I've had my eye on Schoolism courses for a while now, so when they launched a Kickstarter campaign allowing people to buy subscriptions and get access to all their courses, I jumped at the chance. But the end of last year was a bit of a mad flailing scramble (in which no dignity was preserved) so I had no chance to even look at it. BUT! It's a new year! New Year = New me, ammirite? So I've got started on Stephen Silver's fundamentals of character design.

I've decided to make more time to sketch randomly, both for Rest & Relaxation (because when you can't be on a beach on your own private island with an endless supply of Margaritas, sketching is the next best thing) and because it will, of course, help me get better at drawing. So, I came up with an entertaining way to fill one of those blank pages which didn't involve a lot of brainpower, and ended up juxtaposing some fairly strange ideas. I thought I'd share it in case anyone else wanted to try it.  I call it "Handpainted Smithereens"

This is a quick and shameless public opinion poll. Whenever I'm designing a character I usually start with fairly realistic drawings, and then try to feel my way from there. That's what's happening with this little guy - my initial sketches have quite realistic proportions, but I'm leaning towards stylising him and making him cuter and stumpier. The final book is aimed at preschoolers, so I want my pig to be as appealing as possible for small people. Which look do you think our piggy rocks best? More true-to-life, or slightly cartoonified?