Character Designer Kyle Sarafolean tells us how he pushed his designs with feedback and weekly challenges in Character Design for Animation.

Introduction

My name is Kyle Sarafolean and I am a character and prop designer for animated film and tv originally from Michigan. In college, I studied Graphic Design and Art at Saginaw Valley State University because my dream of becoming an artist in the animation industry seemed impossible for me to achieve. Almost as soon as I began working professionally as a graphic designer, I realized that my true passion was for character design and storytelling and that was when I decided to begin pursuing my career as an artist. After working diligently on my own for 3 or 4 years, I knew that I had to take decisive action if I was going to meet the industry standard for professional artwork. It was then that I decided to leave my full time job as a graphic designer in order to focus on my art education and on improving my craft. CGMA’s classes have been a key part to me gaining the skill set, knowledge, and confidence that I needed to begin a successful career as an artist without having to take on the massive financial burden of a traditional art school education.

Character Silhouette

This assignment was to design a Medieval Crusader. I decided to create my character, the Pumpkin Knight, who is a jovial and lovable glutton. Perhaps once he was a proud warrior, but now he is more likely to be found at a feast than in a fight. His jolly nature is reflected by his rotund figure and his round and soft shape language.

I based his character on the shape language of his namesake, the pumpkin. If you look at his silhouette, you will see that his overall shape is round and plump, just like a pumpkin. He also has motifs in his design like the ridges on his round shoulder pauldrons, the little leaf shapes at the bottom of his chain mail, and his wavy axe handle that recall the shape of a pumpkin, their leaves, and vines. The orange and green color palette that I used was a clear and intentional tie in between the knight and a pumpkin.

One of the tips that Nate gave in his draw over was to make sure that both of the knights arms are pushed out far enough from his body that they can read well in silhouette form. He also had me push the axe out a little farther from the knights body to give it some comfortable space in the pose. One piece of advice from Nate I can recall is that you can frame a character’s silhouette against a cape, or even frame a characters limbs within their own body. As long as you avoid tangents, your silhouette will read clearly.

Character Line Up

This assignment was to create a character line up of three pirates in order to create a diverse cast of unique characters. I set out to tell a story in my designs by having all three characters interact with each other. The story revolves around the capture of an old man who is in chains. I call him The Prisoner. He is proud and defiant of his captors, noted by his upright posture with his chest thrust out and his shoulders back, while glaring fiercely down at his foe. Despite his chains and his tattered clothing, he carries himself with dignity and strength as if he may yet again gain the upper hand. The long and elegant lines in The Prisoners body and legs evoke a rangy grace to his physique but this smoothness is punctuated by the sharp triangular shapes in his wild hair and beard, which speak of the resilience of his frosty demeanor.

The next character is the captor, I call him The Firecracker Captain. He is small but fierce with a flamboyant mustache and an oversized hat that seems to be his way of making up for his lack of height. He uses it to bolster his power hungry persona. He carries a notched cutlass and harpoon to make him seem more menacing, though he isn’t really a fighter, as indicated by his small pear-shaped physique. He is hopping up in the air with wicked glee as if he has firecrackers that go off in his boot heels as he walks around. I imagine him to pop up and down and move in quick rapid bursts like a small fierce bird. You will see triangles repeated in his design, from his pointy boots, to his weapons to the sharp ends of his mustache. These sharp shapes reinforce his aggression and volatility.

The third character I call The Muscle. He is the brute force behind the Firecracker Captain’s brains. He is large, and rotund with long powerful gorilla arms and is fittingly on the other side of The Prisoner’s chains. He has an underbite and heavy bushy brows that help indicate his mean and simple brutality. He is large and formidable but he can be outwitted by a crafty opponent. His bulkiness and size contrasts sharply with the thin Prisoner and small stature of the Captain in a way that underlines his considerable strength.

To create a successful character line up, I made it my mission to create three characters that fit within the same world, but are all distinctly unique from each other. I achieved this by creating designs that are all thematically similar, ie. they are all pirates, however, they are all based on different shape language and have distinct personalities. By amplifying the contrast between their sizes and shapes, and by choosing poses for each one that underlines their reaction to this situation, we end up with a line up of three unique and interesting characters whose designs tell the story of the Prisoner’s capture.

 Matching A Style

In this assignment we were tasked with creating a character design for a dragon in the style of two iconic artists: Ronald Searle and Jay Ward. I chose to draw a dragon who is relaxing while drinking a poison green cocktail and smoking a cigarette in his fashionable cigarette holder. The dragon is mellow and fairly contented with nothing to do but enjoy himself in a smoky dragon bar.

The first step that I took was to break down the key elements of both artists style before I attempted to draw my character. The key marker of Searle’s style is his wobbly rough ink line and that he typically works in india ink. He tends to use a lot of contrast both juxtaposing heavy ink lines next to delicately thin lines and by placing large shapes next to tiny ones. For instance, he might design a character with a large body who has small and dainty limbs. Searle also draws bulbous close set eyes with a lot of wrinkles around them. I found the wobble in Searle’s linework and his messiness to be a challenge for me to replicate. I tend to have a very controlled and clean line, so the looseness of Searle’s style took some practice for me to replicate.

Jay Ward’s style came more quickly to me. The key marker of his style is the simplicity of his shape and the economy of his line. Ward has a clean and “swooping” line that carries through his characters designs. Ward’s line weight tends to be uniform, clean and minimal and his characters are classically “cartoony.” His characters have 4 fingers on a hand and have large, round close set eyes with a dot for a pupil. He uses a flat color scheme in his characters designs with usually only 3 to 4 colors per character. His style is graphic and relies on iconizing shapes and details in order to minimize the linework and make it easy for hand drawn animation.

Animal Design

The assignment for this week was to design an animal character. I chose to design a villainous cockatoo and tie him with the characters from my Pirate line up. This project eventually became a large part of my portfolio and I’ve added many characters and props to it from this world, but one of my favorites is still this pesky bird.

My goal with this character was to create a pesky sidekick to the main pirate villain. The cockatoo himself is more of a thorn in the hero’s side than he is a danger. He is somewhat scheming and troublesome but he never poses an immediate threat. I wanted to create a sly character who can easily spy on and taunt our heroic characters while staying safely out of their reach from the air. Because this cockatoo character is mostly harmless, but is a scheming and malicious pest all the same, I chose to use primarily round and soft shape language in his wings, body, and feathers while punctuating his design with strategically sharp, triangular shapes in his beak and claws. I aimed to create a character with a 80/20 round to triangle shape ratio.

In the pose where he is in the branches of the tree, he is silently spying on our hero while plotting his ambush. I wanted to taper his pose and use a clear line of action to show the moment of anticipation before a strikes. His silhouette is smooth and streamlined to show the direction of his attention and draw the eye off camera where he is looking.

In the pose where he is flying away carrying the amulet, it is a story moment immediately after the first pose I drew, when he swoops in and snatches the enchanted amulet from our hero much to his dismay. The cockatoo is overjoyed at this moment and I wanted the feathers in his wings to form a radial uplifted “U” shape which to me symbolizes triumph or an explosion of action or success. The contrast in this character comes from the careful ratio of round to sharp shapes in his design and in the contrast between his closed pose in the first drawing vs. the explosiveness of his open pose in the second drawing.

Final Thoughts

When I decided to pursue further art education post college, I faced a bit of a dilemma. I already had a bachelor’s degree and going back to traditional college for a Master’s or for another four year degree didn’t seem like the right path for me. I needed to fill the gaps in my existing knowledge and I needed professional feedback that would help me take my art skills to the next level, but I didn’t want to lock myself into a rigid college program or take on the massive cost of a big name art school education.

When I found out about CGMA’s 2D Character Design program it seemed like the perfect fit for me. The classes were taught by experienced and current industry veterans, and I could fit the lectures and homework in around my freelance schedule. The price in my view was a fair and reasonable cost to pay for a high quality art education! 

One of the first CGMA classes that I took was Nate Wragg’s Character Design for Animation course. I was interested in it because I have been a fan of Nate’s work for a long time and I have a high regard for his experience as both a talented character designer and as a seasoned art director. In this class I learned how to create designs that will work for either 2D or 3D animation and I also learned how to adapt my drawing and design abilities to breakdown and work in various different art styles. Nate’s draw overs are probably the best that I’ve had in any class. He has the ability to see what the intent of a design is and he knows how to identify what needs to be changed to make a tangible improvement to a design. His notes on character posing and clarity of silhouette have made me able to spot tangents in my own work. His emphasis on understanding and using contrast within every element of a design has been a key step towards me mastering my craft. His class has given me greater control over what I am able to communicate using my design and drawing skills and have made be a better artist overall.

A 10/10 art education investment!

You can see more of Kyle’s art on his website: https://sarafoleank.myportfolio.com/work

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The Workshop Academy is an art and design school located in Redmond, Washington. The classes offered by TWA are focused on concept art for the video game, movie and animation industry.

All TWA instructors are professionals working in the industry. They have worked for companies such as Activision, Sony, ArenaNet and Epic Games. Their courses are geared towards both professionals and beginners alike but we do recommend beginners to take foundation classes like figure drawing first.

The goal of The Workshop Academy is to provide the best education for art and design at an affordable price and create a place where artists can meet and learn together.

Link: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Character Design with Paul Richards

Advanced Digital Painting with Thomas Scholes

Hard Surface Design with David Heidhoff

Figure Drawing with Naomi Baker

All images © of their respective copyright holder.

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Kazone Art Academy was founded by entertainment industry veterans, Rhe and Lim Hur. Rhe and Lim have more than twelve years of extensive working experience in the entertainment industry. Together, they have created a place where they feel that artists can thrive in learning while also feel a sense of support and enthusiasm for art.

We understand that every person has a different personality, process, challenge, and unique talent. At Kazone, we help students breakthrough the learning barriers and maximize the potential of each student, so they have the confidence and skills to realize their greatest dreams.

Kazone Art Academy offers portfolio preparation curriculum that will help prospective students matriculate to a premier art school in the Unites States. In addition, Kazone’s faculties will help current art students and artists gain the skills necessary to make a smooth transition into the work force. Make sure you check out their blog and their Facebook page.

Link: kazoneart.com

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Freelance concept illustrator Andrew Theophilopoulo worked with ImagineFX Magazine to show his process of using photo references to create a Star Wars illustration in Photoshop.

The force is like your artistic talent, it needs to be trained and challenged, but without enough practice you might lose it. One of the best ways to train is to set yourself up for failure, bite off more than you can chew, give yourself a tough lesson to learn from.

Link: Website | Tumblr | Instagram

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Jonathan Guzi is currently working at 2K Games and is also a freelance concept artist & illustrator. Be sure to check out his work below and follow Emmanuel Shiu.

My student was recently hired as concept artist for a leading game studio. In this video, he shares his inspiring journey, all the way from humble beginnings to his very first job. This video will hopefully provide a sneak peek into the competitive concept art industry, and the hard work, long hours and persistence needed to succeed. – Emmanuel Shiu

All images  © Jonathan Guzi.

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Brainstorm is an art and design school with a heavy concentration in Entertainment Design based in Glendale, California with a core focus on problem solving, story-telling, and design. Brainstorm has a catered curriculum of design fundamentals and process that are necessary to be a concept artist in the video game and film industry. The founders, James Paick and John Park, both have extensive experience within art and design for games and film with more than 10 years of teaching and art education experience.

We came together to fill a void within the art education system and the concept art industry.  With our extensive experience in design and education, we are targeting to fill these voids and create a new and fulfilling experience for all who want to follow their passion. – James Paick, Brainstorm School, Co-Founder

Spring 2015 Class Schedule

Intro to Digital Rendering with Jason Scheier – an introductory course to Photoshop and digital painting understanding. Assignments and in-class demonstrations will showcase the steps and techniques to transition from tradition to digital painting medium. This course is highly recommended to all skill levels and is a staple in both video game and film studios.

Environment Design 1 with James Paick – a foundation course to expose the process of creating compelling environments. The course will focus on the building blocks of compositions for games and film with thumbnail creation, value painting, lighting compositions and illustration techniques.

Sketching for Concept Design 1 with John J. Park – a foundation course that will introduce artists to the design process, research & reference, set dressing and layout design. The course will heavily focus on 2D art in pencil, pen and marker. This foundation course introduces an understanding of shape language design, aesthetics and form & function for concept art for video and film industry.

Brainstorm also provides multiple Mentorship Programs for students who are unable to attend the physical classes. They also a have tutorial channel with affordable downloadable content for anyone interested in getting a taste of the contents, teaching process and school culture offered. Be sure to also check out Brainstorm’s Facebook Challenge Group, which introduces new regular challenges for their members to submit artwork.

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Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art & Design has shared some of their graduate and undergraduate work for 2014.

Max the Mutt, located in Toronto, is a registered Career College established by artists and animators in 1998. They offer 3 diploma programs: Classical & Computer Animation & Production (4 years), Illustration for Sequential Arts (3 years), and Concept Art for Video games & Animation (4 years).

To get more information email: admissions@maxthemutt.com, or call 1-877-486-MUTT.

Link: maxthemutt.com

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Freelance concept artist and illustrator Christian Robert de Massy will be teaching the Interior Environments Masterclass at Syn Studio starting on September 29th. Christian has worked on films such as X Men: Days of the Future Past, Mirror Mirror and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Link: synstudio.ca

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Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art (LAAFA) has recently launched ArtSchoolVideos.com, a new website for online art training. This site will feature online live classes as well as stand-alone self-studies for beginning to advanced artists. Courses are offered at an introductory price of $495 and are taught by experts in the animation, gaming and fine art fields.

Live classes are in real-time and the students interact closely with their instructor for 3 hours per session. During a typical live online class, students will receive the following: demo/lecture, in-class exercises, FAQs, critiques and homework. Classes will provide students the opportunity to work in an intimate class room setting with the instructor of their choice. This allows the students the closest experience to attending an on-campus class with all the comforts of learning at home.

Only a few spaces are still available so be sure to Register Today!

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Concept artist Darren Bacon has released a new video documenting and explaining his creative process in developing a mech design using Adobe Photoshop CS6. Bacon has worked on projects such as Bungie’s Destiny, Tron: Uprising, Disney’s A Christmas Carol and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3.

Link: www.darrenbacon.com | Twitter

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In this video concept artist Jordan Lamarre-Wan demonstrates his inspirational process from rough thumbnail to the final painting. Lamarre-Wan is currently based in Dallas, Texas where he works at Reel FX as Visual Development Artist. His list of past projects include Disney’s Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.

Link: www.theartofjlw.com | Youtube

Image © Jordan Lamarre-Wan or their respective copyright holder.

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Concept Artists Ben Mauro and Vaughan Ling are collaborating to create humanoid type characters that are part of futuristic pit crew team. In this video Ben demonstrates his process in creating and developing a sci-fi character using ZBrush and Photoshop. If you are interested in getting a 3D print of the final design be sure to contact Vaughan over at Heavypoly Industries.

Link: YouTube

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CDW Studios has released John Park: Vehicle and Mech Design for Games. Vol 2., an instructional video available for download. This lecture will cover the process for finalizing a design from initial thumbnails and line drawings, how to pose mechs and vehicles, converting traditional sketches into paintings in Photoshop, including lighting, rendering and photo texturing techniques.

John Park is currently working as Lead Concept Artist at Adhesive Games the creators of HAWKEN. His list of clients include companies such as NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Company, Hasbro, Mattel, Blur Studios and Spark Unlimited. Be sure to check out more of his mech concept designs here.

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Syn Studio is a private art school which specializes in concept art and illustration for the entertainment industry. It was founded in 2007 in Montreal, Canada, one of the world’s largest hubs for video games and film. Syn Studio puts a strong emphasis on the fundamentals of drawing, painting and design and requires students to acquire solid foundational skills before learning more advanced techniques in concept art and illustration.

The faculty includes veteran concept artists, matte painters, illustrators and 3D artists in games, film and comics and many of its students and alumni have earned coveted jobs, contracts and senior positions in the local entertainment industry and abroad.

Be sure to visit the Syn Studio Website or their Facebook Page for more information.

All images used with permission. © belongs to their respective copyright holder.

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Artist and illustrator Donato Giancola has released a DVD demonstrating his methods in creating an oil painting from concepts to final glazes. Donato provides a step by step narration as he creates his paining Joan of Arc.

Link: www.donatoart.com

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Senior Concept Designer Ben Mauro was kind enough to share some of the personal work and demos created for various classes that he has been teaching over the past year. His work demonstrates a range of designs created using an array of techniques with software such as Photoshop, ZBrush and Keyshot for rendering.

Link: www.artofben.com

All images used with permission by the artist. © Ben Mauro or their respective copyright holder.

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Senior Art Director Eduardo Peña was kind enough to share some of the images he developed while teaching digital painting techniques at FZD School of Design. He developed design projects that would demonstrate the process of design, composition, construction and rendering.

Link: chino-rino2.cghub.com

All images used with permission by the artist. © Eduardo Peña or their respective copyright holder.

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Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art & Design, located in Toronto, is a registered Career College established by artists and animators in 1998. They offer 3 diploma programs: Classical & Computer Animation & Production (4 years), Illustration for Sequential Arts (3 years), and Concept Art for Video games & Animation (4 years).

Max the Mutt offers a foundation year that has been carefully designed to teach “visual language” or traditional representational art skills including life drawing; principles of drawing, design and composition, color theory and water based media; a semester of structural drawing; a year of perspective and a year of painting in oils. Class sizes are small and all instructors are working professionals. The environment is friendly, but focused and serious. Max the Mutt is looking for students who have passion, potential, and a strong work ethic.

The Concept Art curriculum is a mix of high level traditional fine art painting and drawing courses; animation related courses such as film language, story boarding, cartooning, layout and background painting; illustration and concept art specific courses that focus on designing props, environments, characters, and creatures. The curriculum has been well thought out and is developmental. For example, students are familiar with Photoshop and have had an intro course in environment design before they take Advanced Environment Design and Painting in Photoshop; they have studied life drawing and human anatomy and have had a course in animal drawing before they take Creature Design. Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art & Design states:

We are fortunate to be located in a city that is home to many skilled artists, animators and designers, including Canadians who were born and educated in Eastern Europe and have had years of traditional training. There is a level of passion and commitment at Max the Mutt that makes it a community.

The last semester of year 4 is spent on one project, for which each student, choosing to focus on either video games or animation, is assigned a script or game, and does all the concept design. An art director advises and works with the students. Year 4 students also have a course in portfolio development that includes writing a resume, mock interviews, instruction and direction on designing a web presence and preparing materials for our annual Industry Evening. This is held just before graduation. Students have the opportunity to exhibit their work and meet industry reps and recruiters. We also have an articulation agreement with Daemen College that allows qualified graduates to complete a BFA degree in one additional academic year.

To get more information email: admissions@maxthemutt.com, or call 1-877-486-MUTT.

Link: maxthemutt.com

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Concept designer Ben Mauro has released Zbrush for Concept Artists Volume 2 a new tutorial with Concept Design Workshop. In this lecture Ben will demonstrate techniques in blocking out and refining a character using ZSpheres. He will then sculpt the characters body, costume and props developed in Volume 1 and take that sculpted design into Photoshop to create a finished production painting. This tutorial is aimed for designers and illustrators who are interested in integrating digital sculpting into their workflow.

Link: www.conceptdesignworkshop.com

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Eat 3D has released a new video tutorial titled Cyborg Design – Concept Art Production Techniques with instructor Michael Pedro. In this tutorial he will give an overview of the techniques he uses to create his 3D concept designs, with an emphasis on production-setting workflows. Applications used include ZBrush 4, Keyshot, Photoshop and Alchemy. Michael Pedro is a professional concept artist and illustrator working in the gaming industry for over 8 years with companies such as Electronic Arts, Sony Online Entertainment, and Certain Affinity.

Link: eat3d.com

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