Artists do a lot of things behind the scenes that make what they do possible. Have you ever wondered how children’s book characters stay so consistent from beginning to end?
There’s more to it than a ton of practice—much like musicians, artists have to practice in ways that make sense. For example, you wouldn’t see a musician play an entire piece over and over, if the only thing that needed work was a particular passage.
It’s the same for artists.
Learning to draw a character in the same way all the way through a book is a bit challenging, but is easier after you’ve done a few character studies.
A character study can be as rough, or finished as you want, but needs to show multiple angles, poses, and expressions—they also help you get the anatomy right. Here’s one I’m working on for “Hare.” This dude is in my Tortoise and the Hare project, which is just in the beginning stages.
He’s athletic, high-strung, and always ready to go.
“Hare” is the epitome of energetic athlete and he’s always got his backwards ball cap on…because he goes so fast it’ll blow off otherwise!
At any rate, if you’re designing a character, or just dreaming of being able to…do more character studies. You’ll get more consistent and faster at sketching them.
2/2/26 Note: The links are Amazon affiliate links that pay me a little when you purchase using them. It doesn't cost anything extra and every single bit of affiliate income I get is currently going to pay for my buddy Fiona's ACL rehab.
We can't afford surgery right now so we're working with an integrative rehab vet to get her leg as stable as possible. But let's be real, who has a spare $3,000-$5,000 sitting around for surgery? Hopefully we'll be able to raise/save enough up to get her a new knee in the next few months.
