Well, how do you do? [Giggles] Welcome. This is where I keep all of my markers, so you can see I have some Copics and some Ohuhus. These are the Ohuhus that I've used, so I have like a little bag of other Ohuhus that I like never reach for. This has been more than I need so, this is what I keep on my desk, they're usually on their side like this but you can't see them when they're like that, so like just they will remain, for now, at least, so on the days that I wake up and I want to draw but I'm not entirely sure what it is that I want to draw, one of the things I like to do is a three marker character design challenge because it incorporates some of my favorite things, limited color palettes, characters and design so you can see why I gravitate towards this challenge regularly. I do have the, you can see I have little cubbies in this box kind of organized by color family so picking them at random will be a little less random than usual but let's go ahead, I'll close my eyes. Spin em around, who know's where and just pick one. 🎵 Oh no, this one's empty, I can tell uh, maybe I should just use my Ohuhus, the juicy ones but the first marker I selected was B00...0, sorry, it's called pale porcelain blue it's very light, so that's our first color. Okay, so we're gonna - Oh, it's a purple, we have V020, it's the color pale lilac, I think this is from the Ohuhu pastel set, yeah, that's exciting. So we have two very light colors although this one is going to be much lighter than that one so I'm hoping that this next go around to get something that's much deeper because this needs to be a challenge and I already do very pastel things that have no contrast and it's already a problem so no need to exaggerate that. Next one, next one! This pinky found something, oh no, eggshell, wow how exciting, we have, we have, eggshell, pale lilac and pale porcelain blue, kind of matches the nails, whoa, those are almost exact, crazy, crazy crazy. Anyway, okay, this is definitely gonna be interesting. We'll have to swatch them first, these guys can go back to their home over here. If you're wondering about this box, it's made out of cardboard, I got it from IKEA I feel like it was like three dollars, it was online and I saw the measurements and I feel like it's six inches deep which is about the size of a Copic marker. I'll link it down below but I created like the little inserts, they're also cardboard which I have cut to the proper dimensions although this one's a little short, yeah, I recommend it, you have to do a little DIY but it's so convenient and I actually put my markers away because look how pretty, it's like a rainbow, why would you not want to put your markers away? Let me grab my sketchbook, open it up to an empty spread and we'll start with swatching. I really want to focus today on creating a character that feels more alive. I feel like my character designs have kind of been lacking lately and just been like in the outfit I felt like drawing at the time which obviously this probably will still happen. This is the pale porcelain blue, pale lilac, look really pretty next to each other. Oh you can't see that, yeah, no contrast there, ay? But I really want to focus on giving the character more personality and I want it to show through in the design so I'm thinking a way to do that would be maybe think of where they work, their hobby, what's something else that makes people people, what makes a p- I forgot what I was saying but I don't want to just draw a pretty face which is what I tend to do, that's the goal here. I will grab a col erase, why don't we use purple because it's here and I've grabbed it, maybe we could do some like polar opposite things so do we want them extroverted or introverted, you know, this or that sort of situation. These colors. Oooh, do they feel more introverted or extroverted? The thing is these pastel colors like, if you wear a lot of pastels, you can look very vibrant and outgoing but also pastel version of a saturated color seems a little introverted to me, you know, like if we're trying to think about it, obviously I just kind of have to make a decision here but I'm feeling that they seem introverted, let's just go with that. Maybe it'll change, you know because they're not very loud colors. Obviously if you saw someone decked out in a ton of different pastel colors, that would be kind of you know loud but I think for the most part, pastel feels more reserved, yeah, okay. I'm locking in that decision, let's just kind of start doing some small thumbnails but I kind of don't want to draw a girl, I always draw girls, I'm trying to do things that I don't do well that I haven't - Wait, what, that's not what I mean. So if we want the character to look introverted, it's kind of important to well, I mean an introverted person and an extraverted person, they're gonna look the same but I mean we want it to really show in the pose because what we're trying to do is really convey that emotion though slouching a little can be helpful or do we want confidence or low self-esteem are those, are those opposites. I feel like these colors don't say one way or the other. I mean I guess it's whatever I feel like doing then, I think I'll do shy because I wanna show that in the pose. We're gonna go shy instead of confident, I think there's the opposite. So what I want is the character to kind of be slouched to avoiding eye contact. Maybe their pose should be kind of closed off so their arms might be crossed, if you're shy you might not have - What am I saying, if you're shy, I am shy but what I mean is that I'm trying to push these two extremes, right? So if you're shy, you're kind of like closed off, you might want people to approach you but you're like scared of the approaching, so maybe you're not trying to attract people in your general direction, so you might be wearing clothes that - Where am I going with this? I'm gonna say less inviting but like what does inviting clothing look like? Like, it's like a way of hiding and like, you're like, hiding in your clothes, maybe they're a bit looser, I mean I'm shy but I still like wearing things that suit me so maybe we don't go this direction but we can try it out, there's no wrong way to brainstorm, if you think there is, that's a real easy way to not draw at all. Okay and then for hair, I don't know, just something straight, maybe bangs, I know whenever I'm going through stuff and I'm going through an extra shy phase, the bangs come back. I feel like that's just another way to kind of like hide a lot of your face. Look at me diving into my own issues. Okay, so you see how I like have the pose, the arms kind of like protecting the vital organs. We got the knee up a little bit again so arrows can't hit anything too important, that's kind of like a good idea when you're trying to draw something shy. It's just they just kind of have an overall air of like protection because they're not ready to open up to new people yet, you know, so you close off the pose, I'm gonna throw some colors on this because I feel like I haven't done anything and I just keep talking a lot. I really like this yellow color, it's good with the purple. Oh, this blue is so light. Okay, so there we have a little look, I honestly quite like that design, reminds me a little bit of Dex but with different colors. Alright we need to figure out something else. Do they have a pet? Do they have a hobby? That'll help influence the clothing as well and maybe like the hairstyle. So if they have a hobby that keeps them more active, they might want a shorter or higher up-do sort of situation. I also still want to try doing a male character. Let's come up with like another trait and then I'll draw something. These colors make me think of ice cream so I'm just gonna write that down and no wrong way to brainstorm, or cotton candy, these colors also make me think of like a candy necklace. I want to draw that, that, that gives me a little spark, with a short hair, candy necklace, those candy necklaces, they're like little candy cheerios and then they're on like a piece of elastic. Do they still make those, they're usually kind of big, just a bunch of these and sometimes there's like little spaces where there aren't any. I think it's this color, really that makes me think of the candy necklace. Okay, pink hair, I really like that pink, I guess it's actually purple but it sure looks very pink to me. Maybe it's because I have the purple sketch. Oh I don't like that hair, not a fan, not a fan, something's off. Could do like stripes on the sleeve of all the colors or maybe just two of them. Oh this gives me like camp counselor vibes. I don't know what it is, maybe it's the candy necklace, why don't we go with that since it's the first thing that's coming to my mind, camp counselor um, so that would mean that their outfit should be very uh, I feel like, quick to put on, so that you can chase after kids but also kind of should be a little, maybe they're young and fun because I feel like camp counselors are just always really, really cool, I don't know what it is, I mean maybe someone out there's met a mean camp counselor but I have not. Feel like cargo shorts are very popular or bathing suit bottom too. Let's draw smaller than that, focus on like the silhouette and the shapes, square maybe those like, let's try, let's try the cargo short idea. You could do face paint or something and then the shirt should probably write have like the camp's name on it or something and some kind of logo. I'm thinking longer hair. What I liked about doing like smaller illustrations, before you really finalize the design is you can kind of see the whole thing without having to look around too much, like you look at any one spot and you can kind of see the whole design and see what's working and what's not and it's super easy to fix things because it's so small, it's just a little flick of the eraser. Ponytail? [Chortle] oOo, what if the pink, okay so when I do these three marker challenges, I do allow myself to add in colors as long as they're very purposeful and not very overwhelming like I can't use it to like, I'm like oh well the shirt would just look better in a darker blue, like I can't do that but like, what I'm thinking is maybe they've been at camp for a couple weeks so if he dyed his hair, dyed and bleached, I guess, pink there might be some roots showing which I could probably do with line art as well, just one of the things on my mind, you really wouldn't have pink eyebrows. I'm making the hair a little curly. I will grab a little line art so you can kind of see what that would look like. I guess he has black hair, okay, I don't hate that at all. We lost the little candy necklace. Maybe I'll make it not a candy necklace and instead like a beaded necklace that maybe one of the kids gave them. Still use all of the colors though. Oh shoot, this is pulling away from our first two ideas which was introverted and shy because now I'm thinking oh, this is like everybody's favorite counselor, you know, which would make him a lot more outgoing. Let's try this for the khaki. I liked the idea of them having like a two-tone color blocking and there's gotta be some kind of design on this it'll be some color I'm sure. Maybe some like socks to stop the bugs from getting in your shoes. Then maybe some kind of hiking boot or something. Alright I really like that one, we're getting somewhere. This character looks like it has some place to be and something to do, yeah instead of it being like a character, it's a person, that's like the difference in what I've been doing and what I want to do. Maybe they're shy and introverted but when they get around kids, they become fun and goofy, it's just their shine, introverted around people their own age, I don't know. Why did I draw this circle? I feel like I had a reason. Oh I wanted to come up with this logo, so I'm thinking a tent, mm-hmm, nice and simple, call like, camp creative, creative curling up a little. Might want to pull that, rotate it just a smidge, a little fire. Now what, oh what, if it's tie-dye, the tent is tie-dye, actually these colors would work really well for tie-dye too. I feel like something else has to be unique about it too. I don't think I can just do tie-dye because that kind of looks like a hippie camp which I mean it probably kind of is but I feel like something else has to scream creativity. I mean one way could be, it's just done in like crayon, you know. What if they have a mascot that's like a bunny and it's roasting marshmallows. Actually, bunnies aren't really the camping type of animal, I don't think. A bear, bear, yes bear, that feels, that feels right. [Chuckles] Roastin' marshmallows, I don't know. [Laughs] This tiny little bear, looks like a gummy bear. Okay looks like a logo, I don't know how much you'll make it out when it's on a shirt either, I mean even drawing it's small. I'm kind of confused at what I'm looking at, try the tie-dye. Purple and the bear is white I guess. Alright, that's not bad, maybe it's a camp where you go and do art. I do want to try just one more idea, make sure I'm not leaving anything out. What if it's down here, camp creative and you can't see the tie-dye. Okay so if that's like part of the circle, maybe that stays inside of the circle, I've got the tie-dye, oh it just needs something else that screams like art, I mean what if this was a marker that holds up the tent, again, you're not gonna see this if I draw it any smaller. I bet if I just did the pencil with the tie-dye as like the center instead of like off center, like this one is, we'd be really rolling and then should we include the little bear? I mean he fits right there, might as well, looks like Fozzie Bear. Throw a little color on here. Alright, well we've got a vague idea. I could totally see like the days of the camp being on here like July.... do-do-do-do-do to that. You know. Let's draw the actual character again, you know, the whole point. Slightly bigger, would like to be more interest, like it's very basic, right? Which is fine, there's nothing wrong with that but I would like to experiment and see if there's a way that I can make like the silhouette more recognizable or unique I guess would be the word. We keep the hair that way. I'd kind of like it. Make the necklace bigger, more noticeable. Have a little bit of his shyness maybe showing through with his hands in his pockets,. Shorts. I haven't changed anything have I? It looks the same. I could try the bathing suit idea or I could make it uh, camo, not camo, not camo, not camo but tie-dyed shorts. Like I'm thinking we should put a lot of accessories on this character of all the different like projects that they've done throughout the week. Maybe it's like those cotton shorts with a drawstring and they'd be like tie-dyed, maybe the socks, well then everything would just got to be tie-dyed I feel like. So it's gonna be like tie-dyed socks. The head's a little small, draw that again. That face, why do they look so surprised? Okay so like what's some things you can DIY? I got the necklace, maybe like little beads on the shoelaces, maybe some kind of keychain or a lanyard. Okay now he looks like he's at something else though, I'll leave it though just as an idea but the point in the lanyard because I wanted to put a keychain so we'll put that like ones with the strings that you never finish. They're like folded on top of each other which then ends up with a long string. Let's throw some color on that, I don't see any reason to not do the pink hair, I'm liking it especially if I can do like the roots growing out. White shirt. I'm gonna do tie-dye pants, not sure yet. Necklace. Problem is we're not gonna have enough yellow. Shoes maybe. While I'm thinking, I'ma just add some line art. I always give my male characters these big square, I believe someone once called them the bread loaf eyebrows and I couldn't agree more. Now I want that growing out roots here, I like these like chunky hair pieces. Face is nice and friendly, I guess that's more the expression not the face. [Laughs] Doesn't look how I pictured it would, I like that one better. It's still kind of slouching a little bit which Harkins back to that one. Harkins back? When do I ever say Harkins back? [Laughs] Okay, then. Definitely put some kind of bracelet, maybe a couple. I feel like he's that camp counselor that all the kids like make their projects for once they've finished the one for their mom. Is this still a thing? [Laughs] Socks, one leg ended up being a little wider than the other but I didn't do the colors, wait, do I wanna do the tie-dye pants? We can try it, I mean we already have that one and if I like that one better, then we know which one's the winner. Some little polka dots here and there, looks more like a floral design than tie-dye. Maybe I should have left more of it white. I've got a shoe. Okay just looking at it, I think I do prefer, I didn't write that on there but you get the idea, I do prefer the, just the random cargo shorts. I feel like this one doesn't show off enough orange, we can also layer some of these colors, maybe he's got more purpley hair. Alright, it's definitely giving off all the vibes I want. I just have to decide what I like better and obviously we'll have a skin tone and since we have so many pastels, I definitely want something darker to really add some actual contrast here. How about this carib coco E25, can't hurt to try. I really like this color. oooooOoooO! Can I layer the pink pushing blush? Oh wait, it's disappearing, it must be lighter than that color. So I'm going to grab a little, I could just layer this again actually. Okay I like that good decision. Okay, see how much better it pops now. it looks way more interesting, there's a lot more going on now. What is there left to do? It definitely doesn't look shy or introverted anymore. Maybe we should cross those out. Let's give them an ice cream or some cotton candy or something. I'm going to try it again with no tie, maybe tie-dye socks instead. I feel like that's the weakest part of this. So maybe with the like boring cargo shorts from kohl's and then tie-dye socks, waist, hips, legs, hiking boot things. Maybe this time actually try to make them look more like hiking boots. Maybe tie them around this way a little. I'll redraw everything else. Still want to kind of explore another silhouette with this, see if I can really change anything up. And also, why not, let's do a full pony, man bun. I don't know what they're supposed to look like. What if we like rolled up the sleeves into a tank top? [Gasps] ooo, that feels very summer. Oh it's so hot! Cargo, he could have some kind of like keys. Why do I keep doing this one? I think this one's more fun to draw from a distance. So let's say camp creative this way that's probably all that will make it. Necklaces, bracelets, said that backwards but I'm not gonna say it again. Throw in a little color there. I want to do tie-dye socks. I don't know if you'll actually see it but hey, that looks kind of tie-dye, I don't like this awkward white space in the middle. I was trying not to draw on this because this is one of the pages that has threads and they can be a bit of a hassle to draw on top of. What am I? Should I do dots for eyes, it's kind of calling me but give this character more attention. Actually draw the nose this time. It's kind of slightly curly hair. Why does that look like a brain sticking out of the top of his head? I gave him a scrunchie. I don't know if that makes sense or not, it depends. Kind of miss drawing those pieces of hair though. Oh we'll see, we got lots of page left. Okay wait, why am I doing the line art? I want to color next. I even started with the color, why did I move the line art? Now you can't really tell what's going on in the sleeves, at least not as well, they're like striped, you know. Okay how did I end up back at line art? Okay I wanted to try yellow shorts. Skin. This pose sucks, I was like what is he doing with his arms? Wait, I drew that, okay well sometimes I don't think. Shoes, hair, I was going to say there's not enough pink in this, it's because I didn't color in the hair yet. I'm going to add in that's the natural hair color. I feel like it's kind of hard to tell, I need to do a better job making that look like it's the hair, I feel like. I mean the eyebrows help, having the dark eyebrows but oh shoot, I'm getting lazy, look at that, whoa. Really something about this is not interesting me enough to give it my full attention! He just looks so awkward with this pose. He's just like, like his shoulders are so stiff and his arms are just straight down. Okay what does a boot look like? Maybe just taller, it just looks like a sneaker, what's the difference? I might have to look up a reference, might also be the color, we could use a little bit of this. You look more like a boot. Okay, not a fan of pose. I think the rolled up sleeves doesn't work for one reason and it's because I made the sleeves like an actual point of interest when they're long so when they're short they just look pink and you're like why are they pink? So if you're trying to create like a clean cut design, it doesn't really work. Also not a fan of the hair up, gonna say that probably the way I drew it but you know, it put a sour taste in my mouth, So I'm not gonna do that again. I also would like to try maybe a tighter fit of short. I've drawn the exact same one three times and you know, maybe a little change will help. We'll do small because I am running out of space here. Maybe a tighter fit that goes under the knee and still have a large shirt, sleeves down, looks a little hobbit like, so make it a cargo, probably, I just feel like that's the camp counselor uniform. I love the little socks. Oh maybe boots just come out, come up higher. Oh, wait that's probably what needs to happen. Hey, okay, we got these coming down pretty low, then these socks, then a boot. I like the half up-do and then I could draw these little pieces. Maybe a little tighter fit on the shirt too. It also looks younger in this outfit which I appreciate. Throw on some color. I like thumbnails, ah why do they always have to look good? I spoke too soon. [Laughs] I'm kidding, I'm kidding. A little less camp counselor with the long shorts but maybe that makes him a little more unique. A little line art. Love the pose, much better, see when you draw small, it's also easier to draw more fluid poses, so if you're having trouble and your poses are turning a little stiff, try just drawing smaller coming up with the idea, that way, hey, those socks will be tie-dye, you'll be able to see the stripes on that a little better. I'm not sure about the hair, like to make that look like actual hair, I haven't been changing things up very much. I feel like once I put down a color, I was like, I like it, that can stay but I guess all that's left to draw, the full size. Although we've gotten pretty close right here and maybe an interesting pose and put a little bit more effort into the line art because I keep being very lazy with that. Maybe we'll do like a sitting pose so I can draw him even bigger and he'll really like pop on the page so if there's something to sit on there, I didn't really put much thought into what the face would look like. It's kind of just generic, so a little jelly bean, larger forehead, that might give me more space to work on the hair. Being more like abstract with the shape. That's a little better, also gives me more room for eyebrows. Oh but if I sit him down, I can't tell how long the shorts are, will you, well if I do that, I'm just kind of sketching them out. Make sure I don't forget this necklace. Shoes. I'm not sure where to put the arms, what would he be doing exactly? Sat down on a stump, roasting a marshmallow, there's a stump, there's a marshmallow, probably make him looking at it, maybe this hand's holding it and this hand's checking it, see if it's done. Hey this is a unique pose, I don't draw this every day, cool, I'll take it. Hopefully we'll be able to actually write the letters on this. I'm going to stick his tongue out because he's excited to eat this thing. Is the head a little small? Maybe, maybe, maybe, let me see. Okay now the head looks too big I probably just shrink the forehead. Can't really see, there's a lot, a lot of action over here. What is the shape of this head? I mean it's not like unrealistic or anything, it's just not what I usually draw. I'm confused by it. Bracelets and the tie-dye socks. I'ma look up really quickly a hiking boot. I see what I was doing wrong, there's like uh, comes up higher, obviously, which I did figure out. A lot of them have like a piece in the back like that kind of comes all the way to here, maybe the laces here, does look like a boot now? Hey, those look like boots, like it could be a little bigger but I've run out of space. A little tuffs of grass, so you know it's the ground. I think I want to redo the face but first, I will sharpen the pencil, get a little more precision, I guess most people call it precision, did you draw the whole head, why not, we want this to look good, it's our last drawing of the day here. Still really not like the eyes or much of the face. I don't know what's going wrong, maybe it's more at an angle and I'm only drawing some of the features at that angle. It needs to stick out more, the ears should be higher, that too, usually when you're looking down, your eyelids kind of close a little. Okay, I like this face a lot better than the last previous seven attempts. I think the legs now need work because like now that the face looks good, I'm noticing problems in the rest of it. This legs look a little short, if I just push it further back so it's like coming this way, it's about the same length. Yeah, ish. I can see the tops of this, I can't really see the top of this. The legs should be coming out of here. Let me tone down the scrunchie. Okay there's some hair like this, doesn't match the style of these pieces, you can see more straight, such an improvement. So glad we drew that. We ready to add some color? Well I guess this arm isn't, what is this, I didn't even see that. Forearm And we'd have a fist of some kind folding on whatever that thing is, a stick, a little extra piece on it because one of them sticks is not super straight. Then we got this other arm. Beautiful, now I just have to add in the colors. The head actually looks too big now. [Gasps] No! don't make me redo the head. I could just shrink the forehead maybe, would that be enough? And that's the top of the hair, still a big head. I think it's because the shoulder is so low. What if I just brought this shoulder up because then it would kind of elongate the torso. It actually made a bigger difference than I thought it would but I think that's gonna do me for the day. Let's add in the colors. I'll do the line art last I think so that makes it easier for like the necklace if I want them to all be different colors. Do those little fingers, room for the neck- Bracelets, color in the face and a little blush, a little dimension here, push back some of these areas, then we need to do the pants. Oh I probably should have erased the pencil. Oh well this kind of feels like it's part of it at this point. Let's do a scrunchie in this color. I want stripes with blue, stripes with pink. Tie-dye. Maybe if I layer it with the pink just to make it a different color from the skin. The hair is pink. Is that all the color on here? The rest is line art? Interesting. Start with the thinner line art, go in nice and slow and careful. Bigger one and fill in those. Okay if I just make them smile, eyes will kind of come together a bit better. These little necklaces or beads, I guess the beads. I never know what to say when I'm doing line art. Do I just like sleeve, say sleeve just takes a lot of focus. Oh I wanted some hair to be dark, that looks pretty good. I tried to keep it kind of spaced and not too uniform really. Stick. Oh no, that hand, what happened, what happened here? Don't look at that. Marshmallow, hey! Looking kind of nice. Boots. Oh gotta do the logo, smaller one for that, can't really read it but there it is, look at that! Oh I didn't name him um, Tim, okay, we got a name. [Laughs] It's Tim. I always forget to name them at the beginning so that I can like say their name along the journey but whatever, it happens. I'm gonna have this little bit of background pop pizzazz. Markers kind of dying but there it is. [Gasps] oooOoo! Here's Tim, my little camp counselor from camp creative. That was really fun. I'm so glad I did. See this is why I always recommend three marker challenges when you're not entirely sure what to draw and then just let anything flow out of your brain and you can't say any of them are bad or you might get stuck. You gotta just keep going and eventually you'll come up with something that's really really fun, I know you will. So thank you guys for watching, hope you enjoyed coming along with me and I'll see you guys all next week. I hope you have a delicious evening full of waffles. Bye! 🎵
