01 First pencils
A smudge with a personality
Kuddo started as a rough silhouette I kept redrawing until it began to feel curious. That single word became the brief for everything that followed.
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Character Design · 2025
Kuddo
A curious little sea-dweller, taken from a pencil ghost to a full-colour friend.
Character DesignConcept SketchingColour & TurnaroundsExpression Sheets
Character Kuddo
Scope Design & turnarounds
Vibe Curious · joyful
Deliverables Sketches · poses · colour
Tools Procreate · Photoshop · Pencil & paper
A character study built for expression: rough sketches, hand studies, and full colour turnarounds for a joyful, endlessly curious explorer.
Sketch first, personality second
Kuddo began as a smudge — a rough silhouette I kept redrawing until it started to feel curious. That's the whole character in one word, and every pose after that had to earn it.
The little things
Hands are where a character lives or dies, so I studied them separately — sheet after sheet of Kuddo's paws until they read as gestures, not mittens. Then came the sea studies, the swimming poses, and the full-colour pass.
A friend, fully formed
By the final turnaround, Kuddo could smile, present, do its homework, and dive — all while staying unmistakably itself. That's the point of a good character study: not one perfect drawing, but a personality you could keep animating forever.
the design path
From first mark to final form
Every character walks a road before it stands on its own — here is the one Kuddo took, stage by stage.
02 World study
Learning where it lives
Before the poses came the place. Sea studies worked out how Kuddo moves, floats and belongs underwater — grounding the character in a world.
03 Hand studies
Where a character lives or dies
Hands make or break a character, so I studied them on their own — sheet after sheet — until Kuddo's paws read as gestures instead of mittens.
04 Poses
Putting it through its paces
With the anatomy solved, Kuddo could act — swimming, presenting, doing its homework — each pose a small test that the personality still held.
05 Full colour
A friend, fully formed
The final colour pass turned the pencil ghost into someone you could keep animating forever — bright, round, and unmistakably itself.
From a pencil ghost to a fully-formed friend.