Level Up Your Character Design with Knight Zhang

Follow Knight’s Work


Related Links:

#conceptdesign #costumedesign #visualstorytelling

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ABOUT PROKO:

Instructional How to Draw videos for artists. My drawing lessons are approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an entertaining way. I believe that when you are having fun, you learn better. I take pride in producing high quality videos that you will enjoy watching and re-watching.

CREDITS:
Script - Knight Zhang

Music Used with Permission
Intro - The Freak Fandango Orchestra

Orbiting A Distant Planet by Quantum Jazz is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

"Jazzy Frenchy" by Bensound

Someday My Prince Will Come by Andre Brito
A Minor Jazz by Brett Van Donsel is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

"Ain't No Friend of Mine" by Bryan Teoh

[MegumiHayashida]

Are we not gon talk about the fact that her name is Knight?? Bruh she's obviously the main character!

[deadly.deadpan]

Man, sketch after sketch my mind was blown. She is crazy creative and her visual library is impressive.

[lawgx]

"i wanted to become a character designer not a historian" -probably some artist somewhere

[matthewf.]

Time to draw 500 hands, god aint gonna snap his magic fingers for me, I need to improve.

[triptripp]

I've kinda noticed that whenever I'm trying to nail a character down, I try to sketch alot of ideas for them, but end up going back to the first few ideas that I came up, bc they usually are the onces that are closest to my vision

[Naomi-rfbl]

She must have practiced for so many hours to get that good 😭

[ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.]

I bought random 70s-90s fashion and knitting books for cheap at a garage sale. I learned how to draw so many patterns and how different types of cloth fold. Really helped me form a style

[jayelex]

making me feel like an npc while she has the name knight

[foyo]

Whats even crazier is that (I believe) she is in her early 20s. First came across her work when she was 17 and was blown away.

[ev.l]

Man I'm now realizing how boring my characters designs are lmao. But now I feel like I have a lot more motivation to work on them! :D

[willowoodz]

i ADORE the way knight explains how cultural appreciation differs from cultural appropriation. using cultural concepts as a means to deepen the meaning of your characters, rather than decorating the aesthetic of your world. what an inspiring woman-- i hope to be like her one day!

[MewSakura]

Really interesting to hear her touch on the responsibility of artists when researching and using aspects from different cultures. It’s something I’ve been struggling with myself. Can’t wait for her class101 course! Thank you for having her proko!

[MilanMovies]

everything she said about costume design is good and all, but i ended up being in awe at her draftsmanship the whole video. shes truly amazing!

[NATAII]

God every time I see Knight’s work I remember how far behind my skills are.

[ughyouagain]

i’m pretty young and when i see art like this it makes me so exited because i know i can get this good

[emuemujin]

Why is no one talking about how freaking beautiful her artwork is like I cantt

[yvesdorsi]

Holy cow man, She's absurdly good...

[beshooketh]

1 Functional vs Fantasy
Historical vs Fictional (visual)

2 Process
Research: boards evoking the tone, fashion, aesthetics, colours
Writing notes
Draw it out to explore ideas
Poses to show personality

3 character design
To show characters via visual
Personality, textures, purpose
Blocks of colours
- 40-60% different saturations/shades of one primary colour
- secondary clothing, medium-shape decor: similar hue eg deep b + brighter gr or warm reds + golds and purples
- opposing colours for accents, smaller details

4 props
Weapons, backpack, jewelry, books
What's the significance of these props?
Storytelling

[paintergus]

I love her vocab, keeps me in tune and interested in what she's saying :) She's deff a reader.

[antnauman]

And here is me, trying to draw a normal nose.