SHAPE AND FORM

For week one of animation, we were given the task to study the forms of popular animated characters by breaking them into simple lines and shapes. I’ve chosen to use Amity and Luz from The Owl House, Po from Kung Fu Panda and Timmy from Fairly Odd Parents. I chose to use characters from different shows/movies as I wanted to explore unique character designs. Po’s design uses rounded lines and shapes to convey the character’s soft and lovable personality as circles and round shapes create the illusion of friendliness and flexibility, which also aids his character arc as he evolves from a goofy waiter to a goofy dragon warrior. Timmy’s design is very stylized, mainly consisting of straight lines and very little curves. Luz and Amity have a similar, elongated body style. Their heads however differentiate from each other and establish their personalities. Amity’s design includes more angles than Luz and are prominent in her chin, ears, eyes and hair. The angles help to establish Amity as a more serious character while Luz’s design is more rounded, more prominent in her face, ears, eyes and hair to establish her bubbly, friendly personality.

While breaking the characters down, I had also marked their Lines of action as i feel it is important in developing the form of the characters. A month ago, I had conducted a similar independent study of @star_bite’s art style, an illustrator on Instagram, as I wanted to improve my own art style. breaking their drawings down, I learnt how their use of shapes and lines can help make the drawing look more smooth and less stiff.

I’ve found that both my independent study and homework task has broaden my knowledge on how to construct a character’s form using simple shapes and lines. I’ve begun incorporating what I’ve learnt into my own skills, and I feel as if it has improved my drawing. I aim to improve further and incorporate what I’ve learnt into future projects.