Character Design Fundamentals Part 2 Gesture and Expression

About This Class Inject life and energy into your stale and lifeless drawings! This is part two of a three part series on the fundamentals of character design! In this series I share with you all that I learned about character design in art school. In part one you learned how to construct a solid and interesting character design. In this class, you will learn all about gesture and expression. You will be putting your hero and villain character designs from part one into interesting and dynamic poses. In the next and final class of this series you will finally take them to finish with color and line art. By the end of this series you will have all the tools you need to create amazing designs and to tell powerful stories!

In this second class in my series you will learn gesture and expression. Why would you spend so much time designing beautiful characters only to put them in stale and boring gestures? You will learn how gesture is the designer’s acting, and how you can shine on the stage of design. Bring your designs to life with compelling acting, and learn how to make any pose balanced and grounded.

What we’ll be covering:

Why acting is so important to character design How to get in the habit of gesture drawing What a line of action is How to use exaggeration How to ground your characters and bring balance to their poses How to use straights against curves Watch a few demonstrations to help you better understand the material Learn how to use silhouettes

I will do two demonstrations: one for gesture drawing, and the second for applying gesture to a character design.

Your assignment is to practice gesture drawing and place your protagonist and antagonist (hero and a villain) into dynamic poses that further tell their stories and personalities. Don’t worry too much about keeping your drawings tight and finished- in the next class in my fundamentals series we will learn how to polish them off with linework and color.

Share your preliminary gestures in the Discussion tab if you want feedback and/or critique!

Please share your character design gestures and their silhouettes in the project gallery.

I can’t wait to see what you accomplish in this class! Don’t forget to tag me @emmagilletteart on Instagram or Twitter if you end up sharing your work there.

If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t be afraid to reach out in the Discussions tab. I can’t wait to see your projects!