Digital Character Design: Draw Protagonists with Personality
A course by Joel Santana , Concept Artist and Character Designer
Joined September 2019
Design and illustrate expressive characters using poses, gestures, and color palettes to tell stories
Design and illustrate expressive characters using poses, gestures, and color palettes to tell stories
Joined September 2019
With digital painting tools, you have the power to bring to life fictional characters with their very own stories to tell. Concept artist and character designer Joel Santana specializes in creating expressive characters and art that communicates powerful messages. He has worked for clients like Disney and had his work published by MTVNews.com and Huffington Post UK.
In this course, Joel gives you the tools you need to create dynamic characters of your own. Learn to give your story a charismatic protagonist filled with texture, light, and color.
This is Joel’s second course with Domestika. In this first, Digital Painting for Characters: Color and Light, he shares his expertise in using color and light to design unique characters with Adobe Photoshop.
What will you learn in this online course?
14 lessons & 12 downloads
- 98% positive reviews (82)
- 2,043 students
- 14 lessons (2h 7m)
- 12 additional resources (1 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: English
- English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
Recommended software for this course
Adobe PhotoshopWhat is this course's project?
Illustrate characters full of emotion with powerful poses and expressions using digital drawing tools.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
This course is for anyone with an interest in improving their character design or illustration skills.
Requirements and materials
A basic understanding of human anatomy and figure drawing is recommended.
You will need a digital drawing tablet and a computer or tablet with a drawing app like Photoshop installed.
Reviews
A course by Joel Santana
Joel Santana is a character designer and illustrator, a collector of hats, and a married father with two kids. Throughout his career, he's done freelance work for Champs Sports, Walt Disney World Orlando, and other major clients. Joel's been published in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual 2016 and a full page in 2017, MTVnews.com and Huffington Post UK. He's also worked for in-house teams and advertising agencies creating illustrations for advertising, as well as packaging and toys.
Aside from creating, Joel has also mentored junior artists and co-workers, taught workshops, given talks to art students at local universities, reviewed products for Wacom, and participated in the local AIGA group speaking to young creatives.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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About Me
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Influences
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U2
What’s the Main Idea Behind the Pose?
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Line of Action: Briefing
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Inspiration and Reference Images
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Character Shapes and Construction
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U3
Conceptual Sketches
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Narrative Sketches
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Weight and Balance
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Exaggerating Facial Expressions
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Sketching the Character
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U4
Finalizing Your Character Drawing
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Polishing the Character
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Color Pass
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Face Expressions
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Other Poses
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Creative Advice
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FP
Final project
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Digital Character Design: Draw Protagonists with Personality
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
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Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
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Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
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Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Domestika's courses are online classes that provide you with the tools and skills you need to complete a specific project. Every step of the project combines video lessons with complementary instructional material, so you can learn by doing. Domestika's courses also allow you to share your own projects with the teacher and with other students, creating a dynamic course community.
All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.
The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.
Adobe Photoshop
gpyfbbp7x9
PlusExcellent course. I love the idea of using props and going beyond just drawing, but being challenged to tell stories with our characters.
checheyeah
This course is very inspiring,i took two of Joel's courses and enjoy it very much.I wish Joel could add some more courses such as how to draw a animal with expression and pose or something else.
edwarlvl
good
bahaglc0202
dersler çok güzeldi. önemli bilgiler içeriyor. tavsiye ederim
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miguel03zh
Muy interesante tiene buenas enseñanzas, aprendí mucho.
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