Character Art: A Study in Style

As a professional artist, the ability to mimic other styles of art can be indispensable. You never know what job you'll be taking on next and sometimes the regular style you draw in is not appropriate for the subject matter at hand, for example if all you draw is Ed Edd n' Eddy, you wont get hired to draw for Studio Ghibli. I used my character Cant to demonstrate how one basic design can be translated into several different styles, and I will describe 3 of the differing styles and why they work for their intended audiences.

This style is from the show Rick and Morty. The character designs are crude and simple yet very expressive, and the color pallet walks a fine line between high and low saturation. This show was designed for adults, the characters don't need to be beautiful and unique, you just have to be able to easily tell them apart. These shows have a low animation budget and are usually designed to be more dialogue and humor based .The animation for this show is very clunky, you will notice that nothing but the faces move unless absolutely necessary.

This is the style of Steven universe, a children's show that appeals to a much wider demographic but is still clearly for kids. The characters are soft with a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors to keep children entertained and focused. The animation has a higher budget and is much more fluid with the characters moving around a lot, they use body language as well as facial expressions to show tone and they don't always rely on dialogue to convey their point.

Studio Ghibli movies are meant for everyone, they have a wide appeal because the stories are well written and draw you in. These movies have the highest of the 3 budgets for animation and are extremely fluid in their movement, even the characters hair is used to convey emotions. The backgrounds are almost always hand painted with animated elements such as grass or leaves that interact with the characters, one movie (Howl's Moving Castle) has an entire building that moves and acts like a character.

To sum up, If you want to thrive in the world of art you must be flexible with your art and let the situation dictate the style, not the other way around.

If you have any questions I would love to answer them!