Nico Marlet

After carrying out research on character designers, I came across the work of Nico Marlet, who is an animation artist and character designer. He has worked on many well known film such as Dreamwork's How to Train Your Dragon & Kung Fu Panda. After looking through previous examples of work, I realised I had been looking through images for almost an hour! I found not only his design work for films, but also his personal sketches to be really intriguing.

I loved the diversity and range of drawings he had the ability to produce. The animal based characters he had worked on had so much life in them, just on paper alone! I also loved the strangeness of the work in his sketchbook, because he did't seem afraid to just draw what came to his mind. Similarly to some of the studios I had previously looked at, I knew that Marlet's success was down to his adaptability and talent. Each piece of design work he has produced are all completely different. He even has different ways of laying these concepts out, which is something that I know I could benefit from trying out with my own work!

I was so happy to have come across this man's work because it makes me feel excited to sit down and draw characters. I now also feel the urge to be more experimental and to not just stick to the typical pencil or pen. It has made me want to scribble with coloured pencils and use paint again, which is something I haven't done in a long time! It has also left me feeling less worried about following a specific guideline when designing a character. I often find if I am just doodling, those are the times I design some of my best characters, so seeing this work has only made me feel more encouraged to keep doing this. This has also been a reminder for me to always focus on getting better, and to never stop where I am at. After seeing this standard of work, I honestly believe that if I keep pushing myself, I can one day get to this standard.