Character Design Session- Brainstorming

I thought I'd share some of the brainstorm sketches for this character I'm using for a certain project (more than one actually) . It was pretty fun, but also challenging. This doesn't really cover his proportions like a character turnaround- as that's a different process. Here, I was focused on establishing his basic looks and personality, as well as expressions. As you can see from that first drawing on the left, he's changed quite a bit!

This character is based on a Kappa, a yōkai from Japanese mythology. I will say that he's definitely not as horrible as the traditional Kappa, he's just mean spirited, and loves money- which leads him to do all sorts of crazy stuff to get even more of it . To add- rather than the short and sharp turtle-like beak a Kappa tends to have, I sorta gave him a more duck-like beak. It wasn't intentional at first, but I decided to keep it- I think it adds to his snarkiness.

Even though this is just brainstorming, I really enjoyed the process of sketching different expressions. It helped me to really think about who he was, what kind of emotions he'd have, and how he'd express himself. I also used liquify to exaggerate some of them, which helped me to push the expressions in ways I normally wouldn't have thought! Like I said before, there needs more work on his composition- as in his body and proportions. However, I do like the idea of making him a bit stubby and short- his personality far outgrows his size, which I find amusing.

The main drawings here were done a couple weeks ago. Only the really smaller ones were more recent. I'll be drawing him a lot more, so this will also serve as a general reference sheet- at least personality wise haha.

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