Concept artist François Bourdin shares pro advice to help you achieve accurate proportions for engaging, stylised characters
Achieving the right shapes in your characters is essential to getting messages across to the viewer effectively. In this digital art tutorial I’ll show you how to create effective character designs with strong, simple shapes. I useTo do this, I work with a lot of reference photos to find and build solid poses that match the spirit of my characters. I’ll then compose a colour palette that will match up with my character’s personality. I love to mix pastel shades with neon hues in particular.
Once I’ve completed these steps, I start sketching. As soon as I’ve found the right shape, I’ll use the Polygonal Lasso tool, which is also utilised at each subsequent stage. I love this tool because it allows me to create angular shapes that add intensity to the character. I then apply colours, followed by shadows and either warm or cool coloured lights depending on the mood I want to set in the illustration. Finally, I’ll add in graphical elements to make my character stand out.
Next, use the Multiply blend mode to make the effect as natural as possible. The advantage of Multiply is that it adds to the colour of the drawing by fading. I often use warm colours for creating my shadows.Adding light is one of my favourite parts of creating. It’s usually the last step in my working method. To begin with, choose a colour that stands out more than those of the clothes or skin so it works well.
Once picked, create a special layer over the elements that will be lit. Set it to the Color Burn blend mode, which brings out the natural look of the shadows. In general, work over all the other layers to apply the light evenly.In any image, texture is always important to add vibrancy and realism. I use a few textured brushes to add relief and life to the clothes. My advice is to try out a variety of brushes, but once you’ve found the right ones, it’s best stick with a maximum of two or three.
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