Quick Illustrations

I've always loved drawing, but designing vector-based characters is new to me.

I started off by drawing three quick characters, more as proof of concept than anything. I decided I would play with shapes, using facial features and skinny limbs as the unifying factors that allowed my characters to exist within the same universe.

Circle man was my first, taking 2 hours to complete. He was a circle head, circle body, circle rosy cheeks, and circle buttons. Figuring out my style as I created this fella took a lot of time, but once I established the rules of where my shadows would fall, how I'd do my shading, and what quirks my characters would share, the rest came much faster.

I loved the detail of the hair coming out from under his too-short pants. I picture him having hair from his neck to his toes. I imagine him taking baths instead of showers, loving strawberry jam and butter on his lightly toasted white bread, and secretly loving Bridget Jones' Diary.

The next character was Mr Rectangle, though I feel like he'd prefer to be called "Chuck." Chuck has rectangle head, body, and long rectangular feet. I added the heavy moustache and eyebrows to his face as variants of rectangles, and I think that balanced out his features.

I liked being able to see the circle guy's ankles because his pants didn't fit. With Chuck, I think his pants are deliberately short to show off his clean white shoes. Chuck is all about style (a perfectly coiffed 'stash like that doesn't come without effort), and he loves craft beer. Chuck has those rare feet that don't sweat, he is really good at jenga, and he cried when the Rams lost the Superbowl this year.

The final character is Triangle Guy. The triangular face had to be matched with that body, so a swimmer's build came to mind. His body is a series of triangles, from the negative space of his arms, to the left and right half of his abs. Unlike the other two, his smile is open and sprawling, and his head is coiffed with flaming hair - soft variations on triangular shapes.

I tried him with darker hair, but I saw him having sun-bleached locks from being outside in a swimsuit all the time. Oddly enough, his body hair is my favourite part about him. No one knows where he got his necklace and anklet, but he's had them since he first moved to cartoon land. He watches the sunset every night, smells like salt water and sweat, and can hold his breath for two minutes. He's kind and doesn't get angry often. He graduated with honours from a high ranking university, but left it all behind to be with nature.

What kind of backstories do you create in your head when you see these characters?