VAILL 385 Character Design Fall 2014: appeal

WHAT IS APPEAL?

Specialists in appeal are what we call character designers.

“appeal is anything that a person likes to see”. - Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston

There is something beyond the Quality of the Drawing - Sam Neilson

Early Po designs

Nico Marlet Po designs

Early Pinocchio Designs - Followed by a complete Halt in production until Pinnocchio was made more appealing - in design and character

Redesigned Pinnocchio

"Appeal is a very very hard subject to cover...it's very elusive and hard to quantify"

"Our audience’s sub-conscious will determine whether they like what they see in a fraction of a second."

"Where a live action actor has charisma, a drawn character has appeal."

"Audiences like to see a quality of charm, pleasing design, simplicity, communication, or magnetism. A weak drawing or design lacks appeal. A design that is complicated or hard to read lacks appeal. Clumsy shapes and awkward moves all have low appeal."

"it's the artist's personal charm coming through once the drawing ability is at a level that you can see what's going on in the artist's head.  Many artists who seem creepy and cold as people tend to make creepy and cold drawings. Or they're weird and obsessive and their drawings are weird and obsessive. Giggly girls make really girly drawings, goofy guys make goofy drawings...it's the way that they talk with their pencils."

THE PROBLEM

Mark Kenndy - Not every artist or cartoonist has natural appeal.Some have naturally appealing styles and can take other people's designs or even generic designs and draw them with great appeal.

Mark Kennedy - being an accomplished draftsman isn't the same thing as drawing with an acute sense of appeal.

“The uggly and repulsive may capture your gaze, but there will be neither the building of a character nor identification with the situation that will be needed. There is shock value, but no story strenght.” - Frank and ollie

THE ISSUE AND GOAL

First of all, my purpose here is not to say that one oppinon is wrong and another right or that there are right or wrong answers, rather that this is a real part of character design that all character designers have to face and work out.

PRINCIPLES OF APPEAL/ TAKING ACTION

here are SOME principles or keys of design which seem to be most universal in appealing designs

Appeal comes from life. You can only illustrate appeal from experiencing life and its emotions. Observing.

Appeal comes from a human connection with the drawings - the most effective drawings are often the ones that the artist themselves enjoyed making - there is a personal charm - a part of the artist or their personality or experience that sometimes comes through - the audience relates to this.

Here is my favorite posting on appeal, by Sam Nielson, a co-worker of mine. I think he hits some really good points and he has alot of foundation and experience behind him.

http://artsammich.blogspot.com/2007/01/rant-of-week-appeal.html

http://artsammich.blogspot.com/2007/02/appeal-rant-redux.html

"Let me suggest first of all that appeal isn't magical or mystical. It's pretty straightforward, actually. The three ideas that influence appeal are:"

1) Effective use of design principles,

2) creativity, and

3) attention to audience and purpose. - What kind of designs appeal to an 11 year old girl?

4) Personality

1st try - lacks appeal

2nd try - much better!

Sam Neilson

SIMPLICITY

Simplicity isn't an excuse to draw poorly - Mark Kennedy

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2006/04/appealpart-one.html
http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2006/04/simplicity-appeal-line-of-action-lot.html

GROUPING

The three concepts I talk about first - rhythm, variety of shape, and proportion - are three huge, huge secrets to doing great character design

For now, try this out yourself - if you're unhappy with a drawing, look and see what you can "group" together to simplify the pose and give the figure or object more direction or a better gesture.

SIMPLICITY is a big key to appeal. Detail tends to "uglify" a drawing and it loses it's appeal.

Take away everything that hurts the statement you're trying to make and a drawing will instantly get stronger.

Anyone who's ever designed a character knows how it goes: you start with a drawing that's busy and too complicated. You draw over and over it, refining the design. As you go, you lose what you don't need and simplify until you have something that seems to work (that's how it goes for me anyway).

That's why I love the work of Quentin Blake so much. Every drawing is super efficient. There's only as much there as needed to tell the story he's trying to tell. Nothing extra just to be fancy. And every line contributes to the statement he's making. Every line conforms to the Line Of Action.

Gordi Bernet can draw tons of detail (and disturbing subject matter) and yet always keeps it appealing. How does he do it? I guess he just has an innate sense of design that I find appealing. Also I feel like Jack Davis sometimes has lines in a drawing that don't seem to fufill any function. Bernet seems to always hace a reason for his lines. For example, all of his wrinkles in clothes describe forms by wrapping around the body.

Sometimes Jack's clothes are just exceedingly wrinkled. Bernet only draws a lot of extra wrinkles if the character is an especially untidy person and he wants to show their character. Also Bernet is a master at making fabrics look different from each other - a silky blouse looks different than a stiff wool suit.

A Video on Quentin Blake's Process - http://www.quentinblake.com/about-drawing/how-i-draw

Some articles and sites out there

Design of a TV character for Visual appeal to Pre-schoolers

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/12/disney-principles-appeal-1.html

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/appeal

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/12/appealing-character-design-goes-long.html