Sketching a character

Even if you're not very good at drawing people

Remember when I said I wasn’t going to send out a newsletter today?

I lied.

Well, I am on holiday, but turns out I’m not very good at switching off Newsletter Brain, so here we are. Today is a bonus post all about a process I’ve been using to sketch out my fictional characters.

Last week I updated a sketch of Lola Styles, a young detective in Tales from the Triverse, building on an earlier version from a year ago.

The updated 2024 version of Lola.

I don’t make a habit of including character sketches, partly for time and mostly because it’s good to leave the reader’s imagination to do the hard work, but it occasionally a fun extra for readers. Here’s how I go about it…

Metahuman build

I’ve been trying to get better at drawing, but humans are still a major challenge. I rely heavily on reference material, whether that be photographic or digital.¹ I can’t afford to hire models, alas, and stock images tend to be fixed in terms of cameras angles and expressions.

That’s where Metahuman comes in.