Welcome to Wacom Creativity Camp!
Creativity Camp is over!
Thank you so much to the hundreds of students who learned, shared, and had fun working on character design skills this year. Recap documents and recordings of the sessions are below. Want to make sure you're alerted the next time we host an event like this one? Make sure you're signed up for emails!
Creativity Camp was a free online character design workshop series presented by Wacom in partnership with Best Buy. It covered the basics of creating your own original character for comics, manga, anime, video games, an illustrated story, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, or just for fun. It was taught by MCAD professor Lafe Smith, and was perfect for young folks, beginning artists, or anyone else who wanted to strengthen their character design skills.
Presented in partnership with:
Creativity Camp 2025 workshops
A free, live character design workshop series from MCAD Professor Lafe Smith
Character design resources
Want to extend your learning? Tips, tricks, and tutorials to design dynamic characters
Where to buy Wacom products
Best Buy is our preferred retail partner for Creativity Camp
Creativity Camp 2025
During this workshop series, attendees learned the basics of how to create a character – including finding inspiration, sketching ideas, crafting silhouettes, and creating expressive faces and poses – and ended up with a complete model sheet for their original characters! Throughout, they also get expert feedback and support from a professional artist and art school professor.
Session 1: Finding inspiration, practicing gestures, & building your character’s story
In the first session, we discussed what makes a good character design, including the power of an evocative silhouette. We practiced one of the most important exercises in our toolbox – gesture drawing – to build toward dynamic poses and silhouettes. And we thought about what story we want our character to be a part of, and how their design can help tell that story.
Session 2: Using shape language, research & references, and an intro to model sheets
In this session, we built on the foundation of Session 1. We discussed shape language, and we dug into the importance of research and references, including using mood boards as creative compasses for our designs. We also started thinking about model sheets, and began putting together the building blocks of our original character.
Session 3: Design details, expressive faces & poses, and assembling your model sheet
The third session really got into the details and specifics of our characters! We focused on expressive faces and poses for our character, and thought about how the details expand our storytelling, from overall colors to hair to clothing to accessories. We also moved toward finalizing our character model sheet.
Session 4: Final details, high-level professional feedback, and Q&A
The main goal of this session was to finalize model sheets – and then get feedback on what we’ve done! Attendees submitted their work for review, and Professor Smith gave personalized (positive) feedback on what they'd created so far in the workshop.
How to design compelling characters
Whether you're creating a video game, comic page, or editorial illustration, you need your characters and designs to be dynamic and compelling. Make sure to attend the Creativity Camp workshop series for expert instruction on character design. If you can't make one of the sessions, though, or are looking for more resources, check out all of the great content below!
Wacom's preferred retail partner for Creativity Camp: Best Buy
If you're just getting started a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet is a great choice. A Wacom One tablet or Wacom One display can take your creativity to the next level. And if you're an art student or need professional-level creative tech in a portable package, a Wacom Movink OLED Pen Display might be just what you need.
Best Buy is a great place to get Wacom products, no matter which device you're looking for!
