Chewing Pencils

Characters should never be forgettable. Your readers should either love them, hate them, feel sorry for them, empathize with them, be repulsed by them, cheer them but never, ever forget them.

Character development is hard work, but when the time is taken to do it properly, your work seems to take on a life of it’s own. Stories seem to jump out at you as your little characters begin to live.

There are two main parts to character development. First is the drawing aspect (what they will look like) then there is the behavioral aspect (how they act and talk etc). Both require lots of time, thinking and practice, but the results are always worth it.

ONe of the blogs I’ve enjoyed reading recently is Pete Emslie’s The Cartoon Cave. Pete is a master of character development with over 30 years experience in animation. If you don;t believe anything I’ve written here, visit his site a nd learn from someone who really knows what they;re talking about!

Here’s what we covered first time around on Character Development:

Most of the time we think of character development as something only comic book artists, cartoon strip artists and book illustrators need to worry about. While this is certainly true, developing characters is something that all cartoonists need to come to grips with.

The characters that populate our art are what grab our readers attention. They connect with our audience and speak to them the message that we are hoping to convey. Sometimes they are lovable. Other times they are rude and obnoxious. At all times characters have a role to play and thus must be worked on and developed so they do that job properly.

In the American film industry, the Academy Award for best actor/actress is really an award for the person who portrayed the most developed character on screen. Think about recent winners - in every case they were able to act in such a way that the role they were given became a real person. They gave their characters quirky habits, distinctive accents, particular attitudes or unique burdens. If they had simply read their lines and not developed the character in any way, the movie would be a boring, box-office flop.

The same goes for cartoons. The characters that populate our artwork must become alive for our cartoons to have any impact and hold our audience’s attention. Bland characters are a fatal blow to a cartoon strip artist, and even a spot/gag cartoonist will be looking for work if blandness appears cartoon after cartoon.

Blandness is only acceptable is it is intentional. Scott Adams’ cartoon characters in Dilbert are bland. The main guy is a boring office worker, but Adams has purposely developed him that way to express the monotony many face in the office/cubicle environment. But even in this blandness, Dilbert has some unique character qualities - he always has pens in his pocket; his tie is always curled up; and he is always subservient to his boss Dogbert. The popularity of the Dilbert cartoon strip is testament to how well Adams’ target audience is able to relate to his characters. They either know what Dilbert is going through, they know somebody who is just like Dilbert, or they think their boss is a dog.

The best way to develop character or personality in your cartoon characters is to think about people you’ve met. Sometimes we meet people and forget them almost instantly, quite simply becasue they are boring. We don’t find anything about them even remotely interesting and so relegate them to the not-worth-remembering file in our heads. On the other hand, sometimes we meet people that fascinate us, scare us, make us laugh, challenge our thinking or even confuse us. These are the people we remember and these are the ones that we can utilise in drawing our cartoons.

I once met a minister of a church. Normally that might not be such an interesting thing, but this pastor was also a contemporary artist, a Portuguese bullfighter, a martial arts instructor and a cage fighter. He had tattoos all over his body, with the words “Jesus Saves” written across his stomach. This guy was (and is) somebody who I will never forget. He is a walking cartoon - the only reason I haven’t used him in my work yet is that I’m scared he’ll kick my head in…

Think about the things that define the people you know and how you could use them in your characters:

Do they wear distinctive clothing or jewellery?

Do they wear unusual make up?

What does their voice sound like?

Do they have a distinctive laugh?

Do they have any habits?

Do they have any hobbies?

Do they struggle with any issues or problems?

Are any of their facial features pronounced?

Are they accident prone?

Are they hopelessy in love?

And so on….

The type of message you want to communicate will have some impact on your characters, as will the setting. Sometimes they almost demand certain types of characters. But whatever the case, it is worth taking the time to develop your characters and give them a personality that will communicate your message.

Finally, once this ‘thinking’ work is done - draw them! Draw them in every possible pose and setting that you can think of. Draw them in their home, at work, interacting with others and relaxing. Draw different expressions and emotions. Make your character come to life!

It might seem like a chore, but doing this ground work produces a more ‘mature’ character and one that can be a source of income for, potentially, many years to come.