Q&A: body language

Answer David replies

Creating characters within a scene comes with its own set of challenges – the chief problem being expression. More often than not, a lot of characters can appear stiff and rigid, which can make things visually unappealing for the viewer.

You can express a range of emotions just by playing around with body language, helping to reinforce relationships between characters, character motivations, attitudes and so on. To demonstrate this point, I’ve created an image of a king who’s young, well dressed and sat on a glorious throne. He should be happy in life. However, by changing his body language into a slouched position this expresses a very different personality. He appears bored, uninterested and disengaged with his surroundings. This makes the viewer ask questions about this character, creating a more engaging scene.

Humans express a lot of themselves through their body language without really realising it’s happening. And if you can capture this within your artwork, it will strengthen your designs much further.

To help capture the expression of boredom, the character’s face has to look a little droopy, as if it’s sinking into his own hand. Even in this rough stage, the character still appears bored or sad. It’s important to capture the essence of your design...