Notes from David Colman's CSUF Presentation

Becoming a Character Designer
After more than five years in the animation industry where he designed characters for Polar Express, Open Season, Boondocks, and Class of 3000, David Colman keeps to a rigorous discipline. He continues to attend weekly figure drawing sessions, he draws animals at least once a week at the zoo, and he tries to do one drawing per day “for himself” before or after his working hours. Some of these drawings appear on his blog. About being in this profession, he says “you’re an art student forever.”

To become a strong character designer, he encouraged the CSU-Fullerton crowd of art students to master the fundamentals (anatomy, perspective, design principles), because these will free the character designer to explore, elaborate and exaggerate who a character is rather than struggle with how it looks and how its body is constructed.

He shared many tips on character design:
- when you find something difficult to draw, like hands, address it
- avoid volume redundancy (evenness)
- exploit shapes
- versatility of styles is very important
- trying different media is useful to "break your style"
- knowledge of anatomy is important and it should save you from drawing unstructured bodies, however don’t let anatomy draw your drawing
- fundamentals are important, because you have to understand the real in order to "cartoon" it

… and tips about portfolios and careers in character designing:
- your portfolio should demonstrate versatility and the understanding of the fundamentals
- in portfolios, less is more, and 10 pages is plenty
- lay out the art in your portfolio to make the viewing experience fluid and organized, not confusing
- finish some of your best sketchbook drawings, bring them to the next level in your portfolio
- ask pros for their feedback, and have them point out the “negative” so you can focus more on what needs improvement
- because shows often only have one or two character designers, being a Jack-of-all-trades opens more work possibilities
- be persistent, rejection makes you stronger