Marching into March
Growing up your characters
Hello friends,
How are you? Hope you’re well and happy and having a cosy day so far.
This month, I have been finishing off two book projects (exciting!) and in my spare moments, working on some black and white illustrations for my portfolio.
It can be hard sometimes to put aside time to work on something just for fun when you’re used to heading towards deadlines and working to a brief - even a loose one - but I think it’s a very valuable. It gives you time to play and explore, and you (usually!) learn at least one new thing.
I’ve been very lucky with my agents in that they are always on hand to send me ideas of gaps that in my portfolio that could be filled, and - with Bologna Book Fair coming up - we thought it might be fun to branch into a little bit of an older audience. So, the black and white chapter-book-style illustrations it was.
It was tricky at first to get my head around drawing older children! As a general rule, they have longer limbs, less soft shapes, more defined jawlines, eyes further up their head, and I struggled to make them ‘less cute’ to begin with.
As an example, here is a rough sketch versus a more finished illustration that I was working on this month. In the rough sketch, the characters still look a bit too young, so I adapted them in the finished illu to seem a bit older. Lets play spot the difference!
Apart from the fact it’s more finished and cleaner (and that there is now a rock being held up with a stick), what differences did you see?
In the illustration, the characters have longer legs with straighter lines, compared to the curved, short legs in the rough. The eyes have moved further up their face, and their jawlines are a bit squarer. Both characters have slightly longer torsos. Just little tweaks like that can help characters look suddenly a little older!
Here is the sketch (red) overlaid on top of the illustration (blue) to show how small differences can make a change!
Shall we do another example, and then I’ll be on my way? The same scenario - sketch, amended illustration and then overlaid to see the changes clearly.
What do you think?
A really good exercise for practising this is to draw the same character at different ages, maybe as a baby/toddler, a 3-5 year old, and a 10-12 year old, and see what changes you have to make to see them grow up. Let me know if you try, and if you discover any new tips!
It’s World Book Day coming up, so here’s a shameless pitch of my books! You can find most of them here, or ask any any bookshop!
✱ This month was the Children’s Book Illustration MA graduation show! It’s always so full of talents, there’s so much to see that it’s actually exhausting (in a good way!). I love going with illustrator friends, to be inspired, gossip and reminisce about how long it’s been since we graduated (yikes, time flies)
✱ Sorry-not-sorry, but this month I’ve been obsessed with Sabrina Carpenter’s rerelease of Please Please Please featuring Dolly Parton
✺ Spring is springing, and I can’t wait for longer days, sunnier weather and little flower buds growing!
Ok, that’s all from me. Have a sunny day!
Hugs, Anna x
Ohh love the idea of drawing the character at different ages! Sounds like a fun exercise to also explore the character as well 😀