Sam Fesmire - Character/Story Artist
Character Art & Character Design is a skill I cultivated while studying for my BFA. Growing up, I had a strong affinity for drawing comic book characters, showing off dynamic poses and costumes that show off personality.
In my time in college, I began diving beyond artistic intuition and learned about concepts that lie behind high quality character designs in animation - Shape Language, Silhouette, Color Theory, and more. I learned how to arrange character sheets, character lineups, as well as turnarounds.
A good character design includes lines the viewer may not realize are there. Understanding the structure of a character opens the door to a more malleable model which can be used for effective artistic reference, and also allows for the possibility of character rigging for movies and tv.
Exploring new combinations of shapes, lines, and other visual ideas opens the floodgates to the characters that can be designed or the stories that can be told with them.