15 character design tips

Pro vis-dev artist Pernille Ørum reveals her approach for developing characters that are full of life, covering colours, pose, silhouette and more

Vis-dev artist Pernille Ørum develops characters that are full of life.

When starting as a character designer it can seem an impossible task trying to follow the many rules, style and approaches. How can you find your own style and how do you know when you’re good enough?

The truth is that no one knows and there are no specific answers. Everyone you look up to in design, still asks themselves the same questions. The good artists are those who push themselves and keep exploring new ways for how to get better. This is something I always keep in mind when I’m looking at a blank piece of paper and can’t find my inspiration. Everyone struggles – it’s how you deal with –it that will dictate your success as an artist.

Being uninspired happens from time to time. I can have periods where there aren’t enough hours in the day to draw everything that I see in my mind. And then a week or two can go by where every day is a struggle to be creative. That’s when your knowledge of the rules of design becomes crucial. Understanding how colours work together, how to create dynamic poses and how to make your character stand out are all skills that can be practised. Such quick pen and paper exercises are perfect when trying to overcome the daily hurdle of feeling uninspired.

There’s no magic to becoming a good character designer. Instead, it’s willingness to keep working and improving, as well as having a love for the craft.

1 make an effort to work fast

When starting out on your character design, don’t get caught up in the details. Decide what you’re trying to communicate, then create loose sketches with movement, acting and flow. As soon as you start to tighten up the drawing, you’ll automatically lose some of the dynamic, so it’s important to have as much life in the early stages as possible. Movement is all but impossible to add later, so make sure it’s in the initial sketch. Work quick and do more than one drawing to test your idea.

2 Clear Silhouette

If you wish to improve your pose, a good approach is to turn it into a silhouette. Then you can see how the character ‘reads’ and if you need to make the gesture more clear. Do you understand the emotion of the character and see the line of action? Can things be simplified? Try not to overlap everything, and keep the limbs separate.

Try to push your design with a strong line of action and a clear silhouette

3 Develop a line of action

A key tool in character design is the line of action. It’s when you first capture the pose and reveal the direction of the design. A line of action can help create an efficient narrative and conveys the movement. Try to bring the line of action all the way out to the extremities. A ballet dancer is a good example: they emphasise the line from the tips of their toes to the tips of their fingers. The line of action is also easier to see in creatures with fewer limbs, which is why mermaids are an ideal subject for developing a strong line of action.

4 Dynamic posing

Try to push your design with a strong line of action and a clear silhouette to give your character life. A good way to achieve a lively pose is to work fast. Think about the general feeling and ignore anatomy for now. Where is your character going, what is he or she thinking and where is the focus? Push, tilt and turn the head, torso and hips and give your character life.

5 Keep it simple

One of my main principles is simplicity. I always try to communicate the designs with the fewest lines possible. It doesn’t mean that work hasn’t been put into creating the volume, placement and design of the character, but I try to simplify as much as possible and only put down the lines and colours that conveys the necessary information. This is easy to see in my animation-like style, but it also applies if you do highly rendered artwork. Try to simplify your work and identify what you want the viewer to see.