Tonight’s show was focused around a specific request from a viewer. They wanted more information on how to make a character turnaround — specifically with the tools and techniques used — and since I had sped through the production of Buckley’s turnaround without any real explanation as to the process, I dedicated the entire show tonight to creating a new turnaround with Lily as the subject.

The original sketch for this one was extremely rough and kinda lopsided, so I’m just going to include the rough sketches for the turnaround itself as the visual example for today. Also, for those who missed the show, here are some of the tips I covered for making one of your own character:

– Use a large enough paper to cover the pose you want to draw in the angles you’ll include. I use 14×17 Bristol vellum.
– Be sure to use at least the four main angles: Side, 3/4, Front, and Back. You can include other angles as well if you want to be more thorough, but those should be key.
– Draw two starting lines for reference: one for the top of the head, the other for the feet. Again, plan ahead so you don’t use up too much of the paper based on the pose you’ll be drawing. Admittedly sometimes my turnarounds end up overlapping between angles, and this should generally be avoided — after all, the entire point of a turnaround is to get a clear view of the character from all sides.
– Draw the first pose in any position. Use the shoulders as the reference point for the definition of the angle (i.e. 3/4 view, draw the shoulders at 3/4 and base the rest of the figure on that).
– Loosely sketch in the frame/figure for the other poses, lining the main points (hips, shoulders, head, etc.) up visually with the rough position of the first finished pose’s sketch.
– Using a T-square, draw light lines across the page (or small hatch marks on each of the other poses) to line up with the key landmarks on the first sketch. These landmarks include any reference point that will help you keep the views consistent: bottom of the chin, hairlines, hands, feet, knees, prop points (tip of a sword, barrel of a gun, etc.), clothing; basically anything that is important and can be used as a horizontal reference point between each pose.
– Keep in mind that these are rotations, so each part of the figure should look different from the rest. Example: if two different poses have identical-looking feet (i.e. the toes are facing head-on at the viewer in both angles), then the rotation effect is lost. Make sure to keep in mind the physical rotation of the character as if they are frozen in place. This can be very tricky (and frustrating), so it may help to use a model for this at first until you get into the practice of visualizing it.

In the two hours for the session, we managed to get through half of the turnaround for Lily. At first I was worried the pose may have been too active/dramatic for a good turnaround, but I’m actually pretty happy with it. Most turnarounds will use more of a static pose since it’s more for reference than to show off the character, so don’t think that yours have to look this energetic.

The rest of the poses will be completed on a later show. I’ll likely dedicate a show sometime next week to finishing all the turnarounds I’ve started so far, since they’re starting to pile up over here.