More Character Designs

I've been back on the character designing again, and I've now worked out that the character design of the main character - the Kakapo - is now entering it's final stages. I feel the design has enough appeal and I don't know if I can improve upon it. If I keep trying I could end up ruining the character and wasting time. I've now began to work out the character sheet for the Kakapo. I've devised the rules for how to draw the Kakapo, in case I need to have someone else do in-betweening for me.With the Kakapo finished, I've now moved onto working out the design for the secondary characters. I moved onto doing the Owl first. I didn't really like the first design I did, because it had a 'Totoro' look to it. So I went 'back to the drawing board' so to speak and tried to go for a more 'flour sack' look to the Owl. I like how linear and sharp the character designs, it gives a nice contrast to the Kakapo's softer and rounder appearance. I also think this element gives a little of the Owl's character away as well. He's meant to be rough. He's meant to be mean. He's meant to look like the sort of bloke that if you coughed in his direction would headbutt you in the face, and I think that's coming across in the character's design slowly but surely. It's not there yet, as Sean rightly pointed out, the Owl needs to have a few of his features defined in a way that makes it more recognisably an Owl. In my previous entry I said that some of the colour tests looked more falcon like, and that shouldn't have happened. That was the result of the character design not being up to task. So while I feel the Owl's design is getting stronger, I don't think it's quite there yet.

Moving on from the Owl, I started to look at the other secondary character in the story, the Crane. The Crane has been a source of constant frustration for me, as I can't seem to nail the tall and lanky design that I wanted to do. The character comes across as snooty and elitist alright, but something about the design lacks appeal. An issue I'm having is the neck, I just have no idea what to do with it. No matter what I do the neck seems wrong to me.
That being said, after a meeting with Sean, a set of drawings i did which I'd initially decided were bad designs were suddenly brought to my attention. Sean stated that he preferred this design in a lot of ways, and with fresh eyes I could see why. The character's pose is perfect, and the blocky shoulders I have given him, give the impression he's wearing some kind of blazer without having actually putting a blazer on the character. I still feel that there are some places it's needs to be tightened. The eyes are too small for my liking and it's not really that clear he's wearing glasses, but this is heading in the right direction.

Below is a drawing I did, mostly for myself, so that I could get an idea of what the character's heights were in relation to each other. The Kakapo is definitely the smallest, whereas the larger Owl and Crane are a lot taller, with the Crane being tallest overall.


Lastly, I have started to look at the tertiary characters, the other birds at the school that appear mostly in the line. The first of these I looked at was the only one with any real movement, which is the Pigeon that goes in line before the Kakapo. Not really got many ideas at this stage, and have been jotting down basic sketches to try and get a feel of how I want the Pigeon to look.

I'm not sure what other birds I'm going to use yet, but I suspect they will be dull looking birds, as to fit in with the colour schemes I'm going for.