Character Alchemy – Creating Dynamic RPG Characters with Emotional Depth by by Dojen

Dojen spent 10+ years painting for games and TTRPGs, and this class is his full workflow for characters that don’t look frozen. You will work in Krita with simple brushes and layers, and focus on silhouette, body language, and facial expression to get that alive, in-motion feel. No rigid formulas, just practical iteration from rough idea to two finished RPG illustrations.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Use layers, brushes, and layer modes in Krita for fast, fearless iteration
• Build strong silhouettes that read instantly and carry personality
• Draw expressive faces and six core emotions without stiff manga clichés
• Pose characters with weight, rhythm, and believable movement
• Design original fantasy characters for JRPG, D&D, and high fantasy
• Light, shade, and render with texture, hatching, and gradients
• Compose with color theory for mood, focus, and storytelling

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic drawing fundamentals, familiarity with digital painting workflow
• Tools: Krita (free), drawing tablet strongly recommended
• Hardware: PC or Mac capable of running Krita with layered PSD files

📝 Description

Forget chasing perfect lines. Dojen’s whole point is that perfection makes characters boring. This class teaches you to paint with instinct – throw down a silhouette, pull lines out of it, break it, repaint it, and keep what feels alive.

You start simple: default brushes, layers as a safety net, and silhouette-first thinking. From there you get into the stuff that actually sells a character – facial expressions that aren’t copy-paste, poses with micro-gestures, hair and fabric that show direction and weight. Dojen breaks down light in a very no-nonsense way: pick a source, block shadows, push gradients, then refine with texture and hatching.

The second half is pure production. You will build two full characters from scratch – Sylvia and a semi-realistic second design. That means cleaning the sketch with proper line weight, laying flat base colors on separate layers, adding light and shadow, then overpainting to fix what feels off. He also talks openly about freelance reality: how to find clients, how to stay inspired, and how to promote yourself without burning out.

You also get a solid perk pack: dynamic pose and lighting cheat sheets, expression references, 15+ picked Krita brushes, layered working files, and a full timelapse. Good for studying brushwork up close.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Beginners in illustration who want to draw game-ready RPG characters with emotion and motion
• Hobbyists and junior freelancers stuck with stiff poses who want a looser, faster fantasy workflow

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Dojen has been freelancing since 2010, starting as a concept designer at BPG Werks on DTV Shredder, where he did industrial concepts, character design, storyboards, and animation. That early studio work forced him to adapt to different teams and styles fast.

Since going solo in 2017, he has focused on fantasy art, TTRPGs, novels, and games, working with clients like Reality-Entertainment, Fatal Core, The DM Lair, Skyfall Games, and VGM Studios. His teaching style is direct and practical – less theory, more doing, fixing, and trusting your eye.

🏁 Final Result

• Character Illustration (1) – stylized fantasy RPG character with full design, expression, and rendering
• Character Illustration (2) – semi-realistic fantasy character with intuitive lighting, texture, and final polish

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.