15 tips for character design

Illustrator and author David Melling reveals how he brings his book characters to life, using exaggeration, silent narrative, props and more

David Melling reveals how he brings his book characters to life.

I was once asked to name three important skills required to be a successful book illustrator. I said, in no particular order, draughtsmanship, character and pathos. No doubt others will have their own top three, but I stand by these for the kind of book illustration that appeals to me.

In my opinion, character is right up there. But what is character? And how do you go about finding it, creating it? And when you have it, how can you use it most effectively in your work?

When I started out, I acquired some by looking at the books and art that appealed to me and asking myself why I liked them. Character seemed to be the answer time and time again. We all hope our art will appeal to a wide audience, but character appeal is subjective. In that respect, there’s no golden ticket to character design. Yet I’ve learned there are things you can do that can be effective in bringing your characters to life which, with a bit of luck, resonate with others.

1 CHARACTER SHEETS

Once I’m happy with a particular design I create character sheets. Here, Ruffles is being very doggy as he runs around on the page – reacting, responding and so on. He’s a puppy, but also a toddler and I’m trying to get that across here in his playfulness. At the same time I want to avoid him being too anthropomorphic (so, not sitting with hind legs forward, for example).

As I’m drawing, I’m asking myself questions. What’s he like? Is he shy, bold, moody? How does he walk? Is it bouncy, elegant, bumbling? All the answers feed into the drawing and, hopefully, help evolve character.

2 IT TAKES TIME TO DESIGN A CHARACTER THAT FEELS RIGHT

Designing a character is never simple and rarely happens quickly. The more I draw, the more the design (proportions, shape and so on) settles on the page. These two versions of Hugless Douglas show how much he changed from early concept to final design. In hindsight, I’m surprised I hadn’t noticed the tiny head and long arms… and those hamster cheeks! Eventually, I settled on the right proportions. He’s still quite jowly but, with the mouth hidden I needed to rely on other features; the way his cheek rests on the boulder helps with that ‘I need a hug’ expression.

3 DRAW LIVING, BREATHING ANIMALS

I was once asked to draw a hungry cat sitting on a mat in front of a bowl of delicious food. Part of the brief included words like ravenous, excited and anticipation. Well, I drew the cat almost symmetrical including its ears and paws. The result was stiff and uninteresting. In silhouette, it didn’t read as a cat (more on this later). No matter how much expression I tried to put into the face it failed… and so did the job! Whenever I draw a character I think of them as living, breathing creatures. A tail is curling, thoughtful. This tiger is standing still, but he’s definitely alive.

4 SEQUENTIAL DRAWING

As part of my character/story development process I’ve adopted an exercise created by author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. He called them Fantasy Sketches. On A4 paper, starting top left, finishing bottom right, I draw quickly to a fixed time of 10 minutes. Starting with a random character(s), I try following a sequence and see what happens. I try not to pause or think too much. More often than not, the result isn’t a complete or logical narrative but I nearly always come away with something useful.

The more I draw, the more the design (proportions, shape and so on) settles on the page

5 A BLEND OF ANIMAL AND FANTASY

I prefer to draw animals and fantasy figures. In children’s books, animals can often prove a more convenient currency when tackling sensitive subjects. On occasion, the risk of causing offence or dealing with challenging issues can be eased within the metaphoric realm of animals and fantasy. I’m generalising of course, but in my picture book The Tale of Jack Frost, I had the chance to explore fantasy a little deeper and although these goblins are essentially human in appearance, I treated them like wild animals. For me, there’s something about fantasy that makes it possible for you to push a character that little bit further.

6 EXAGGERATION (WHEN SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE)

Exaggeration can be an effective tool from extreme, almost ‘cartoony,’ to a more subtle blend. Both are valid in the right context. Here, I deliberately set out to paint a realistic-looking rooster with the intention of seeing how little I could alter its features to achieve just a touch more character. The blue line shows the original proportions. You can see that I extended the beak, dropped the line at the corner of his mouth, narrowed the shape of his eye (which added an unexpected human tone), and exaggerated the wattles. It’s interesting the impact these small changes can have; now it’s a distinctly anthropomorphic rooster.

Animals can prove a more convenient currency when tackling sensitive subjects