Keeping characters consistent in a picture book
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Hello,
I'm to the point in my project where I have things layed out, still a bit rough but I have the compositions prety well down....for now. I have tried to keep sizes consitent, etc. by referencign earlier drawings of the characters. I've watched all the How to pose characters. I have looked at other forums online and I woudl like to hear what yo hav to say. I do not d digital so I 'm looking for advice from a traditional point fo view. Thank you! -
Consistency in characters is one of the hardest thing to pull off in a series of illustrations. What we used to do in concept art classes is to draw "character sheets": that would be a number of face drawings in different expressions (number may vary, but at least the six basic ones: neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised and disgusted) and full-figure drawings in different poses that were relevant for the story. And also turnarounds: drawing the character front, back, side and three-quarters. I find this is a bit of an overkill in picture books, though may still be useful practice. What I do now (aside from digital trickery ;-)) is to create and print out a "reference sheet" using my first drawings of a character and to paste it on my desk or keep it handy while I draw that character in other illustrations. By having the drawings always side-by-side I can check consistency and make adjustements as I draw.
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@smceccarelli Thanks! I dokeep one handy. I guess I will just draw a bunch of them i different positions. Cahllenging because he also has chickens roosting on him
Maybe it will be easier in a larger format too....I hope!
