Design a Character in Photoshop with @JackieDroujko (Ep 3) | The Brief | Adobe Creative Cloud
TLDRIn this episode of 'The Brief', Jackie Droujko, a character designer for Disney TV, shares her creative process using a box of inspirational items provided by Adobe. The challenge is to design a character that reflects qualities she admires in herself. Jackie incorporates elements like elf ears and a charcoal stick, inspired by her love for fantasy and her recent interest in Muay Thai. The character evolves from a sketch to a detailed illustration, with a focus on a post-boxing, sweaty, and determined anti-hero. She uses Adobe Stock for textures, plays with lighting to enhance drama, and adds final touches like charcoal war paint and sweat details. The result is a compelling character that Jackie envisions as a noble elf fighting for her father's land, with a subtle background and contrasting rim light that adds to the villainous glow.
Takeaways
- 🎨 Jackie Droujko, a character designer for Disney TV, shares her creative process in designing a character with qualities she likes about herself.
- 📦 Adobe sent Jackie a box of inspirational items, including elf ears, charcoal sticks, and an opposable wooden mannequin, to create a character.
- 🧝 Jackie relates to the elf ears and decides to incorporate them into her character design, reflecting her personal connection and aesthetic preference.
- 🥋 Jackie's current interest in muay thai influences her character's design, giving the character a fighting spirit and physical prowess.
- 💭 She experiments with the character's role, considering both hero and villain, before settling on an anti-hero with a ruthless and determined personality.
- 📝 Jackie spends over an hour sketching and goes through multiple iterations, emphasizing the importance of the sketching phase in character design.
- 👕 She chooses to depict the character in a post-boxing state, exhausted and covered in sweat, to convey a strong emotional and physical state.
- 🧵 Jackie opts for boxing wraps instead of gloves to maintain the character's sleek appearance, showing attention to detail in the design.
- 🎨 She uses lighting to create a dramatic and moody atmosphere, playing with three different light sources to enhance the character's presence.
- 🖌️ Jackie's approach to coloring is to stick closely to the original concept sketch, only introducing new colors where necessary to maintain consistency.
- 🧵 She struggles with drawing braids but uses reference images to overcome this challenge, demonstrating the value of using references in the creative process.
- 🌟 Jackie adds final details like charcoal as war paint and enhances the character's sweaty appearance with lighting effects to complete the illustration.
Q & A
What is the name of the character designer featured in the video?
-Jackie Droujko
What is the main task Jackie Droujko is given by Adobe?
-To create a hero or villain character that incorporates qualities she likes most about herself.
What item from the box of inspirational items does Jackie relate to and decide to incorporate into her character design?
-Elf ears, as her Dungeons & Dragons character was an elf.
What is Jackie's current obsession that she decides to include in the character's background?
-Muay Thai, as she has been attending kickboxing classes for the past year.
How does Jackie describe the character's emotional state in her initial sketches?
-The character is depicted as exhausted, tired, angry, and covered in sweat, as if she just came out of a round of boxing.
What change does Jackie make to the character's boxing gloves?
-Jackie decides to switch out the boxing gloves for just wraps, as she feels the gloves are too clunky and do not fit the sleek vibe of the character.
What is Jackie's approach to coloring the character?
-Jackie uses colors from her original concept sketch and picks existing colors from her palette, avoiding the creation of random colors.
Why does Jackie decide against making the character's eyelashes white and eye whites black?
-Jackie finds that the contrast does not work for the character and opts for more normal-looking eyes instead.
How does Jackie enhance the textures in the character's design?
-Jackie uses a woven texture from Adobe Stock, applying it to the character's shirt and playing with overlays to make it fit seamlessly.
What is Jackie's strategy for dealing with the complexity of drawing braids?
-Jackie uses overhead lighting to emphasize the mood and partially cover the braids, avoiding the need for detailed drawing of the braided hair.
What final details does Jackie add to the character to make the piece more dramatic?
-Jackie adds charcoal on the character's face and body as war paint, adjusts colors, applies gradients and RGB split, adds noise, and includes dust particles and more sweat for added realism.
What is the final interpretation of the character's role in her society according to Jackie?
-Jackie envisions the character as a noble in an elf society who has to fight the main queen or elf to save her father's land.
Outlines
🎨 Character Design Process with Inspirational Items
Jackie, a Disney TV character designer, introduces the Brief series where she receives a box of inspirational items from Adobe to create a unique piece of art. She's tasked with designing a hero or villain character that reflects her most admired qualities. Jackie selects items such as elf ears, charcoal sticks, and a wooden mannequin, relating to her personal interests and experiences, including her Dungeons & Dragons elf character and her recent muay thai training. She decides on a character concept that combines these elements, aiming for a determined, passionate, and ruthless anti-hero. The design process involves multiple iterations, settling on a character that appears exhausted and angry after a boxing match, opting for hand wraps over gloves for a sleeker look. Jackie experiments with lighting to enhance the dramatic and moody atmosphere, and she uses Adobe Stock for textures, emphasizing form and texture in her rendering. She also discusses her approach to coloring, staying true to her initial concept while making adjustments for visual impact.
🌟 Final Illustration and Background Story
Jackie concludes her design process by detailing the final touches to her illustration. She enhances the character's appearance with charcoal as war paint and adds sweat for a more realistic effect. The character is envisioned as a noble elf who must fight a main queen to save her father's land, adding depth to the character's background story. The background is subtle but sets the scene, with a red bounce light giving the character a villainous glow and a blue rim light providing contrast and pizzazz. Jackie expresses satisfaction with the final piece, which encapsulates her character's emotions of anger, determination, and passion. She invites viewers to share their thoughts and encourages them to explore their creativity with Adobe Creative Cloud, ending with a prompt for likes and subscriptions to Adobe's channel.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Character Designer
💡Adobe Creative Cloud
💡Elf Ears
💡Muay Thai
💡Sketching
💡Anti-Hero
💡Lighting
💡Textures
💡Braids
💡Sweat
💡War Paint
Highlights
Jackie Droujko, a character designer for Disney TV, shares her creative process in designing a character with Adobe Creative Cloud.
Jackie incorporates qualities she likes about herself into the character design, aiming to create a relatable and personal piece of art.
Adobe sends Jackie a box of inspirational items, including elf ears and charcoal sticks, to spark her creativity.
Jackie relates to the elf ears, drawing inspiration from her Dungeons & Dragons character.
She decides to blend fantasy elements with her current interest in muay thai, creating a unique character concept.
Jackie emphasizes the character's determination, passion, and ruthlessness in her design.
The character sketching process involves over an hour and multiple iterations to achieve the desired look.
Jackie experiments with the character's role, toggling between a hero and a villain, before settling on an anti-hero.
She opts for boxing wraps instead of gloves to maintain the character's sleek appearance.
Jackie uses three different light sources to create a dramatic and moody atmosphere in the artwork.
The character's silhouette and colors are blocked out, using the original concept sketch as a reference.
Jackie considers and then discards the idea of making the character's eyelashes white and eye whites black for a villainous look.
She incorporates a woven texture from Adobe Stock into the character's shirt for added detail and realism.
Jackie struggles with drawing braids but uses overhead lighting to strategically conceal this part of the character's design.
The character is given a sweaty, angry, and determined appearance to reflect her recent boxing match.
Charcoal is added to the character's face and body as a form of war paint, enhancing her fierce and combative nature.
Final details include gradients, RGB split, noise, and dust particles to add depth and complexity to the illustration.
Jackie envisions the character as a noble elf who must fight to save her father's land, adding a backstory to the design.
The final illustration features a subtle background, red bounce light for a villainous glow, and blue rim light for contrast.