Creating Original Character Designs with the Symmetry Tool

This video is made for all you aspiring character designers! Did you know about Clip Studio's Symmetry Tool? Well, it's a great way to simplify the process of designing interesting faces for your characters. In today's video, I demonstrate using the tool combined with my own creativity and drawing abilities to sketch Sarah as well as a couple funny-looking fantasy creatures.

Now, of course, the tool is helpful, but only a booster. You can just pick up a pad of paper and some well-sharpened pencils and go to town. Mainly, I'm trying to demonstrate why it makes sense to focus on a front symmetrical view when trying to design characters. By not stressing over perspective, you can focus on creating interesting shapes that will give your character a unique design. Once you develop a basic character design, it'll be much easier to draw it in more complex angles.

As always, please feel free to share your work with me. Until next time, happy sketching!

The Pale Blue Dot...

Carl Sagan, the famous scientist, once described the importance of understanding the unique nature of each human. I like to think this applies to artistic vision as well. In today's video, I'm piggybacking on last week's talk about motivation. Before we sit down to create a project, it's worth knowing exactly why it's so important in the first place. We're the only ones who can transform our own unique visions into reality. If we don't make it, it will never exist! No pressure ;)

Finding Motivation

Have you been waiting for motivation to strike so you can start that super awesome art project? Wait no longer! Today's video focuses on getting started. Maybe it'll give you a boost to get going on your passion project, be it a book, animation, painting, or whatever creative concept you've got bouncing around in your brain.

As always, I find inspiration in hearing from you! So please don't be shy about sharing your progress with me. As always, leave your comments below and share your thoughts. See you soon!

Dreamside Chapter 4 Art Update

This week's video shows the progress I've made thus far in revising a complicated spread from Chapter 4 that didn't work well enough in its previous iteration. It has received a total reimagining in an effort to nail down the right visual motifs the story requires. It's so important to get it right here so there aren't regrets later on in future books. Please enjoy this sneak peak at the new work-in-progress!

Look! It's Sarah in 3D!

Today's video expands on last week's peek into 3D sets. Join me as I give an overview of Dreamside's 3d character models in Clip Studio. Doesn't Sarah look cool in 3D?! See how I use it in illustrations to save time and add otherwise prohibitively complex graphic elements.

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, oftentimes 3D models can look a bit stiff and unnatural. I'm working hard to ensure they amplify the beauty of Dreamside's art, rather than restrict it.

Thoughts? Leave your comments and questions below and I'll answer as best I can.

2D or 3D?

Today's video shows off one of the absolute coolest features of working in the digital art world: the ability to incorporate 3D work into 2D illustrations. The video shows off the 3D model of Sarah's patient room as it's incorporated into an illustration from Chapter 2.

It's important to me that Dreamside is the most beautiful book it can be. But, working alone means figuring out intelligent alternatives to time-consuming production methods. If I want a complex environment, the detail might make it difficult, especially if that set is used many times. By creating 3D versions of the environments and working with software like Clip Studio, I can reduce the time it takes to redraw repetitive elements.

Comments? Questions? Leave them below or feel free to send a private message my way.

New Video: Leading The Eye...

Today's video is about an important aspect of visual storytelling: leading the eye. How can we encourage the audience to look where we want, when we want? How can we, in a complex image or a page made up of several images, convey the necessary story information? Dreamside's compositions use eye direction constantly. I work very hard to ensure the viewer sees what I need them to see. Check out how I do it in today's video.

Leave questions and comments below. Until next time, happy drawing!

Rule Those Thirds!

Today's video, like last week's, focuses on a fundamental drawing concept. This time, it's all about composition. Specifically, the "Rule of Thirds." I believe composition to be the most important part of any illustration. If a design is poorly laid out, it will likely be uninteresting to your audience, even if your draftsmanship is strong.

As always, leave questions and comments below. See you next time!

Back to the basics... stick figures!

In today's video, I'm taking some time to go over a fundamental principle of drawing: breaking complex objects down to simple shapes. This one's mainly for those Dreamside fans and aspiring artists out there who have requested videos covering drawing basics. I can't think of a better place to start then this. Understanding the three-dimensional makeup of physical forms helps greatly in translating our ideas and impressions into two-dimensional work.

Hope this helps you understand more about character construction. If you have questions, leave them below and please do let me know what you'd like to see covered in future videos. See you next time!

Friday Video: Digital Art Process

A couple weeks ago, YouTube visitor Mike Rhodes suggested making a video showing my steps to produce a Dreamside illustration. At first, I wasn't sure how to approach such a video due to the complexity involved. Where to even start?! Well, as the king from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland commanded: "Begin at the beginning... and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Good advice.

This video isn't going to show you everything, but it does cover the basic six steps I go through for each illustration. There is a lot more to painting than what's on display here. But, hopefully this will be useful to people with some digital painting experience who have trouble knowing how to approach their work in an organized fashion. If you're like me, you like to jump all over the place while drawing/painting and it can be messy.

As always, leave your comments below or on the YouTube page. Have a great weekend!