WRITER: @puzzlingThief and @HeartsUp4Ari
Writing Tip of the Week: Create character sketches if you feel like your character isn't realistic. Most characters are, or at least on Tumblr, capable of writing their own personality. If you'd rather you keep your little personality issue in control, character sketches are known to let you write the personality better. After sketching you can add some more details and maybe a few colors to help define your characters. Most people want a tip to be quick and easy–what’s one easy thing I can do today that will help me lose 25 pounds by the time I go to the beach next month?!
Well, Star Girl can’t give you a tip like that. Mastering drawing takes thousands of man-hours. How much time have you spent studying your craft? And I don’t mean just drawing the same thing over and over again from memory or another person’s drawing. I mean studying life. I mean drawing your family while they’re watching TV. Drawing your own funny expressions in a mirror. Drawing strangers in a mall food court.
Most people can draw their character making an angry face, a happy face, a startled face. But can you draw anxiety so subtle that your character’s friends don’t notice but your readers do? Can you draw self-doubt? Can you draw the exact moment that betrayal transitions from anger to heartbreak?
We think a big part of the struggle with character design and inconsistency with characters from one drawing to another is an underdeveloped ability to draw. If you can’t put on paper what you see in your mind, you’re going to be frustrated with character design because it just doesn’t come out right.
You imagine something one way but just can’t get it down on paper. If you’re both writer and artist, this can be even more sickening. You wrote a powerful scene, watching it play out cimeatically in your mind. But once you draw it, it just feels flat. That great piece of dialogue makes no impact because the drawing doesn’t reflect the emotional intensity.
