Announcing My NEW Character Design Book!

Debt-Free Art Degree, Vol. II: Character Design

I am proud to announce a new book! It’s called Debt-Free Art Degree, Vol. II: Character Design, published by Quarto, and comes out in October, 2026!

Many of you checked out Vol. I (thank you!) which covered drawing fundamentals in general. The idea was always that, if that book did reasonably well, we’d move onto books covering more specific tasks - and character design seemed like a good topic to kick that off with.

As a freelancer, I’ve been fortunate over the years to work not only as a background/environment artist, but also have dived deep into the character design realm as well. I used that experience to write the book from a ‘production’ standpoint.

The book is approx. 175 pages, and covers the many tools, principles, and practices that I think a good character designer needs in their arsenal. Like most of my teaching, it is rooted in the fundamentals. So it’s not a “How To Draw ____” type of book (though it does have some snippets of that), but rather a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of important concepts. Things like: how to use rhythms in a design; how to choose your lines and shapes; how to achieve a sense of unity in your characters; how to use volume and anatomy simply and efficiently; how to draw specific things like hands and clothing folds; facial expressions; how to do turnarounds; how to go about rendering tasks … and more. It covers a lot!

Of course, I’ve been making YouTube videos on many of these subjects over the years as well, and the book does contain some overlap (hands and clothing folds come to mind, as I largely mined my videos to write those particular chapters.) But many other things are newly presented, and with all kinds of examples from my production work, showing various styles and applications.

I still enjoy the medium of print. I think it offers a unique and handy way of cataloging information. It’s faster than video, as you can so quickly flip to the page or chapter you want, and leaf through it. I tried to write the book so that each page-turn would contain more information to stack onto previous pages, but also tried to make each chapter its own self-contained unit. I hope it can be the type of book that never strays too far from your workspace!

Here’s a few sample pages that I hope give you a glimpse of the scope of the book 🙂

PRE-ORDER GIVEAWAY!

Pre-orders are very important in the publishing biz (as I’ve learned.) They provide an important metric for how a book might perform on the general market, which affects the kinds of orders a publisher will receive from various outlets and retailers. If you’re interested in the book, I would hugely appreciate it if you considered pre-ordering.

To sweeten the deal, we are doing a big giveaway! If you pre-order the book, you may submit that pre-order as an entry ticket to a raffle. I’ll be giving away one grand-prize of my $250 mentorship program. I will also be giving away 10 individual courses (of your choosing), for a total of eleven prizes!

Click here for a neat list of online retailers, as well as information on how to enter.

I very much appreciate your support, everyone!

What I’m Working On

I had a weird 2-month slump on my YouTube production. I’m not one who has historically suffered from art-block all that much - and to be honest, I’ve never fully related when someone would describe it.

Not that I thought it wasn’t real, but just that I’d never really felt that level of friction in my own creative productions before. But I can fully admit that I just recently got over an episode of it.

Thankfully, it was just a couple of months. It was strange. I’d have ideas for videos, scripts to write, assets to record … but I just couldn’t push the ‘record’ button for some reason. I would always find other things to do instead.

I had to remind myself that a piece of creative work happens in stages, piece by piece, not in one magical stroke. And if I just recorded one small piece per day, eventually I’d have enough material to sculpt with.

That’s eventually how I cracked it. And I just released my second YouTube video in as many weeks. So that’s what I’m working on now - more YouTube lessons. There’s still so much to do!

Worth Checking Out: Glen Hansard

I am sad to report that the world lost a real musical powerhouse. Irish musician Glen Hansard unfortunately died in a motorcycle accident in late-July. He was just 56.

I discovered Hansard’s music - as I imagine many did - in the 2006 indie film ‘Once.’ I remember that movie went around the animation studio I was working at - just one person telling the person next to them to watch it, and we all loved it.

I grew up playing and learning music, and was really blown away by the quality of the songs in the film. They also made a particular impression on me at the time, as I’m fairly sure that movie also introduced me to Irish folk music in general.

I then learned that much of the songwriting was Hansard’s (also by the film’s co-star, Markéta Irglová), and was a huge fan from then on.

It’s always a travesty when the world loses an artistic talent too soon. I don’t think Glen Hansard was showing any signs of musically slowing, either - which brings me to my recommendations.

Here’s one of my favorite recent songs of his, There’s No Mountain. If that’s not to your taste, try Sure As The Rain (which seems to be a homage to Leonard Cohen, and is a good example of Hansard’s musical range.)

And my favorite song from the film Once - When Your Mind’s Made Up.

RIP Glen, and thank you for your contribution to the beauty in the world.