For exercise 3 I am to draw out a grid of 5 x 4 squares on 2 A3 pieces of paper in my sketchbook. I decided to draw the grid on both sides so that the exercise could be seen as one big page rather than flipping over the page.

Next, I had to make a written list of 40 characters/professions that I could draw characters from:

• Nurse
• Postal Worker
• Deliveroo Driver
• Burglar
• Scientist
• Quiz Show Host
• Chef
• Detective
• French Onion Seller
• Youtuber
• Accountant
• Police Officer
• Electrician
• Carpenter
• Actor
• Singer
• Journalist
• Surgeon
• Sign-Spinner
• Sales (TV)
• Lawyer
• Firefighter
• Vet
• Plumber
• Receptionist
• Web Developer
• Truck Driver
• Retail Worker
• Hairdresser
• Farmer
• Judge
• Secretary
• Butcher
• Fisherman
• Baker
• Mechanic
• Soldier
• Tailor
• Waiter
• Goldsmith

I decided to make the exercise harder/more interesting by not looking at any references whilst doing this exercise, everything I drew was from my mind/memory.

Creating my 40 panels:

My sketches of all my 40 characters (on the pages):

My sketches of all my 40 characters (close up):

Next, I was asked to look at my 2 sheets of characters and identify common styles of drawings that might show my personal drawing style developing. I will answer the questions below:

Do you tend to draw hair in a particular way, or folds in the clothing in a certain style?

Yes, I noticed after drawing all my characters that for the men when I drew them wearing high vis. jackets or gillett (body warmers) I would draw a simple lined chest area and for the women, I would normally instinctively draw a pleated skirt? I don’t even know why! I’m a woman and I don’t wear pleated skirts so why would I instinctively draw them on most of my female characters?

Is there any identifiable point in the exercise where your drawing noticeably improved as you went along?

I think panel number 4 is where I really started changing my way of drawing, the drawings are a lot less neat and a lot more interesting, there is a lot more movement and personality in the characters and I prefer them this way.

Or maybe even a point where it got worse?

I think panel number 32 – Secretary – is probably my weakest image, as I have already done similar drawings for the 11 – Accountant and 25 – Receptionist.

For the second part of this exercise, I was asked to photocopy the three-panel sequence from the coursebook, select one of my favorite characters and re-draw them into the space provided in the panel.

The three-panel sequence:

My chosen character:

The three-panel sequence with my character incorporated:

Creating this extra image for the 3-panel sequence made me really laugh when I noticed that the nose looked like a tiny smiley face! I, therefore, decided to see it as a smiley face, and when I added the speech bubble I wanted a burglar to be asking for the money in the most polite way possible… even though he’s robbing the owner of the house at gunpoint.