How to Draw Characters

What is a Property? For most people the term “Property” generally brings to mind real estate or a belonging. In the world of entertainment or licensing and merchandising, a Property refers to a character or a group of characters. In other words, an Intellectual Property. Well known examples are Mickey Mouse as a single Property or the Teenage Ninja Turtles as a group Property.

Properties can be utilized or arise in a book, a comic book, as an image on a cup or can be the focus of a television program or can be utilized in a television commercial.

Billions of dollars have been generated since Mickey Mouse developed in the wonderful mind of Walt Disney and of course the Disney Corporation is the epitome of intellectual Property rights that all others aspire to.

What does a Property consist of? This is where matters become confusing. If you can imagine in your mind, a pizza pie that has been cut up into slices. Or, better still, take a sheet of paper and draw a pizza or a circle. Then, divide the circle into parts – let’s say sixteenths. Each one of those sixteen pieces represents a different part of the whole and each one of those pieces can be sold off or licensed, as is more the common practice.

The following are some of the more common categories that are licensed off as part of a Property; publishing, music, board games, electronic games, clothing, television, action figures, plush dolls, remote control toys, play sets, cards, greeting ca
Short Sales Riches Case Study 12 – The Markowitz Closings

rds, educational products and so on.

Obviously, the more popular the Property, the more licensing fees are generated and the wider the range of products. A wonderful example of a Property that spun off from a first book is Harry Potter. I’m sure that when J.K. Rowling was slogging over her first book in a London cafe, she had no idea that Harry would become a world-wide phenomena spawning a huge array of children’s products.

If you have an idea for children that you think kids around the world will crave after, get started. The North American licensing and merchandising market totaled sales of over $60 Billion in 2006 and North American kids spent over $200 Billion in the same year. How to get started you ask? If you have an idea for a character and have limited artistic abilities, hire an illustrator or an art school student to take from your mind and transpose it onto paper. If you enjoy telling stories that kids like, even if your writing abilities are marginal, write them down.  The point is – get started. Don’t imagine you are going to be an overnight success. It takes hard work, long hours and a lot of money to become and overnight success, however, if you can develop your idea into something kids enjoy or better still want, you are halfway there.

The Author and Associates

Michael Trigg is CEO of You N Me Productions Corp, a Vancouver Canada entertainment company. You N Me Productions has joint ventured with Media Kitchen I.N.Teractive and Worlds Away Productions Ltd of New York.

Resources

Greanwold’s World www.greanwold.com  is the environment of Greanwold and his Minosaur friends, the newest children’s property in the kids international market place.

Michael Trigg

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White House Press Briefings are conducted most weekdays from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the West Wing. (public domain)

There are four phases that are absolutely essential to making your story cohesive, clear and easy to follow. The first phase involves setting and characters. Your audience needs to have some sense of where and when the story is taking place. Did this story happen in the past or is it occurring in the future? What era is it supposed to take place in? Where does the action take place? On a farm, in the workplace, on a fishing trip or at a store? Immerse your audience within your story’s context as much as possible so they can identify with it as much as possible.

Remember, you must paint the picture for them. You need to take them into your story. With effective story selling, your audience is watching your movie in their mind. Also, take the time to not only introduce your character but also to really develop them. If your audience can’t grasp who the characters are-their strengths, their faults, their dreams and what makes them unique-then they won’t be able to relate to your story. When they know the story’s characters, they will appreciate your story’s climax when it comes. That’s because they will have the necessary background information to draw from so they can connect with why the experience being conveyed would be significant to a particular character.

The second essential phase of a great story involves presenting a clear challenge or problem with which the characters must cope. Challenge generates interest and suspense. The audience is drawn in to wonder what the character is going to do about the dilemma. When presented with a challenge, it is instinctive for human beings to start guessing and projecting what they think the character will do, or better yet, what they themselves would do in the same situation. The more the challenge is a situation audience members can readily relate to, the more it will hit home.

Why is this story-selling component so crucial? If there is no obstacle to overcome, no vision to fulfill and no questions to be answered, then what’s the point of telling the story in the first place? Conflict and tension also create energy and give momentum to the story. The more engaged your audience is, the more eager they are to hear your story’s outcome. Finally, effectively setting up the story’s challenge will make the solution that much more powerful. In addition to making the story itself more powerful, the audience is able to reach a greater level of appreciation for and acceptance of your point. Create appropriate tensions when presenting the conflict so that the impact of the solution is that much more inspiring.

The third phase of an excellent story involves its climax, or turning point. The climax is the point where all the buildup has taken you. The momentum has driven you to this one peak point in the story. It is the cliffhanger! What will happen next? What is she going to do? How will he get out of this mess? By the time you arrive at your story’s climax, you want your audience to be on the edge of their seats. It is important not to confuse this story-selling strategy with the preceding step, even though the two effects overlap. The climax of a story is a distinct point rather than a chain of events. It is the pivotal, make-it-or-break-it moment; it is the height to which all the momentum and action has led up to. This step in the story-selling process helps give your story form. Without it, your story will lack direction. Your audience will feel emotionally disturbed if all the activity rambles aimlessly with no climax and resulting conclusion. The climax is part of a clear path and it feeds off the story’s preceding action. Its culmination, followed by its solution, gives your story great flow and energy.

Finally, your story must conclude with a resolution. If you’ve told an effective story, you have brought your audience through an emotional journey. They are now alert and attentive because they want to know how the characters they’ve identified so strongly with will fare after all they’ve been through. Your story’s resolution is the moment where the lesson is learned. Will your audience grasp your message, the moral of your story? Did they experience what you wanted them to experience; did they feel what you wanted them to feel?

As I’ve outlined in the preceding paragraphs, you will impart your message most strongly if a serious issue is clearly juxtaposed with a brilliant solution. Don’t skip any of these story phases. They work together synergistically to produce a story that is powerful, compelling and inspiring. Often when we hear someone speak, we remember little of the discussion, yet the stories still remain with us. For this reason, you must embed your message, your main point, into the story. Deliver your message in a way that it will ring distinctly true and make a lasting imprint on your audience’s minds.

Kurt Mortensen

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