tries to control everything. At the end of it you'll have a jumbled page of stuff that'll hopefully inspire you with a character design. Take pieces you like, throw away stuff you don't and try to refine them into some kind of design, after that you can go back and do another stage and bring everything together into a nice clean drawing.
This isn't the only way to brainstorm but it's a fun one that doesn't give you time to think and analyse everything.
Here's a video from Jazza that shows his character design process, it's good too although in the video he's still only scratching the surface of the creative potential: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpj2J4tn4YI
Best of luck!
A couple things that might help you with your cards - firstly don't worry about how long it takes you, speed comes with practice as I'm sure you've heard before. That said when trying things out for something like this it can be good to do a really fast paced brainstorm - start with a page and write a few keywords down 'zeus' 'sci-fi' 'thunder' 'god' etc, then just start drawing whatever comes to mind, doesn't have to be a character straight away, could be a lighting bolt, a gun, a guy with a beard, part of a costume, some gesture lines for a pose - keep going with that and keep drawing, maybe set yourself a 2 - 5 minute timer or something and when it's up just start drawing something new somewhere else on the page. Keep it super loose, don't worry about getting nice drawings, drawing small can also help.
The idea is to get all the kind of 'cliche' and standard ideas out of your head and to reach deeper for more creative stuff. Maybe an eagle pops into your head, draw it, that might lead onto something else, draw that too - keep the chain going, doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with your keywords or initial idea, just keep going - you will engage a different part of your brain and disengage the part that tries to control everything. At the end of it you'll have a jumbled page of stuff that'll hopefully inspire you with a character design. Take pieces you like, throw away stuff you don't and try to refine them into some kind of design, after that you can go back and do another stage and bring everything together into a nice clean drawing.
This isn't the only way to brainstorm but it's a fun one that doesn't give you time to think and analyse everything.
Here's a video from Jazza that shows his character design process, it's good too although in the video he's still only scratching the surface of the creative potential: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpj2J4tn4YI
Best of luck!