Want to create your own original character for comics, manga, anime, video games, an illustrated story, a D&D campaign, or just for fun – but don't know where to start? We’ve got you covered! Come join us for Creativity Camp.
Wacom Creativity Camp is a free online character design workshop series happening this summer! It’s taught by professional character designer and concept artist Alexandria Neonakis and is perfect for young folks, beginning artists, or anyone else who wants to strengthen their character design skills. It's free, and you don’t need any digital art tools to participate – pencil and paper is fine!
During this workshop series you’ll draw along with Alex, learning the basics – including the building blocks of great character designs, finding inspiration, and nailing costumes, accessories, and other details – and by the end you'll have a complete model sheet for your original character! Throughout, you’ll also get expert feedback and support from a professional artist.
Join us live on Zoom on Wednesdays, July 8 – 29, from 3:00-5:00pm PDT!
Each session builds on the last, so if you attend every workshop you’ll have a completed character model sheet at the end. It’s OK if you can’t make it to every session, though – we’ll have recap materials and “homework” to get you caught up, and we’ll publish recordings of the workshops on YouTube. One more reason to attend live, though: we’ll be giving away Wacom drawing tablets during each session, and only attendees are eligible!
Session 1: What makes a great character design? Mixing and matching simple shapes
July 8th from 3:00 – 5:00pm PDT / 6:00 – 8:00pm EDT
In this first session, we’ll discuss what makes a good character design. We’ll break down how many classic characters are constructed out of simple shapes, look at how different characters match each other style-wise, and mix-and-match elements to see what new characters we can come up with!
Session 2: Finding our own style: bringing inspiration and references together
July 15th from 3:00 – 5:00pm PDT / 6:00 – 8:00pm EDT
In this session, we’ll build on the foundation of Session 1. We’ll discuss how our inspirations can help us develop our own style, and look at our favorite characters to see what common elements we can find. We’ll take what we learned about simple and inspiration and start developing our own original character!
Session 3: Costumes, settings, and accessories: getting the details of our character down
July 22nd from 3:00 – 5:00pm PDT / 6:00 – 8:00pm EDT
In this first session, we’ll discuss what makes a good character design. We’ll break down how many classic characters are constructed out of simple shapes, look at how different characters match each other style-wise, and mix-and-match elements to see what new characters we can come up with!
Session 4: Final details, high-level professional feedback, and Q&A
July 29th from 3:00 – 5:00pm PDT / 6:00 – 8:00pm EDT
In this first session, we’ll discuss what makes a good character design. We’ll break down how many classic characters are constructed out of simple shapes, look at how different characters match each other style-wise, and mix-and-match elements to see what new characters we can come up with!
About the presenter
Alexandria Neonakis is a freelance concept artist, fine artist, and illustrator from Canada. She’s been the senior concept artist at ProbablyMonsters and Wonderstorm, and a character concept artist at Naughty Dog. Shipped titles include The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, and The Last of Us Part 2! She’s also worked with several publishers on children’s book illustrations, such as Simon & Schuster, Random House, Macmillain, Scholastic and Inhabit Media.
Learn more at her website or check her out on Instagram!
