Character Concept Art Design

Iconic characters are essential to any story, and they can make your brand, picture book, or animation stand out. Before you create, develop and plan out aesthetic concepts for your characters. Build the look and make sketches to bring your characters to life!

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What Is Character Concept Art?

Character concept art is essential to any story. Cool characters are the most important part of any great story. Character concept artists create characters who appear in video games, animations, commercials, movies, or company branding, and more!

A character artist creates an entire concept, style, and artwork from scratch. They will typically go through a complex character design creative process. It takes a lot of brainstorming and researching to create a character’s visual appearance, as well as match it to a compelling personality. Many concept artists may start with a briefing of the characters, then develop the visuals of the character through concept art.

Designing character concept art involves a lot of work from story telling, visual developing, to delivering projects. You can choose to draw with paper and pencil, or create with a digital note-taking app like NoteLedge to accelerate the creative process. NoteLedge allows you to plan the character's back story, collect referencing materials, make sketches to test different looks and vibes, and export your creation to deliver your work - you can do it all in one place!

How to Start the Character Design Process - A Step by Step Guide

Create an Outline for the Character's Story

An outline can be created for your character’s backstory. This may include character development and origin story. Important questions to consider: What is the character’s personality? What colors does the character like? What is the character's marital status and national origin? What makes them special?

Build a Reference Library

Collect information from your favorite resources, like Pinterest or Behance and get inspiration from the industry professionals. For example, if you’re creating a cat superhero, you can look for pictures or observe cats to capture their expressions and in different moods. Combine with some superhero elements to build the look.

Develop Visual Appearances and Bring Your Ideas to Life

Develop a visual guide for the character with color scheme, wardrobe, and special elements. Create a “character turnaround” drawing of the front, side, and back view of the character. Develop poses and expressions according to the character's moods and activities.

Create an Outline for the Character's Story

Build a Reference Library

Develop Visual Appearances and Bring Your Ideas to Life

Build Your Character Design Portfolios

In the character design industry, a strong digital art portfolio is essential for concept artists or character artists to land a good job and develop their career. NoteLedge is the perfect place to build a digital portfolio where you can organize your character design concept art projects, graphic design works, design process, and award recognitions all in one place.

When looking for a dream job in the character concept art industry, communication and interpersonal skills are the keys to success. A compelling portfolio can help you tell the story of your compelling characters and show your art skills. NoteLedge allows you to export your portfolio to PDF with rich multimedia content to showcase your works and impress the industry professionals.