21-Draw-Illustrators-Guidebook-vol-2-ebook-(2021)

CHARACTERS—STORY THROUGH
PERFORMANCE
Next, I look at the characters with the aim
of refining their performances. I want each
character to be unique, so my design has
plenty of variety and visual interest. The
characters’ performances need to work well
to sell the idea while also working with not
against the composition.
When I design characters, I like to work with
an understanding of who they are from the
inside out. These characters exist for just this
single illustration. So their backstories don’t
need the same complexity as characters
created for a TV show or a book where
the story needs to be longer and more
developed. That said, I want to put enough
time into these characters to assure the
scene is engaging and their personalities
shine through.
I think of a character as having three
main facets: a personality, current mood,
and desire or motivation. These three
things influence one another and drive a
character’s action and performance.
Personality gives us a baseline to work with
in a character. Are they happy go lucky or
nervous and twitchy? Perhaps confident
and assured or pensive and calculating?
Each personality will respond to a particular
scenario in different ways—no two
characters perform the same action in the
same way.
Then we layer mood over a character’s
personality. How does a brave character
respond in a frightening situation compared
to a nervous character? If a character is sad
will he or she react to the same scenario
differently than if the character is happy?
Of course, this also works the other way
around—think about your story moment
and what effect it will have on a particular
character’s mood.
Finally, we have desire—a foundation
stone of storytelling. What characters
want drives their actions, pushing them
against the conflict they must overcome
in pursuit of their desires. It can be difficult
to fully explore a character’s desires in a
single image, but it is worth having each
character’s desires in mind and hinting at it
if you can.
I have a clear idea of who my characters
are and what they want—a group of kids,
between 9 and 13 years of age exploring
a haunted house, along with a ghostly
character. The ghost is likely from a long
gone Victorian era, possibly with a love for
frightening anyone who ventures into his
dusty abode. As I start to flesh them out on
the page, I think about various personality
types for each kid so that each kid reacts
differently. I like the idea of one or two of
them being easily scared, but one should
be a bit more confrontational to the ghost,
while another might be unimpressed
or disbelieving. At the very least, each
character should react to the event in a
subtly different way, either in posing or
expression.
I like the idea of one of my characters being
a bit like Data in The Goonies. I imagine
they could have an old ’90s camera, maybe
a Walkman, and recording equipment.
Possibly even a video recorder? Although
they weren’t as common back in the ’90s!
Obviously this character intends to study
any ghost they find.
I think it would be fun if one of my
characters has a skateboard—perhaps
to use as a weapon? Another might be
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