Skillshare
SubscriptionArt School Boot Camp: Designing Quirky Characters
3.9(134)9k students
Character design isn't portraiture—it's visual storytelling. Characters must communicate personality, story, and emotion through shape alone, before a single line of detail appears. Understanding shape language—how basic forms convey mood—is the foundation.
This course emphasizes expressive characters over anatomical perfection, teaching you to recognize and deploy shapes strategically. A round character reads differently than an angular one. Organic curves suggest softness; sharp angles suggest tension. You'll learn to think visually with shapes that serve your story.
By course end, you'll have a new character ready for whatever you create—illustration, comics, games. More importantly, you'll understand the grammar of visual communication that makes characters memorable.
What makes a character look like a good guy? A bad guy? The comic relief? The love interest? A character design is different than just a drawing of a person. A “character” must be dynamic enough to tell a story about who that person is. The viewer must be able to connect with the character and understand who they are at a base level just by how they look.
This class will focus on using shape language to draw characters that communicate personality, story, and emotion rather than focusing on drawing perfect anatomy. We’ll be developing unique and expressive characters by speaking visually with shape language.
Shape language is how basic shapes (whether in character design, fine art, or any other application) can communicate aspects of mood, personality, and story. Understanding how shape language works gives you a starting point for drawing characters, as well as depth and meaning to your final character design.
By the end of the class, you’ll have your own new character design for use in whatever you like to create whether it be books, comics, video games, or just random doodles!
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Check out my other Skillshare classes here!
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Thanks so much! <3
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This course is included with a Skillshare membership subscription.
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Taught by Christine Nishiyama — Artist at Might Could Studios
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