Character Design Quarterly 34

Character Design Quarterly (CDQ) is a lively, creative magazine bringing inspiration, expert insights, and leading techniques from professional illustrators, artists, and character art enthusiasts worldwide.

Each issue provides detailed tutorials on creating diverse characters, enabling you to explore the processes and decision-making that go into creating amazing characters. Learn new ways to develop your own ideas, and discover from the artists what it is like to work for prolific animation studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks.

The cover for issue 34 is by Simone Ferriero (aka Simz), a freelance comic-book artist and illustrator from Italy who has a huge 431K followers on Instagram. Simz is known for his drawings of ghost cats and modern-day witches, with a style inspired by Japanese cartoons and comics. He takes us through the creation of his cover, then we interview him about his career and his current creative plans.

Also featured in this issue is Tom Booth (335K followers on Instagram), an art director, illustrator, and author based in Brooklyn, New York. He has created characters for Simon & Schuster, Netflix, and Random House, and is known for his extensive work in children's literature. He talks to us about creating the video game Pine, for which he served as the artistic and narrative lead.