Developing a character and listening to feedback.

A live project example, complete with client feedback!

It's not enough to just be able to 'draw' to be successful in the illustration game - you need to hold a myriad of essential skills, two of which are; 

- being able to listen to criticism and, 

- making changes to your work based on that criticism. 

To demonstrate this ability in a real-world setting, I decided to share with you a recent character development project. You can see my sketches, plus the actual client feedback along the way and how it affected my work!

1. The first draft.

The brief was to create a character which will be used in a children's book as the main antagonist. Here's what I was given;

Could the girl be designed with brown hair and a pink dress? 

While this seems quite vague, I have already read the script so I know more about the character from her role in the story. She's a young girl who has a wobbly tooth. Here was my initial sketch based on the description given and my interpretation of the script.

2. The second draft.

 

I really like these examples from your website, would it be possible to combine these three together somehow? Perhaps with longer hair in pigtails? 

2. The third draft.

I like the twin tail look, but could we try the design as a cuter, younger, more rounded design? 

2. The fourth draft.

Great! Much better. Can we add the twin tails back?

2. The fifth draft.

Thankyou for the sketch. I think we're pretty close. Could we make the hair a bit more defined with it being a bit more pronounced and maybe some bobbles or flowers?

I think we've got it! Let's proceed to colour.

As you can see, most characters go through a series of changes before we finally settle on one to move forward with. Here is our character once we added colour, the client loved her!

This cutie will be featured in her very own adventure soon... watch this space!