[Course]conceptartist,joofoot Details
Intro
Class Intro
Concept Artist Joofoot
"By conquering the fundamentals, we'll be able to refine your skills and create stronger characters."
Great Character Design Starts With Strong Fundamentals
With nearly 13 years of working with industry-leading studios (Riot, Tencent, Netease, etc.), Joofoot brings real-world experience from the industry, offering not just theory but a proven approach to character design that studios look for.
If you're struggling to make your characters feel intentional, professional, or suited for real-world projects, this class gives you the foundation and clarity you've been missing. You’ll learn how to build strong silhouettes, assign clear archetypes, and make confident design decisions that support story, gameplay, and worldbuilding. Step-by-step, you’ll move from anatomy and gesture into costumes, expressions, and props that bring your characters to life.
By the end, you won’t just draw better. You’ll understand how to think like a character designer, and finally start building the kind of portfolio you’ve always wanted to build.
By the end, you won’t just draw better. You’ll understand how to think like a character designer, and finally start building the kind of portfolio you’ve always wanted to build.
Class Preview
Still Not Sure?
Check Out Joofoot's Class Preview!
Chapter 14.
Principles of Design
1. Touching on the 7 principles of design: emphasis, balance and alignment, contrast, repetition, proportion, rhythm and space
Class Perks
Special Gift from Joofoot
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Class Slides and Exercises-26 core chapters + 5 bonus chapters
-Directed exercises for over 23 chapters
-Designed to guide you step-by-step from sketch to polished character concept
-Includes anatomy drills, thumbnailing, color studies, rendering tasks, and portfolio-ready projects -
Brushes-Sketch brushes for loose ideation
-Custom lineart pen brushes
-Painting brushes for stylized rendering
-Custom liquify brushes for shape tweaks
-Pattern brushes for detailing fabrics and surfaces -
Working Files-Full working files in CSP and PSD format
-Includes all high-res illustrations and class demonstrations
-Layered files to show process from rough to final
-Organized for easy learning and exploration
Recommendation
Who should take this class?
Beginner Artists
New to character design? This class will guide you through the foundational skills and mindset needed to start your journey as a character concept artist.
Learning Artists
If you already have some drawing or concept art experience but feel stuck, this class will help you level up your craft by focusing on clarity, appeal, and design purpose.
Intermediate Artists
For artists looking to sharpen their stylized design sensibilities, this class will help you refine your fundamentals and push your work closer to industry quality.
Expert Concept Artist Joofoot's Portfolio
Why Take This Class?
No matter what style you want to develop, it all starts with a strong foundation. This class begins with core essentials, anatomy, gesture, and form, then builds up your ability to design a wide range of characters with confident structure, expression, and posing.
When your fundamentals are solid, you can adapt to diverse styles and handle the demands of different genres and projects. That’s how you open doors to new opportunities and studio work. From color theory and material rendering to iconography, turnarounds, and presentation, this class teaches the full technical pipeline needed to create professional, production-ready characters.
23 Class Exercises
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Gathering Resources- Collect and identify your favorite characters from games and anime/manga and group them into their roles and archetypes -
Sketching Practice- Sketching human body with boxes -
Drawing Heads and Faces- 20x 3min studies (60m)
- 6x 10min studies (60m)
- Choose a portrait and stylize it -
Drawing Hands and Feet- Drawing hands and feet
- 15x 1min studies (15m) both
- 10x 3min studies (30m) both
- 6x 5 min studies (30m) both -
Drawing Gestures- 10x 1min (10m)
- 10x 2min (20m)
- 10x 3min (30m)
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Applying Flat Colors 1- Pick an everyday object around you that's interesting (a water boiler, a webcam, a bottle, etc) and use no more than 3 flat values to color them -
Applying Flat Colors 2- Redraw the same everyday object and apply flat colors to them, render them in 3 different light situations -
Creating a Gradient Map- Practice with provided materials and create your own gradient map -
Creating Thumbnails- Work with 3 word promps OR work in your character story
- Define a specific product for your character
- Thumbnail 20 character ideas -
Applying the Principles of Design- Iterate on your thumbnails keeping in mind the principles, work in sketch/greyscale
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Designing Costumes- Choose 1 character
- Iterate with outfit refinement, work on internal shapes -
Designing Weapons- Add a weapon or prop to support your character role and/or narrative -
Adding Identity with Accessories- Define symbolism and iconography in your character outfit or prop as part of their identity -
Testing Expressions and Hairstyles- Sketch a spread of your character expressions
- Experiment with different hairstyles, makeup, accessories -
Maintaining Consistency in the Design-Ref board of different game/manga/anime styles
-Refine your direction
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Going Through Iteration-10x iteration for your character's color/design -
Rendering-1x render of chosen design -
Testing Different Views and Angles-1x turnaround (flats backview + side view as needed) -
Exploring VFX- Sketch a spread of your character expressions
- Experiment with different hairstyles, makeup, accessories -
Expanding the Character Roster- 6-10x character roster idea sketches
- ideas should support your main character, preferably with a variety of archetypes
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Finalizing- Finalizing your roster, should end up with 2-4x characters -
Preparing for Presentation-1x render of chosen design -
Testing Different Views and Angles- Round 2: design 2-3 new characters based on a selection of prompts
*Above are sample images for a better understanding
Final Products
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Male Character Illustration -
Female Character Illustration
Character Sheet
Instructor
Concept Artist
Joofoot
Hey! I’m Joofoot, and I’ll be your instructor for this course.
I’ve been designing characters for games for nearly 13 years, working with studios like Riot Games, Tencent, Netease, Capcom, and more. Throughout my career, one thing has always driven me has been my love for storytelling through character and worldbuilding.
For me, while character design can be just about cool shapes or flashy outfits, it can also be so much more. It’s about creating someone who feels like they belong in the world you’re building, complete with personality, history, and purpose. That’s something I fell in love with as a kid playing Suikoden II (and the game has 108 of badass characters). Every character in that game, even the minor ones, had heart and a place in the world. That’s the kind of design I strive for, and one of the main reason I wanted to get into drawing myself.In this class, I’ll walk you through how to bring that same depth and appeal into your own characters. Whether you’re aiming to work in games or just want to build stronger characters for your own worlds, I’m excited to help you get there.
Concept Artist, Joofoot
[Current]
- Freelance Concept Artist
[Previous]
- Principal Artist at Tencent
- Art Lead at Riot Games
- Art Lead at IGG
- Art Director at Daylight Studios
Projects & Awards
- Brawl Stars (2025)
- League of Legends (2024)
- Legends of Runeterra (2022)
- Supercell Everdale (2021)
- Capcom Teppen (2020)
- Bakugan Battle Brawlers (2019)
- The Elder Scrolls: Legends (2018)
- Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?! (2018)
- Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (2017)
- Paladins: Champions of the Realm (2016)
- Holy Potatoes! What The Hell?! (2017)
- Holy Potatoes! We’re In Space?! (2017)
- Deckstorm: Duel of Guardians (2016)
- Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?! (2015)
- Pocolon Dungeons (2014)
- Konami Hisho Collection (2013)
Highlights
Class Highlights
Understanding Taste and Appeal
Learn how to create fairytale-style characters with expressive eyes and unique facial features! This class gives you step-by-step guidelines on body proportions, facial angles, drawing fundamentals and real-life applications.
Bringing Your Idea to Life
Follow a clear step-by-step process to take your idea from scribbles and loose sketches to a polished, production-ready character, with workflows you can use again and again.
Storytelling Through Character
Discover how to tell a story through gesture, expression, costume, props, and abilities. Make sure your character doesn't just look cool, but feels alive and purposeful within their world.
Class Details
You'll Learn
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The Fun in FundamentalsSharpen your drawing foundations with anatomy, gesture, form, and expression to build the confidence to create anything from imagination. -
Visualising Your IdeasTurn rough ideas into clear sketches using thumbnailing, shape language, and design principles to quickly communicate strong character concepts. -
Designing with Purpose and NarrativeMake design choices that support story, personality, and gameplay roles through costumes, props, facial features, and iconography.
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Conquering Color and LightMaster flat color blocking, lighting, and material rendering to bring your characters to life while keeping production needs in mind. -
Stylization and CohesionExplore how to stylize effectively, match existing art styles, and stay consistent across your designs while avoiding the uncanny valley. -
Lineups & Production WorkflowBuild diverse, believable rosters and finalize your work with turnarounds, callouts, and presentation polish for studio-ready portfolios.
Interview with
Concept Artist Joofoot
Question.01
Is there a specific reason why you chose this specific topic/themes?
Working on characters for games is what I’ve spent over a decade doing professionally, and it’s still one of the most exciting and creatively fulfilling parts of game development. Whether you're designing a playable hero or a background NPC, strong character design is what helps a world feel alive. I wanted to share practical tools and real-world insight to help artists build characters that resonate emotionally and, most importantly, visually.
Question.02
Could you please share how you started your journey in the industry?
I started learning how to draw roughly in 2014, when I realized while I was interested in many things art-related, I was good at none of them. I started out in a local indie company Daylight Studios and fortunately as I kept pushing to better my craft, I got to work on many interesting projects over the years.
Question.03
What do you think is the most important trait(s) to success in your industry?
Curiosity, discipline, and humility. Curiosity keeps you learning, discipline helps you keep growing even when it’s tough, and humility lets you collaborate and receive feedback. Being humble is the most crucial as collaboration is something you’ll do a lot of in game development. Talent is only 0.1% of the game, the 99.9% is everything else you put in.
Required Programs
This course will use Clip Studio Paint v2.0, PureRef
Please purchase and install these program(s) for an optimized chapter experience.
*These programs and/or materials will not be provided with the chapter.
