Saturday, September 27, 2008

Character identification



Seth said in a letter to an emerging artist, "Try to design characters so that they are identifiable 360 degrees around...so you can ID the character from the back of the head so it gives you more options for angles to take in the scene and still keep things clear. You can use hats, clothes, a bird on their shoulder, whatever...."
When he drew these characters from Batman SNOW--Batman's crew of helpers--he was free to choose what they would look like. Some characters have a certain look they are supposed to have (Batman, of course), but some he could design however he wanted. Each of them needed to be unique, but not so unusual so as to be caricaturish. Here they are.
Gerard Van Daalen dresses in grey and has that haircut with the shaved sides.
Amy Ross has short hair and ALWAYS wears hats.
David Rubens is obese, and has that hair that flies back.
Mira Charan has long hair pulled back and wears suits.
Luis Diaz is the only one with no particular quirk in his look, but he has a slightly receeding hairline with tight curls, and a jutting jaw.
All in all, each one is identifiable from a small drawing or from behind, or even from above (since Seth does occasionally take that point of view).

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