Character Design Quarterly 26

We use the 3dtotal.com website and name to promote all our art titles. This includes adverts, announcements, features, and a free chapter on our site. We also use our various social media platforms to publicise the book: Facebook (200,000 Likes), Twitter (48,000 followers), Instagram (113,000 followers), and Pinterest (8,000 followers). In addition we post promotional videos for all our books on YouTube and Vimeo. Book releases are always announced to our mailing list of 83,000 subscribers. 

In terms of print marketing we send out promotional postcards and a catalogue with all physical orders in our online shop to promote book titles that are about to be released. We also send review copies to popular magazines, websites, and blogs such as ImagineFX and Parka Blogs, and work with sites such as Creative Bloq and CG Cookie to promote the usefulness of our books on their websites. In addition we advertise our titles on the popular Character Design References Facebook page (853,000 Likes). Artists involved in the book are always asked to promote the book to their audience – this means our titles are often mentioned on social media platforms with as many as a million followers.

Character Design Quarterly (CDQ) is a lively, creative magazine bringing inspiration, expert insights, and leading techniques from professional illustrators, artists, and character art enthusiasts worldwide.

Each issue provides detailed tutorials on creating diverse characters, enabling you to explore the processes and decision making that go into creating amazing characters. Learn new ways to develop your own ideas, and discover from the artists what it is like to work for prolific animation studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks.

The cover for issue 26 has been created by Mila Useche, a Colombian artist living in Berlin. She is a successful character designer, visual development artist, and illustrator, and is currently working on a short film. We interviewed her about her career and she supplies a step-by-step tutorial on how she created the stunning cover art. Also in this issue, hugely popular artist Ben Eblen creates two characters from a basic prompt: 'Thief, Woodland, Surprise!' We interview Sara Paz and Simone Grunewald about their art, careers, and advice for budding artists. Alex Jensen shows us how to design a cast of superheroes, and Rachelle Joy Slingerland is back with a reimagining of a fairy-tale witch.