"How to draw fantasy characters" - Part 1

Once we've learned to draw the anatomy of people and animals, it's time to decide what to do with this knowledge. We can choose to portray scenes of real life or create our own stories, in the latter, it's essential to understand what story we want to tell, in what genre it would fit better and who will be the protagonists of it.

Thinking about concepts for new tutorials, I found this book "The Art of Drawing Fantasy Characters" by Jacob Glaser, and it was the answer I was looking for.

The author begins by explaining that science fiction, horror, fantasy and adventure, are genres that have unique conventions, so the characters according to the story will also have them.

Glaser chooses certain archetypes that represent each genre and develops them to explain how to begin the process of character illustration. This is really interesting because, in addition to giving us examples in the design of the characters, it gives us a description and the importance that could have its role in a story.

In this series, we took a step further in terms of knowledge of anatomy, so I recommend re-reading the first series of tutorials I published, "How to draw manga", where besides learning about this style of Japanese drawing, I went through concepts of basic human anatomy.

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Let's begin by learning to create textures, something that in itself has no entity but helps to give weight and shape in space to the form that accompanies it. The texture must be represented by the way it is affected by the light source. Let's see some examples.

1. Cloth, Long hair, Scales.

2. Wood, Short or thin hair, Curly hair

Perspective: The author considers very important to understand this concept when creating compelling drawings. He mainly stops at the ellipse, a flat curve with two focal points, where the sum of the distances between the two focal points is constant at each point of the curve. Basically, this recreates the effect that our eyes do when observing something.

In art, the term used is foreshortening, a resource that helps us to represent in a plane (the canvas or paper) the sense of depth.

To achieve this, the author recommends us to master the ellipse. According to him, a circle to which the foreshortening was applied. (3) We can start by drawing a square, then split it with a horizontal line and a vertical line. This will form quarters inside the square, we draw a curve from one point to the other and we will have the circle. By reducing the original square we can generate a range of ellipses.

(4) A practical example in the use of ellipses.

SCIENCE FICTION

Science fiction has a very particular characteristic and is that the authors of this genre have foreseen many of the inventions and social changes that are now a reality. The author lists the space exploration, the atomic bomb, and the robots, as some examples that were imagined by science fiction long before the engineers made it a reality.

Science fiction gives us the ability to travel to possible futures to inspire us of progress or learn from our mistakes before we commit them. This genre gave us iconic characters and especially, as well or even more, tools and objects that deserve to be analyzed.

Alien

Truly a cultural icon, now the challenge when drawing a being from another planet is not to fall into a cliché, to represent them in a way that is not boring.

Laser Gun

They are the descendants of the firearms that we use today. The shape of the weapon or the way a character uses them helps us to see their personality and learn more about the world they inhabit.

Looking at photos of real weapons, we can tell the characteristics they have in common and start from there as inspiration.

Android

It is a very broad term used to refer to artificial humans created from silicone-based materials or bioengineering. In fiction stories, they are often used to highlight the humanity of other characters, explaining human failures or emotions that go with the plot.

Their "human" aspect tends to vary but even the most robotic of them all are about the size of a human, they have two legs, two arms and a head.

Alien leader

In a space odyssey is crucial to have an alien tyrant who serves as antagonist to the hero. Like political leaders, alien villains cover themselves with elements that represent their status. Scepters, crowns, and official attires help separate the leader from the rest, as well as an air of importance that always adds.

Space hero

Hero is a word that comes from the Greek heros, or semi god. The term has been extended to characters who perform an action or thought that goes beyond normal, usually in complex, supernatural or extraordinary situations. A hero of space should represent these characteristics. We can go from the classic space suit with the bubble helmet and the rockets on his back to Arthur Dent of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in his robe.

Alien beast

They are used as a mount, food or to fight, beasts bring a lot to an environment and can serve to define the lifestyle of a character.

Space combat pilot

In World War I, the term Flying Ace emerged, very talented pilots who are credited with having shot down five or more enemy planes. At that time, the fascination for these flying warriors was born.

By expanding the idea to space, we get these space pilots. Characters with the ability to think fast, withstand the extreme gravity forces, and perhaps a slight addiction to adrenaline.

Robot Attack Pod

Small, agile, heavily armed and easy to replace, robotic sentries are inevitable in a war of the future and for surveillance tasks. In design, the most important thing is its functionality, it must be able to detect enemies, therefore, it must include cameras. It must also have ways to dispatch enemies and protect itself, it needs armor and weapons. It shouldn't look cute but intimidating, a way to scare the opposition before firing.

Sidekick

Every hero needs his partner, especially in the space where you can travel for years without finding any sign of civilization. The companion of adventures serves to express the internal mental process of the protagonist. The author enjoys creating companions because they can be anything from a small robot dog to a giant humanoid reptile. As stories do not usually take into account the love life of these characters, we can make them as ugly as we want.

I find it very interesting this way of identifying and reducing genres to certain archetypes. This was all for today for Science Fiction.

On the next part, we'll analyze the character design for the Horror genre.