Character sketches

After going through The Simpson Handbook, I realized how completely undecided I am about what my bird family should look like. The pros over at the Simpsons have every detail of their characters codified in a look-book. To do my children’s book right I’ve got to standardize my characters so they’ll look the same on page 28 as they do on page one.

So many decisions to make… Should birds have hands? If so, how many fingers on a hand? Five? Four? Should they have mouths or beaks? The can fly, so should they have wings or arms? If they have wings, should the wings be able function like hands? For example, should Momma bird be able to point a finger towards the chimney and say “Don’t you ever mess around with that chimney!”

Here’s are some drawings I did today —- a character sketch showing the relative sizes and color palettes for the Jay family, Momma Jay, Jimmy Jay, and Sammy Jay. Creating a look-book is right there on my mind map for this project, so today I can say that moved forward another inch.

But… now that I’m looking at Jimmy, I’m thinking he needs to be a little more endearing if he’s going to be the hero of the story.

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