Every great character has an essence that is hard to define but easy to spot. It's a silhouette with opinions and a secret history that only the creator intimately knows. For Spanish-born, Tokyo-based illustrator Luis Mendo, every character starts with a neutral pose. From there, he runs it through a series of playful experiments until he has a character with a personality, a backstory, and its own Tinder profile (no, really).

In this tutorial, Luis gets busy with our Aqua Studio liquid ink and watercolor pack to demonstrate his step-by-step process for building a character from the ground up, the very same approach he's used to fill the pages of Monocle, Wired, Vanity Fair, the NYT, and more.

Start by designing your character in a neutral state, without paying too much attention to expression or intention, just deciding on the basic shapes.

Test the power of the basic shapes by having the character move into more extreme body positions. Is the character still there?

Try giving them face expressions that go from subtle to extreme, exploring the range they can handle.

Make your character react to external factors. What do they do in the face of danger? Are they spineless or brave? What do they do when they see food? And when they see injustice?

Of course, you need to explore how the character looks like 360°; from different sides.

If they are an animal, it helps thinking what they would do if they were human: how do they open doors, carry groceries or drive a bicycle. If they are human, is there an animal they would make you think of?

How human can they get? Farting, burping, getting stressed, running late... there are so many things humans do in a funny way. Let the character do them too.

But they need to be heroes. What makes them special? Why will a reader sympathise with them? They need to be extraordinary in one way or another. And if they are boring, make them extraordinarily boring.

Do not rely on just one position, make them move and act. How quick/how swift/how slow do they move? It all adds to their personality.

One good way to reveal the personality in a character is to find out how they sleep.

Do not forget it's called "character design" for a reason. Searching the shapes within the shapes pays off.

By now, our character probably has gotten a life and a personality. Now let's dig further...

Try building a back story of the things you can't see: what would be their job, do they have a high IQ level, what books do they read, what did they study, do they live in an apartment or a detached house... all that.

And finally, search for possible partners: who do they love, do they have a sidekick, a wife, a husband, children etc... Easily, that will bring new characters. A family maybe. Even a whole town!

Luis Mendo is a Spanish-born writer and illustrator living in Karuizawa, just outside of Tokyo, Japan.

This article originally appeared in Mundo Mendo, Luis' illustrated journal of writings, art lessons, and musings, which is also available as an annual printed book. All drawings were made with our Aqua Studio liquid ink and watercolor brushes.

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