I have recently completed a lovely little commission for my agent Advocate-Art for a New York young educational work book. It needed four characters to be illustrated for a story about a boy who is a little different, it really took me out of my comfort zone. I have only recently been creating characters and people in my illustrations - it is something that hadn't really featured before, as I found drawing people tricky so would try and avoid it as much as possible (sounds crazy for an illustrator to be scared of drawing people but I was!). I am usually drawn to inanimate objects, pretty things, architecture and food so that is what I tended to stick too. However to progress and become a fully rounded illustrator I had to embrace my fear and actually now after lots of practice I really enjoy drawing people. There is still definitely room for improvement but so far I am happy with the outcome.
Naomi Designs 2014
If you want to improve your people drawing skills - I would suggest maybe trying to find a life drawing class to attend - they really are brilliant fun and allow you to really loosen up your style and understand the human form. I found this really helped me when trying to create new people and characters. Also practice lots and lots of practice. You can also check out my characters porfolio here - see I have been drawing lots of people lately! Naomi x