PK 241: How to Become a Character Designer

Pencil Kings | Inspiring Artist Interviews with Today's Best Artists

Mitch Bowler is the Founder of Pencil Kings and the Co-founder of Evolve Artist. He has worked with countless companies, including Pixar, Marvel, Dungeons & Dragons, Activision, and more.

As a former 3D technical artist, Mitch has gone through the ups and downs of honing his craft, which is why he decided to revolutionize the way that art is taught.

Both of his companies offer professional instruction and hands-on support from real artists in order to help creatives around the world take their work to the next level.

Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:

• How to ground your ideas of what a character designer does by looking at reference books
• Why not loving the character design process can be a huge red flag, and what to do if this is you.
• How to look for jobs and make your dream career more realistic.
• How and why to participate in online communities
• Putting together a portfolio based on your earlier research
• How to have an awesome creative career even if you realize that character design isn’t as fun as you thought it might be

In this episode:

In this week’s episode, Mitch Bowler from Pencil Kings breaks down a simple five-step process that he would use to break into having a career as a character designer.

This talk skips right over technical skill development and gets right to the heart of the key steps any artist will need to take to land their dream job, even if they have no idea how to get started. The cool thing about this plan is that you can get started right now, and when you put your mind to it and just follow the steps you could be landing your dream career as a character designer in the next 12 months.