NOTES I love this guy. Spider merchant, and both parts are made clear within the original design. The biggest thing for you to work on is VARIATION. The tears in the original cloak are about the same width as the arms and legs. Which are the same width as the brim of the hat, and the tufts of fuzz on his head, and only a little bigger than his main pair of eyes. The problem with this is, being mostly the same size, none of these elements stand out from each other. The bright eyes catch my attention first, but after that I don’t know where else to look! In my own design, most of the changes I made were proportion or detail changes. I made the arms and legs extra skinny to emphasize that this guy is a SPIDER. I made the hat’s brim super wide because it’s supposed to be an “iconic hat.” I added jars overflowing from his bag to better show off his wares. All of these things were done to take the focus away from some areas and bring focus to others. Now the eye is first drawn to the face because of the eyes, AND to the hat because of its size. Next time you design a character, consider what parts of the character are most important and how you can put focus on them. Does your character have a robot arm? Make it bigger and heftier than their normal one. Do they have a locket that’s a family heirloom? Make it extra shiny. Does your character pride themselves on their hand-made sweater? Make it have more patterns and detailing than other parts of the design. If you don’t have a lot of variation, whether in color or size or detail, then the design becomes unfocused. Give your viewer a main place to look at.
Character by @ToyShop_Animations Redesign by me If you want me to redesign YOUR character, head to the Featured Project on my profile for more info!