How to Take a Gesture to a Character Design (Patreon)

There has been a great demand for a tutorial about turning gesture drawings into character designs!

I think it began when one of our patrons turned their draw-along challenge gesture into a witch character. Then there was an outcry for more on this topic.

So here we are!

In this video I take the Vampire Queen gestures I did for the Halloween realtime video and explore how to find a character from the sketches.

You will notice that I do not use the photo reference for this. My gestures should have captured the essence of the Vampiric theme and I want to work with this simplified information to make my character.

If I were to draw from the photos, I would get so distracted by details, I would lose the pose and the clarity of the character. Start simple, extra details can always be added at the end!

Remember this is a layering process, avoid jumping too far ahead before you've laid your foundations down first. I know it's hard! But this where good character design is found.

----------

Things to consider as you take your gesture -> character design.

• STORY
• who is your character?
• clarity
• shape language
• exaggeration
• avoid unnecessary details

What do you think of the final character?

What was your favourite tip from the video?

Did you find any new techniques that will help you on your next character design?

----------

If you do any character designs from your gestures, I would love to see them! Send me the gesture and the design on Instagram @gilliangestures

And keep an eye out for the next Draw-along Challenge... you might just get some inspiration for trying this process yourself...

- GG