Character Design, #1

I'm in a character design class this semester and we had our first assignment due today. As a side note, this is new territory for me-- I feel like I'm especially bad with being able draw the same character multiple times, so I'm hoping to fix that and other problems this semester. Anyway! We had to design the character of Fflewdder Fflam from the Chronicles of  Prydain. He's the reluctant ruler of a small kingdom, but would rather live the life of a bard, wandering the countryside with his harp. So here he is!

Initial sketch before learning that maybe I should consider more interesting shapes.
-digital

This and the next picture are just gestural poses and different
face explorations.

#10 is a modern-day bard with "spiky blonde hair" as Fflewdder is described as having. ;)

I liked this guy's gestural shape a lot, but I couldn't figure out
what kind of pants he was wearing, and didn't love that he looked more
like a professional athlete instead of a quiet musician...

So instead I used my tied-for-favorite gesture and tried
to make him quietly cute.

... And then quickly added a bit of color in photoshop.
I want to do this part over-- I didn't have time to ink it like I wanted
and I'd like to paint by hand or something. I also have a few things to fix.

 I have a feeling that it won't be hard for me to post on this blog at least once a week as is required for my class...
Until next time!