How to Make Webcomics suggests I draw a lineup of all my characters so that I can see the size relationships between them. What a great tool this has been for me. I keep this picture posted near my drawing table and it helps me keep the characters the same from panel to panel.
Another bit of advice from the same chapter advises me to look at my characters in silhouette. This lets me check the character’s design. A strong silhouette can be an important part in good character design. I filled in my lineup and it looks like this:
I’m pretty happy with the silhouette test. The first two characters are pretty similar, but I think the differences are enough to make them work.
I will eventually make model sheets for each character. In case you don’t know, a model sheet is a collection of sample drawings of a character that shows how it should look from different angles and in different positions. It may also include “how to draw” instructions. Model sheets are commonly used in animation where multiple artists must all draw the same character in a consistent manner. I am going to wait until I have drawn these characters a while and explored different expressions and personalities for them, then I will make model sheets to keep myself consistent.
In a future post I will write more about my character design process and how in just twenty strips the characters have already started to evolve.
