Shape language
Conveying emotional presence through simple shapes
Walt Disney famously used an exercise where artists imbued a flour sack with emotive properties as practice, an exercise employed by animations the world over even today - example:
Shapes have been used to help communicate underlying motivations and qualities in characters, and because they live inside of the cultural lexicon, we too can use these qualities as a shorthand, to communicate something about the nature of the characters you are creating.
Examples in Action:
Then you can deepen the sense of a character's inherent qualities by repeating or layering the shapes you've chosen to define their personality in as many large and small ways as you choose - see where that takes you in making clear, purposeful choices about the look and feel of the characters and stories you are telling.
Warm up:
As a group on one large roll of paper - We'll pick a shape for us all to make a character out of, so we can all see how differently all of us respond to that shape.
Main Task:
In groups - create together a character sketch on a large piece of paper out of shapes that communicate the nature of this character. Please include notes about what you are looking to convey, and what choices you made to support that - Each group will present their character and recieve feedback from the entire cohort.
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