CHARACTER DESIGN

154 • GESTURE AND POSE WITH IDA HEM PART 1 : AN ART BOOK ART-ICKLE

What is Gesture? Let’s find out, as we look at an Art-ickle called ‘Gesture and Pose with Ida Hem’, from the Art Book ‘Creating Stylized Characters by 3dtotal Publishing’.

This is part one of two, and focuses on: What is Gesture? Squash and Stretch, and Building up from a Gesture. Next week we’ll be looking at the rest of this ickle Gesture and Pose with Ida Hem article, which covers Capturing Gestures, and Exploring Personality & Gesture.

Topics include:

What Do You Think Gesture Is?,
The Line of Action,
How We Don’t Like Stiffys,
How Gesture helps to create powerful Silhouettes,
How Shapes Tell Stories,
Bert Dodson and Trigger Words,
Becoming the Character by Physically Posing,
How Squashing and Stretching is like Pinching and Pulling,
Comparing Good and Bad Poses,
The process of Building Up From a Gesture,
lil Art Tip of Visualising String being Attached to your Characters,
Exaggeration is key for Dynamic Poses,
Facing Your Art Fears,
Body Language,
Shifting Characters Weight via Contrapposto (Counterpoise),
What Are T-Poses?
And there’s a click review of the book ‘The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho’.

I learnt a lot studying from this article, hope you do too :)

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

150 • PAINTING WITH GOUACHE WITH PERNILLE ØRUM : AN ART BOOK ART-ICKLE

Mermaid time, as we take a look at another Art-ickle from the Art Book ‘The Art of Pernille Ørum’, this one’s called Painting with Gouache.

Last week we studied a Pernille Ørum art-ickle called Clean Character Design, which was a Digital Drawing Process, but this time we look at a Traditional Painting Process, so one of the main topics is comparing Traditional and Digital.

149 • CLEAN CHARACTER DESIGN WITH PERNILLE ØRUM : AN ART BOOK ART-ICKLE

lilDENNiS and Kitty help us go through an Art-ickle called Clean Character Design, from the Art Book ‘The Art of Pernille Ørum’.

Not only is the female character Pernille Ørum creates beautiful, but so is the art-ickle itself, and her drawing process.

Topics include:

Starting with Sketching instead of Writing,
Subtle tings are Powerful,
Having a Playful Process,
Taking Risks,
The Importance of the Base Colour,
Working from Simple to Detailed,
How Character’s Props tell Stories,
Having Fun while Drawing,
Planning your Drawing Process,
Colour Thumbnails,
Using Multiple Layers,
Making it Up while still Following the Rules,
and Kitty Dies :)

Hope you have love this one!

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

144 • 3 COOL FEMALE SHOJO FASHION LOOKS : AN ART BOOK ART-ICKLE

Time to look at a fun and inspiring Art-Ickle, about 3 cool female Shojo Fashion Looks, from the art book Shojo Fashion Manga Art School by Irene Flores.

The 3 cool Shojo Fashion looks were 1. Susan the Queen of Drama, Odessa the Socialite, and Trey the Girl Next Door :)

lilDENNiS loved this one, which included topics like:

Connecting with Characters,
Balance between Story and Visuals,
How lil tings can have a BIG impact,
Character Sketches,
Alternative Character Designs,
Expressive Hands,
Colour Combinations,
Drawing Fabric Folds,
Showing Emotion in your Art,
and we have a new theme tune for the new year :)

Hope you have fun with this one!

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

141 • IMAGINEFX ARTICLE ‘THE A-Z OF SCI-FI ART’ PART TWO

Part two of an Art-Ickle from issue 65 of the ImagineFX Magazine, entitled ‘The A-Z of Sci-Fi Art’, was the topic for this weeks episode.

This episode covers N to Z, and was so much fun. I wore me lil Mass Effect N7 Dress again, and it was fitting, tight fitting lol, because one of the Artist we look at is Brian Sum who worked on Mass Effect 2 :)

Some of the other topics include:

Mixing Nature and Technology,
Designing the DeLorean from Back to the Future,
lil Art Tricks,
How Hands are Expressive,
The Psychology of Art,
Mass Effect Mako,
Coolness and Functionality,
Subtle Cues of Human and Animal Emotions,
Being Mindful in your Art,
Designing Sci-Fi Weapons,
Keeping it Real,
Video Game Art,
Creating a Sense of Scale,
and Morti does some dancing :)

Hope you like this one.

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

140 • IMAGINEFX ARTICLE ‘THE A-Z OF SCI-FI ART’ PART ONE

An Art-Ickle from issue 65 of the ImagineFX Magazine, entitled ‘The A-Z of Sci-Fi Art’, was the topic for this weeks episode.

This is a beast of an Art-ickle, so I’ve split it into two parts, with this episode covering A to M, and next week finishing it off with N to Z.

Really enjoyed this one though, and I even wore me lil Mass Effect N7 Dress to get in the Sci-Fi mood :)

Some of the topics include:

How to Create a Sense of Scale,
Mixing Reality and Imagination,
The Importance of lil Details,
Different Art Styles,
Reusing Assets,
How Everything Has a Story,
Combining Traditional and Digital Painting,
Always Thinking about the Viewer,
Having a Greater Appreciation of Designing Vehicles,
How Nothing is Ever Wasted,
Keeping it Simple,
How the Foreground and Background are both Important,
and we give the Mole a name :)

Hope you like this one :)

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

132 • 366 DAYS OF DRAWING? THE DRAW EVER DAY FOR A YEAR ART CHALLENGE

I did it! I finished the Draw Every Day for a Year Art Challenge, which saw me showing up to draw for 366 days in a row. How was it? What did I learn? What did I like? What did I struggle with? Time to find out, in this episode which goes all over the place :)

So many tings are covered on this one, and I still have tons to say, but some of the topics include:

The Importance of Routine, Discipline, and Focus,
Drawing Exercises,
Using Reference,
Inktober,
Being ok with Imperfect Work,
Where do Ideas come from?
Drawing Characters Consistency,
Not Sketching Enough,
Having Limited Time,
Drawing from Imagination does not mean Ignoring Reference,
Adding Story to your Characters,
The Higher Self and Sketching when half asleep,
Realistic Pencil Drawing,
Needing a Rest,
How to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed,
The Struggles of an Art Challenge,
How an Art Challenge helps you find out what you do and don’t like doing,
Creating Characters,
Video Games and Inspiration,
Balance between Creating and Consuming,
and I think Kitty’s pregnant lol

Hope you enjoy this one.

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

131 • SKETCH EVERY DAY ARTICLE ‘ALL IN THE EYES, WITH SIMONE GRÜNEWALD’

An Art-Ickle from the Sketch Every Day Art Book, entitled ‘All in The Eyes, with the artist Simone Grünewald’ was the topic for this weeks lil podcast.

This was really fun, lots of tips and advice about sketching Eyes, how you can Guide the Viewers eye by Changing your Characters Eyes,
How Sketching is like Sculpting, because you’re simply Playing with the Shapes, and there’s quite a bit about facing fears.

Some of the other topics included:

The power of Eyes,
Mistakes made things Unique,
How Art is all about Facing Fears,
lil tings can make a Big Difference,
Everything’s Related,
Playing vs Following the Rules,
Practicing Bad Habits,
Sketching Eyes,
Difference between Male and Female Eyes,
Optical Illusions of Drawing,
Simple is Sometimes Better,
The Importance of Why,
Awareness,
and we have a Paper Mouse join us :)

Hope you like this one.

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

124 • CDQ ARTICLE ‘DESIGNING FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS WITH JULIA CHRISTIANS’

An Art-Ickle in Issue 6 of the Character Design Quarterly Magazine, entitled ‘Designing for Children’s Books, with Julia Christians’ was the topic for this weeks lil episode.

Really enjoyed this one that focused a lot on having fun whilst designing your characters, because if you’re having fun, the character will appear to be having fun, which will result in the viewer having fun too :)

Some of the other topics include:

Experimenting with your Designs,
How Art is all about Playing and Having Fun,
Curiosity,
Using Accessories to Create Fun Silhouettes,
Creating a family of Characters,
The benefits of Sketching,
Asking your Character Questions,
How your Character must be Functional as well as Engaging,
Thumbnails,
and I slurp on a Hot Cock-late :)

Hope you like this one.

THE SO FREE ART PODCAST

123 • CDQ ARTICLE ‘PLAYING WITH COLOR, WITH JAROM VOGEL’

An Art-Ickle in Issue 13 of the Character Design Quarterly Magazine, entitled ‘Playing with Color, with Jarom Vogel’ was the topic for this weeks fun episode.

Topics covered include:

The Psychology of Colour,
How Art is a Visual Representation of Quantum Physics,
Telling Stories with Colour,
Having Awareness while Creating Art,
Colour Theory and Colour Therapy,
Colour Paradoxes,
and I eat a Cock Ice :)

Hope you like this one.