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Spanish (original audio), English, 1 more
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Isaac is a character designer who works in animation and children’s illustration and teaches 2D Character Design at U-TAD. His clients include Disney+ and Nexus Studios.
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Spanish (original audio), English , 1 more 
English, Spanish , 4 more
Fundamentals concepts of character designHow to give your character a strong first impressionLearn about shape language and how to use it Fun exercises to fuel your creativity and stimulate the right side of your brainUse geometric, organic and abstract shapes to draw cool, unique charactersMastering symmetry as a design assetTried-and-proven tools to develop interesting charactersPro tips to improve your characters’ aestheticDo you ever marvel at the ability of some artists to design awesome characters? You can’t help but wonder where they get their inspiration from? Do they possess some mysterious superpower that separates them from us, mere mortals?
Believe it or not, even professional designers with years of experience encounter creative block. The difference between them and the average Joe is they know the secrets, the methods, and the tricks to get their creative juices flowing again when they’ve run into a brick wall.
Wanna hear the good news? Those skills are all learnable… and it’s not nearly as hard as you think! In this beginner-level course, Isaac shows you the exercises he and other character designers use repeatedly to expand their imaginations, tossing aside the thought patterns and rules that cage their creativity.
You will learn how to use tried-and-proven tools to develop interesting characters, working through fun, easy assignments that you can do anywhere with just paper and pencil. Isaac will teach you the importance of shape language and how to use it effectively in your artwork. You’ll also understand the key role a strong silhouette plays in storytelling, ensuring your characters give a great first impression not a mediocre one.
Once you’ve grasped these simple concepts, you’ll be designing cool, original characters from your imagination in no time—the kind others can only hope to create. The world is your oyster!
1+ Hours of on-demand videos
4 Assignments
10 Reference images
Bonus material
PSD source files
Certificate of Completion
Welcome to the course!
In this introduction, you’ll get to know a bit about Isaac, your teacher, and his journey to becoming a professional character designer. You’ll also learn about this course’s focus and what you can expect to learn.
Isaac will also give you a mini-tutorial of the software he will be using, Autodesk Sketchbook and its essential tools (however, you can follow along with the software of your choice, or even just pencil and paper!)
The viewer’s first impression plays a big role in how they perceive your character, before they even act or speak! Therefore, character design is extremely important to tell a good story.
There are four major aspects of character design that Isaac will go into here: Physique, Psychology, Dialogue and Actions/Gestures. You’ll also discover the essential concepts of good design, so you know what to focus on and why.
Jump into the fascinating world of shape language and how to use it to create unique and fun characters. Isaac will teach the significance of shapes in design and our everyday life and discuss the major shape categories and characteristics.
Not only will you learn the basic theory in this lesson, but you can follow along with Isaac in two fun assignments using geometric and abstract shapes to fuel your creativity and exercise the left side of your brain.
You’ll be happy to know that these assignments have no set rules to follow, such as anatomy, proportions, etc. All you have to do is draw freely, unhindered, and have fun doing so! YAY!
More fun exercises are coming your way! You’ll learn two very easy and handy techniques to ensure that your characters don’t look lopsided or disproportionate. Hurray!
Isaac gives a couple of clear demonstrations that you can follow along with PLUS he provides exercise files so you can continue practicing on your own after the lesson. You’re really gonna love it!
Characters are hidden all around us and we just have to hone our observation skills to find them. Pareidolia is the ability to see shapes or meaningful images out of random or ambiguous patterns and objects.
Isaac shows examples of finding characters in everyday objects and gives you practical tasks to stretch your imagination and expand your creativity.
Bid farewell to Isaac in this final video.
He’s really looking forward to seeing the artwork you come up with from the course assignments. So, be sure to tag him on social media, when you post them!
Course rating
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1 course
Isaac is a character designer and visual developer who works on animation, children’s illustration, and advertising projects. He also teaches 2D Character Design and Development at U-TAD, a university specializing in animation and video games. His clients include Disney+, Nexus Studios, Thinklab, and Premise Entertainment.
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21 Draw is an online learning community where students of all skill levels can learn how to be a better artist. Our contributing artists and instructors are the best in the world.
Our streaming platform on www.21-draw.com makes it possible for anyone to watch hundreds of video lessons by industry legends who have worked for Disney, Marvel, DC, Dreamworks, Pixar & more. A membership gives full access to our streaming platform.
On books.21-draw.com you can buy our popular learn-to-draw ebooks and physical books, separate from the courses, and they too are also delivered to you by the heavyweights of the art industry.
Membership includes unlimited access to all 55+ courses taught by the world’s best artists PLUS new courses as they are released.
Each class includes 10-20 video lessons that are 7 minutes long on average. Most classes include exercise sheets, assignments, and layered PSD or PNG files.
Some classes include the ability to chat with the instructor in a public forum, e.g. if you want feedback on your artwork.
Yes! When you complete a 21 Draw course, you will receive a certificate of completion, which you can download and share with your friends, relatives, co-workers, and potential employers!
21 Draw courses are on-demand (pre-recorded) video tutorials that you can watch online with any digital devices anytime and for an unlimited number of times! This means you can easily watch (and rewatch) them at your own pace and convenience.
We have classes for all levels, even for those with zero drawing experience. In general, artists at all levels can benefit from these courses—whether beginner, intermediate or advanced.
Many lessons in our courses apply to both digital and traditional art. In a few tutorials, digital drawing software, e.g. Photoshop or Procreate for iPad is required. However, for the majority of lessons it is more about the underlying concepts and all that is needed is a pen and paper.
You can download the course resources (exercise sheets, assignments, PSD files, etc.) from the site, but you cannot download the video lessons to your computer.
Normally it costs $235/year. However, there is a special sale running now for a limited time: Save 75%! This means you can get an annual membership for just $59 USD/year.
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