Designing Animal Characters

[@sarahwaldron1051]

I’m 15 and I would love to be a book illustrator when I’m older and I particularly love to watercolour/draw Beatrice Potter style animal characters similar to your own style of drawing. Anyway this video helped so much with both characterising the animals and also drawing them. So Thankyou :)

[@sammieclarkart]

I'm so glad it helped you! Thank you for your comment. Happy creating!

[@artvibes5093]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKC1ha2Mapl7jrM

[@gailcarey3597]

Have you posted any on social media?

[@marionbik2022]

I just stumbled upon your you tube site. I love your perspective and learned a lot about how to analyse an animal and give it human characteristics without loosing the animal in the process. Thank you for sharing your approach. Very insightful! I adore your woodland characters. 🙏🏼🎨✨💕

[@sammieclarkart]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you found my video useful :)

[@bopperette7260]

Your illustrations are beautiful. I would love to be able to draw like you. I find proportions difficult and equal measurements. I spent years learning how to draw and then lost all of my art which made me stop altogether. More recently I've gotten into plushie making but being as I don't want to copy anyone I'm having to learn to draw all over again so I can design my own characters. The journey doesn't seem as daunting when there's relaxing approaches to it like watching art videos to be inspired by like yours. Had to subscribe. You're too good lol 😊💕

[@sammieclarkart]

I’m so glad you’re finding my videos inspiring! Thank you for sharing about your journey 😊

[@StarryTreeStudio]

just found you through this video and immediately following you!! you have a style of art that is exactly what inspires my type of art and youre giving great advice here so thank you for sharing your knowledge!!

[@sammieclarkart]

Thank you so much for following me! I'm glad you enjoy my work :)

[@veronical6964]

I love these new characters! I love that you called them "meat tube" bodies 😂 definitely a description I would use. Glad you had safe travels. Can't wait to see some of your new adventures in Washington!

[@sammieclarkart]

Haha my husband coined the term ;) I'm glad you like them! I had a lot of fun making them :)

[@Lilyboxes]

I love the new designs! I noticed the hunchback in my hamster when I tried drawing them it's so funny and cute. Also happy move! I hope you enjoy Washington

[@sammieclarkart]

They are so cute, and it can add a lot of their personality into the drawing :) Thank you for watching!

[@flyingteacup8369]

Thank you for all the helpful advice.

[@sammieclarkart]

I'm so glad you found it helpful! I have whole class on the subject I have made since. You can take it for free through this link skl.sh/2X76ZfN :)

[@DianeDean-p9e]

I loved your video because I’ve been trying to learn to draw anthropomorphic animals for awhile-I’ve studied a lot of photos of real animals in an effort to do what you discussed here. I’ve bought a lot of books with structures of animals drawn also. I’m still really struggling with getting some characters that I feel have my own stamp on them but are cute enough. I wrote a children’s book about a mouse couple, but I’ve yet to draw them cute enough. Wish I had someone to collaborate with. I doubt it will ever actually get completed:( it’s a struggle too, not to just end up,with characters that look just like someone else’s illustrations-after all-there are only so many ways to draw a mouse or chipmunk-undoubtedly they’ll have similar characteristics. But, I will keep trying and thanks for the advice.

[@sammieclarkart]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! One thing I did to hone-in on my own style in the beginning was to do sketches in pen, so I had to kind of live with what my hand naturally does, which gave an idea of some of my personal style tendencies. Of course I eventually went back to pencil and refined things to get them looking how I want, but it was a helpful exercise! Good luck with your book! It can be intimidating, but I think once your characters looks are nailed-down, you'll be able to have some fun with illustrations for the story :)

[@brenroseartsoul6713]

Very inspiring information, thanks

[@alicejacobs8597]

Thanks for the informative video! I'm working on a 'possum story and have been working on sketch practice. My characters won't be clothed, but the expressions will have a human element.. I'm pretty excited, but I do have a particular style that needs to be honed and consistent. Plus, I love the "toob" ness of your critters.

[@sammieclarkart]

Thanks so much Alice! I have an oppossum character I'm working on too :)

[@althepalable]

@@sammieclarkart If I had my druthers, I'd ask you to illustrate it. But I'm going to go it alone assuming all goes well. Stay tuned and I'll be sure and share when it's published!!

[@sammieclarkart]

@@althepalable Aw! You will do great! Thank you. and yes, please do :)

[@MaybeeDesigns]

Loved this😍 glad to see you are back!

[@sammieclarkart]

Thank you so much! I hope to be more consistent with videos now that life is more settled :)

[@Spectorwing]

I draw almost exclusively animals, particularly cats and dogs, I have two cats and both my neighbors have dogs. I have been drawing for around three years now and I have run into a bit of a rut, my art is either hyper realistic which leads too many problems when I try to animate it, or they are super cartoony, that I come up with when I have no ref sheet like my profile picture. What would your advice be to first of all find a happy medium and two, give my characters more distinct character designs

[@sammieclarkart]

Thank you for your question! I struggle with this sometimes too. My graphic novel is more simple and sketchy in nature, because it matches the mood of my story but also is practical for a project of that scale, (I do mostly keep the animals looking pretty "accurate", but simplified.) I think you'd find my class on skillshare helpful. It's all about designing animal characters and I talk about the rationales behind different illustration styles and what is appropriate for your goals, what features to accentuate, etc. It is free to sign up and you'll have access to all the classes on there too :) (you can cancel before your 2 month free period is up.) skl.sh/2X76ZfN Think about what you want to communicate or what mood you want your work to evoke. And its ok to have some more detailed and some more stylized work, because I think it depends on your goal for the piece/ your art career overall

[@paintingalways]

wonderful video🎉❤

[@las174]

Were these drawings with pen/paint and paper, or did you draw them on an electronic device?

[@sammieclarkart]

The drawings you see the timelapse of were created on Procreate on an iPad :) The older example illustrations were on paper with copic marker, watercolor and pen

[@moniquesummerfield]

I'm very new to drawing...but I have 9 pet bunnies so I stare at them a lot and practice drawing. :)

[@sammieclarkart]

Wow, nine bunnies must be so much fun! They can be such sweet and sassy animals, and great muses :)

[@natalieann80]

I love the new designs! Do you also draw non-rodent animals in clothes? I’d love to see how you do a fox or a badger. 🙂

[@sammieclarkart]

thank you so much! I have done those animals before :) here's a link to the character page of my portfolio which has some of the ones I've created www.sammieclarkportfolio.com/characters