Families Come in All Shapes and Sizes

I just woke up from my itis (aka my Thanksgiving coma) and I figured what better time to talk about this project that relates to family than the day after Thanksgiving?

....Maybe posting the day of Thanksgiving would've made more sense, but better late than never right?


My second project for my Character Design class was to make a family line up using two different shapes to make up each family member: The father, the mother, the son, the daughter and their pet.

Now going from this:

to this:

Was an assignment that I had no problem working on.
However, making thirty different sets of families as each family member has two different shapes for every single line up?

I admit, that part of my homework was pretty difficult for me.
My teacher stated that I had to use shapes, but wasn't specific on what kind of shapes, which is why some of the line ups are really weird.

These are critique sketches from my teacher on my family line up. He always wants us to redo our projects by the end of the quarter after he critiques our projects. Here are a few things that he expects me to focus on, according to the picture:

• Try to keep their hands out and at their sides.
• Have the hair overlap the head. Make it pop out.
• Make necessary contrast (ex. the shape of the son's head should contrast to the shape of his glasses, or vice versa)

Here we have some critique sketches from Alejandro Lee, who generously gave me some advice when I showed him my portfolio at CTN.  His notes say the following:

• Dominant Shape
•  Complementary Shapes
• Rounds w/ Rounds, Straight w/ Straight
• Opposite/Contrasting Shapes As Smaller/Less Obvious Shapes; Within The Silhouettes 

I have to admit, deciding when I should complement and when I should contrast a characters features is difficult. However I'm still learning, and I can't stop trying; if there is one thing that I've learned throughout my years of drawing is this:

Keep Going

 I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving and if you're going out shopping today,  Please Be Safe!

Comments and critiques are greatly appreciated!