So after I’d got the story down, I had to get Emmy, the main character, right. From fairly early on, my idea of Emmy was of a little girl with lots of curly hair that didn’t always behave itself. The picture in my head doesn’t always match up with what ends up on the paper, but I’m pretty happy with how close she ended up here!
These are the sorts of little scribbles and doodles I make to try and work out a character. As I’m drawing, I’m working out what her face and hair and general shape and proportions should be. I’m also working out what sort of a person she is – what she likes to wear, how she stands and runs and how she interacts with her world. For example, a shy person is going to move and react in a different way to someone who is more confident. Emmy is meant to be outgoing as well as eager to find things out so I tended to draw her leaning over, wriggling around, and investigating her surroundings.
This was the first attempt, and it wasn’t a million miles off what I wanted. Her proportions were about right, but her face didn’t fit (I do like the grumpy hat face one though). It was a little too old for the character so I worked on making her face rounder, and her features smaller.
They were quite small changes – I gave her a shorter neck as well as making her face more round- but they made all the difference.
The thumbnails and pencil roughs came next!
Gabby Grant 