Mastering Character Design

It has been such a pleasure taking Brooklyn’s Character Design Mentorship for the last few months. As a busy professional wanting to improve my character design skills it has been the perfect push for me to get back into drawing and learn to push shapes and dig deeper to find the personalities of the characters I’m designing.
Watching Brooklyn go over my drawings every week has opened my eyes to what a character designer’s aim is, what to get from the exploration phase and how to use reference for your drawings to get the most out of the idea you’re going for. I am humbled every week with her draw overs, yet encouraged and excited to to do more passes on my designs. I’ve also been learning to slow down and think more when I draw and incorporate storytelling and how that informs and elevates the design.
I have drawn more for Brooklyn’s class than I have by myself in the last few years. My drawing confidence has definitely increased over the course of the mentorship. Anyone hoping to improve their drawing and character design skills should take Brooklyn’s class. I highly recommend it!
Amanda Zima

Going into the mentorship with Brooklyn I knew that I would have to draw a lot, and boy, was I right! From weekly practice, to the assignments, to figuring concepts out, I have been drawing a lot these past few months (which still went by super quickly!) and I am extremely happy with the progress I’ve made.
I really liked the way Brooklyn approaches the mentorship; there is not really a right or wrong way but there is value in finding your own path and I feel like Brooklyn definitely encourages to do just that. I found it extremely helpful for her to go in depth during the theory classes since I noticed that actually naming concepts helped a lot, going from intuition to applying concepts that we had learned during the mentorship made it easier to make informed decisions while designing.
Throughout the mentorship, I always felt comfortable sharing my concerns and doubts with Brooklyn. She took the time to thoughtfully respond to every question and concern, often revisiting them in subsequent sessions to ensure I fully understood the answers. Her dedication made a significant impact on my learning experience.
I wholeheartedly recommend Brooklyn’s mentorship program to anyone looking to enhance their drawing and character design skills.

Carlos Mendietta

Brooklyn’s course was one of the best art classes I have ever taken!

Her class helped me to think not only about artistic appeal, but also on how to make decisions so as to communicate the story and personality behind a design. Brooklyn was so kind and tactful when critiquing each of our works, that it propelled us forward and I was always motivated to keep learning. Any insights she shared about areas for improvement were always honest and balanced with praise & encouragement. I felt like she cared about everyone’s ideas, and sincerely wanted each of us to succeed. What I loved the most about learning from Brooklyn was how she was always able to explain why a certain design was appropriate in different contexts, so I was able to grow deeper in my understanding of purposeful design not only for characters, but in every other aspect of animation in order to communicate the story in a meaningful way.

I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to learn from such a knowledgeable yet humble designer as Brooklyn!

Em Williams

Prior to the mentorship with Brooklyn, I felt stuck with my style and was hesitant to push boundaries. Thanks to her guidance, I no longer feel that way. Brooklyn is very attentive with her students and identifies any obstacles present, so that you can progress forward. In working with Brooklyn, you can quickly feel that she is kind, passionate, and aware of your goals and gives you the tools and advice you need to achieve. Additionally, the community in class was strong and collaborative in sharing critiques, suggestions, and kudos towards each other’s work. Altogether, it was awesome to witness everyone’s skills evolve.

For people considering Brooklyn’s mentorship, especially if you are focusing in character design, hers has my highest recommendation. You will be learning from someone who is just as eager to see you succeed as you are

Pat Nee

My mentorship experience with Brooklyn was incredibly fruitful! I was studying visual development in school, and I sought out the mentorship to learn more about character design to improve my skills. I felt the program was very in depth & covered design topics specific to the form / character which wasn’t covered at my school! I also found the critique sessions to be very helpful; Brooklyn gave me plenty of draw-overs and notes on my homework each week, which were detailed & personalized for every student. I felt that Brooklyn’s teaching style provided technically sound solutions while still embracing each student’s ideas or stylistic choices. I was able to learn and grow immensely each week through putting the course material to practice and problem solving my character designs based on Brooklyn’s feedback. 

Allison Nguyen