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Character Designing: Building Characters With Shapes!

We'll breakdown popular characters into their basic shapes, and build our own using construction paper cut outs.
Carlos Gabriel Jurado
Average rating:
4.9
Number of reviews:
(20)
Class

What's included

1 live meeting
55 mins in-class hours

Class Experience

This class is open for anyone at any level who has an interest in drawing and designing their own characters like the ones they see in their favorite shows and movies. I will be performing lectures and drawing over iconic characters to reveal the primitive shapes that make them up (circle, square, triangle), teaching my students what goes into building these characters and why they work so well. I will then have the students choose a character they find appealing, and I will break them down as they follow along. Depending on the time, we will move to cutting up construction paper into big shapes based on the breakdowns, and put them together to represent the characters. I will show mine and explain my process so that they can do it on their own. This is an exercise they can repeat by themselves as often as they like! I will be teaching my students the importance of observation and slowing down to look at the big picture, instead of getting bogged down in the details to show a new way to approach their drawings. Because I believe half of art is a mental game, this ability to mentally deconstruct things will help their drawing skills immensely.

Learning Goals

This class will teach students how to turn a seemingly complicated task into one with simple steps, and enhance their visualization and observation skills so that they will see the world around them with new eyes. This will emphasize the importance of design skills such as composition, contrast, form, and proportion.
learning goal

Other Details

Supply List
Pen, Pencil, paper. Construction paper, scissors, glue.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Joined June, 2020
4.8
20reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
Hi there! My name is Carlos and I teach classes for foundation in learning how to draw characters for use in animation. I focus on the concepts first, make sure they are easily digestible according to the age range, and apply them in a way that is relevant to what the student finds interesting. Younger kids respond more to crafts while I reserve more conceptual approaches for the older students; however, I think all students benefit when they are challenged and trusted to learn.

I am a graduate of the University of Florida (with a bachelor's in Anthropology) and have taken classes at the Concept Design Academy in Pasadena, and have worked as an illustrator of children's books for the last two years. I see teaching as another way for me to learn! Art is a vehicle for exploring the world at any age, and curiosity is the fuel. I want to push my students to ask questions about the world and I want to teach them not only to focus on the "what", but also the "why" of things. All while being fun and silly :) I'm a big nerd about anything animated and have an interest in learning about someone else's slice of life, no matter their background. I like to keep things loose and to make failure a friend we can learn from, rather than avoid. To improve at art is to improve at understanding yourself.

Reviews

Live One-Time Class
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$15

per class

Meets once
55 min
Completed by 8 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 8-13
3-6 learners per class

This class is no longer offered
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