In the industry, model sheets, also known as character boards or character sheets, are used extensively in pre-production and production in order to standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of a character. They showcase the character from different perspectives to achieve a consistent look and scale in the animation, comic or video game and are a requirement when multiple artists are involved in the production. They are often attached to storyboards and are incredibly useful references, used not just for characters but for animals and groups as well. For example, a family of characters can be put together on one model sheet with scaling guides to show how they look next to each other. Model sheets can also contain multiple angles of a character, hand, facial and body language examples as well.
The three main perspectives that are a minimum requirement are the front, side and 3/4 views, which are essential to showing how a character would look, since most of the time, they are seen from these positions. Horizontal lines are also generally expected; they are added across all of the key aspects of the character’s build (e.g. the top and bottom of the head) to establish consistent proportions.
– Task –
Our task was to design a character and create a model sheet for them, with a minimum of the front, side and 3/4 views. The extension if this was completed was to also add a gesture sheet.
As always when designing something, I hopped onto Google/Pinterest to gather images and artwork for inspiration. Since I had no clue what kind of character I wanted to create, I simply typed in ‘character model sheet’ into the search engine and started scrolling to see if anything, in particular, grabbed my attention. The plethora of characters and styles was almost overwhelming, but it reminded me that there are infinite possibilities with what you could create, and I began to feel that excitement that comes with drawing and designing. I saved three traditional model sheets, with the poses or gestures of one character, and three comparative model sheets, with multiple characters of the same world. Both types are helpful for ideas and reference, and thanks to the one in the middle especially, I decided that I wanted to do a cartoon animal character.
I did a couple of quick doodles in my notebook first, to get a feel for what kind of animal I would be drawing and (to nobody’s surprise) I settled on a bird. However, I wanted to go in a slightly different direction and draw a creep bird character instead of a cute one, which popped into my head after I drew the head, which had a pointy bottom and big eyes. Finally, it was time to begin in Photoshop. I began with the front view, since that is the one I am most comfortable with and used to doing by sketching the head and eyes, and sure enough, the body followed soon after, almost of its own accord. I naturally added a long neck and legs, since I had ‘spooky’ or ‘slightly creepy’ in mind, and stretched out proportions are a definite convention for creatures or people born of those concepts. Once I had the main build of the character, I went in with some details to add some interest and variety in size/shape, such as the ruffle on the body, which showcases the texture. I made sure to keep the lines angular, but still soft or curved in certain areas because I wanted the bird to retain some cute appeal even though it is primarily supposed to be creepy.
I was about to start drawing the wings when I realised that if I wanted the character to have wings, I would also have to draw them stretched out. Because I had envisioned him moving about and gesturing with his wings, which would act as arms, I knew that I would have to add them in. So, I copy and pasted what I had drawn so far and moved it to another layer so that I could add the wings to each one, folded for the first and open for the second.
Certain features match in order to give an overall style to the character. For example, I made the bottom wings and the two feathers on top the same diamond shape. Similarly, the claws, beak and wings all have pointed edges so that the silhouette can be distinguished as scary or creepy. Another design choice that I really like is the eyes which, taking up quite a large area of the face, are already quite creepy, but the different sizes make the face the most unsettling part of the design. I did later change the beak line however to be turned up instead of down so that it was more recognisable as a bird.
Once I had the front view for both poses, I separated and moved them to make room for the other views, and added lines where I felt they were necessary. Important guidelines are the head, body and legs, but I also added some for where the neck ends, where the claws begin and where the wings end too, for extra reference. These really proved to be useful, which made me think about why I hadn’t used them before. I suppose I have always avoided drawing the same character from different perspectives, but it is an important skill. The 3/4 view, which I did next, was quite difficult because I couldn’t envision how the beak would look, which is what ultimately made me change it slightly.
I also struggled with the wings in 3/4 view, but I drew them correctly on my second attempt (bigger in towards the front and smaller at the back). I also like how I drew the legs in 3/4 view because they look very neat and tucked in. None of the struggles I had yet though, would prepare me for what was to come. The side view. It wasn’t problematic until I reached the wings, which I had no clue how to do. I couldn’t even picture how they would look in my head to have some sort of idea and I had to erase and restart multiple times. I am still not sure about what I settled on, but I believe that it roughly conveys what it is supposed to and that you would be able to guess anyway from the context of the sheet.
I really like the scratchy sketch style I used to draw the character because it adds to the creepy vibes as if there is something wild and loose about the character. However, after some debate as to whether I should keep it or not, I decided that I really wanted a fully completed model sheet, which for me is with added colour, so I would have to go over the sketches and it would automatically remove the sketchy lines. Here are all of the poses before I moved on to line art and colour.
After outlining and refining each one, it was time to finalise the character with colour. Because it is a cartoon bird, I knew that I would be going with flat, solid colour and no shading, to keep it simple and easy to animate, hypothetically. Because of my chosen genre, horror, I also knew that the colour palette would have dark tones, as well as lighter bolder ones to balance them out with the cartoon style. I began with grey as the base colour and experimented with the details and eyes.
The white-rimmed red eyes stand out too much against the grey, and look unfinished whereas the black-rimmed red eyes look too demonic and make the character too scary for the cartoon genre I am going for (it isn’t outright horror). So, I decided to go ahead with the middle design for the eyes since the white stands out nicely against the black and give the bird a dark-empty-soul effect. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the grey. It felt too bland, and in combination with the other colours, overstepped too much into the horror genre. My aim was never to make a fully horror-based character, but one that was just creepy and slightly unsettling. I still wanted my bird to be able to fit into a fun animation for example, or better yet, an adult cartoon series. So, I changed the base colour to blue instead and kept messing around with the placement of the colours.
Initially, the bird was a dark blue, but I realised that the other details didn’t stand out enough if they were darker, such as the black rims of the eyes. Because of this, I went with a lighter blue, but I still kept it desaturated in order to make the bird look too cute and happy. I also prefer the brighter details, such as the yellow feet, over the black ones, since they stand out more and provide greater contrast, making the character more eye-catching. Here is the final colour palette I settled on:
Although it doesn’t look very scary, I think that it works quite well on the character. I went with a blue body and wings, yellow beak and tail and red accent feathers, which I think is a good ratio since no part of the design is too overbearing and all of the details have their moment in the spotlight when the eyes are naturally pulled to them. Of course, the eyes give the character the most depth, since not adding any pupils or highlights makes them look slightly dead.
I like that there is something about the character that is a little off and that the design isn’t stereotypically cute, which is often how birds are portrayed. Because of this, I decided to name him Drib, which is ‘bird’ backwards, just like his overall look and personality too. I envision him as an animal side-kick in an adult animated tv series, or perhaps the weird character that pops up every now and then, to cause mischief, in an animated movie or series. Perhaps he could also be used as a bad omen or the messenger bird of the evil character.
