Bird and Four Legged Character Design

This project I was most looking forward too because I got to design two characters as my favourite animals 

For the bird I chose a crow. Crows are depicted as mysterious and evil creatures but for my character I wanted him to be a kind character. when he is in front of 'people' he does not know he is quite shy but when he is with his friend he is quite cocky and up beat 

For my research I looked at Zazu from the Lion King because he is very much like my character. when he is not threatened he is very cocky and doesn't take no for an answer but when he is threatened he shrinks down and cowers away  

For these I wanted to look at different beak and body shapes and I decided that my character would have a straight back but a curved chest.

For the colours I wanted to keep the dark body but I didn't know whether to keep the chest dark or colour him. In the end I decided to colour his chest in like a magpie (the colours you see when the tail feathers are exposed to the sunlight)

For the turnaround I found it difficult especially in keeping the body shape correct 

With the expression and action sheets I felt that I lost the consistency in his shape and poses

For the four legged animal I chose a wolf as you would see both crows and wolves together in the same environment 

For the initial design I thought of making my character large and fluffy but the design would be too complicated to draw over and over again

In the end I went for this design. I liked the curve from the top of the head to the end of tail, it gave him a sleek and quite intelligent look 

these were just some practise sketches of my characters head at different angles 

For the colours I didn't want him to be young looking. I wanted him to be showing his age but he still has some life in him. So I chose a grey body and a dark green for his mane with highlights of grey so it shows his age.

For the promo I wanted them to be having a game of chest (like something you would see in New York's park) and so I wanted Calcifer (crow) to show his young cocky nature but for Toban I wanted to be showing his old intelligent side where he takes his time with his decisions and thinks things through