What is your process for creating memorable and expressive characters in your cartoon or comic designs?

Creating memorable and expressive characters involves blending creativity, storytelling, and visual design. Here's a streamlined process:

1. Understand the Character's Role

Define Backstory: Develop the character’s history, personality, and motivations to guide their design.

Identify Key Traits: Highlight specific traits like bravery, humor, or mischief that will shape their appearance and expressions.

2. Create a Distinct Silhouette

Recognizable Shapes: Ensure the character's outline is unique and recognizable even in black and white.

Play with Proportions: Use exaggerated features, like a large head for a playful look or long limbs for elegance.

3. Design Expressive Features

Eyes and Eyebrows: Make these dynamic; they are the most expressive parts of a character.

Mouths and Gestures: Use diverse shapes for the mouth and incorporate body language to convey emotions.

4. Choose a Consistent Style

Line Work: Decide on thick or thin lines, sharp angles, or soft curves to reflect the tone of the story.

Color Palette: Use bold, distinct colors for main characters and subtler tones for secondary ones.

5. Incorporate Storytelling Elements

Costumes and Accessories: Design outfits and items that hint at the character’s personality, profession, or world.

Symbols and Themes: Add motifs that connect to the story (e.g., a lightning bolt for a fast character).

6. Experiment with Expressions

Expression Sheets: Draw the character in multiple emotions (joy, anger, fear) to test their flexibility.

Dynamic Poses: Illustrate them in motion to ensure they’re lively and engaging.

7. Add Layers of Relatability

Flaws and Quirks: Incorporate imperfections like a crooked smile or clumsiness to make the character feel real.

Cultural Relevance: Integrate elements that resonate with your audience’s experiences or values.

8. Test and Refine

Feedback: Share drafts with peers or target audiences for input.

Iteration: Adjust designs to enhance appeal while staying true to the character's essence.

9. Document the Design

Character Sheets: Create guides with front, side, and back views, along with key expressions and outfits.

Pose and Prop Variations: Showcase interactions with objects and environments for consistency in storytelling.

10. Bring the Character to Life

Animation (if applicable): Use key frames to exaggerate movements and expressions.

Dialogue and Personality: Ensure their actions and words reflect the character’s essence.

I alway enjoy working on cartoon character designs.

Once I received the brief from the the buyer I add up my own doubts or question to make things clear in my mind.

Its aways the main question in my head that what audiance and age group the buyer wants to target.

Once things are clear I start to prepare very very rough sketches, Try differnt poses and proportions to create the character and keep doing it untill I get the right one that I like.

The next criticle thing in my opinion is choosing the right colors and applying the lighting and shadow, it all depends upon the mood and the goal of the character we are designing.

And the last thing is the most simple one. Just trace the final sketch into any designing program you know ! 

For me the base is to ask my customers a bit of their backstory, or at least the intention that a character has. In the same way as people with different backgrounds react to situations in different ways depending on their personal background, believable characters react differently. 

I often look to add general, interesting values and skills to characters in a way that certain audiences feel an aspirational connection with them, as connection is essential to communicate the message from the story.

Finally, there is the technical side, knowing which muscles and facial features allow me to communicate the right range of emotions, connected to the previous elements I mentioned, and also using the right visual elements like shadows, angles and color to enhance the expressed emotion.