Character Design: Mr. Q

Halfway through creating text in chapter 9 I hit a wall. My idea generating brain dried up and I found myself forcing dialog. The text was strained, the humor was lame, and I basically lost the joy of imagining conversations in the classroom. To get the creative juices flowing again I switched tasks and indulged my yearning to draw. I’ve been postponing drawing until after completing the script. With this change of tasks I will tap different regions of my brain. Creating text is left hemisphere (linear, grammatical, syntactical, and literary). Drawing is right hemisphere (mooshy, gooshy, fluid, and surreal). Or so my inner amateur neurologist assumes. Before beginning designing my main character Mr. Q and putting pen to paper I reminded myself of the basics.

1. Mr. Q will be acting on a stage (university classroom) consisting of straight lines, right angles, and edgy edges. I therefore plan on making him round. This will, I hope, add an eye pleasing visual contrast.

2. Mr. Q is a white male, late 60s, professorial egg head, who wears glasses, and is mostly depressed. He will smile from time to time but I need to create facial features that lend themselves to melancholia. Not sure how to do this yet.

3. Keep it simple. I’m going to draw this guy several hundred times so I will NOT draw every wrinkle, beard stubble, or hair. I once heard a character design lecture from Steven Silver who said, “Draw your characters in silhouette.”

Here are my first sketches. Sadly, I don't like these guys. Back to the drawing board.