The art of storytelling Tanya Combrinck talks to four artists about practical options for boosting creativity

“Giving yourself design challenges, or finding them online, is a great way to build your design muscles,” says Nika Lemut.

Whether you’re looking to give stronger personality to your characters, or perhaps make your environments more atmospheric, applying design principles to your compositions is a tried and tested way to make them stronger. Not only that, there are many design-related exercises you can try that will hone your skills and train your eye.

When designing characters, the advice from illustrator and character artist Nika Lemut is to identify their defining features and then emphasise them strongly. “When in doubt, try to think of it like you’re playing around with the sliders in the character creator section of a video game,” she says. “Move or resize some features to see what kind of feeling they evoke. Grab the brows and push them downwards, or select the nose and try making it wider.”

Keep tinkering until you feel you’ve captured a character’s essence. “This has been a great method for me, as it helps me see when I haven’t pushed features far enough in my original concept,” says Nika. “I recommend it if you’re someone that has trouble being bold with their original choices.”

Lauren Brown suggests modelling characters on people you know. “Study people from life, not just from photos, but their movement as well.”

IN THE MOOD

Like many artists, Nika is a strong proponent of the mood board. “It helps with creating an overall understanding as opposed to trying to simply Frankenstein different elements together. I also look for recurring shapes, colours and patterns that are a common denominator in the references. I can then use that kind of pre-established recognition to add to my own designs.”