Farmyard Characters

When I start a new character design, I almost always start with the face. The face is the most expressive with personality. I then move on to the body, giving it the same gestural feeling that the face expresses. All of these are done in my primary medium of watercolor and ink. I love the medium because it is so fluid and it keeps you loose and painterly.

Smug Chicken.

Composition Studies

I tend to spend a lot of time in the initial stages of developing a composition. I work up thumbnail sketches but very quickly get into full watercolor paintings, as I want to feel the way the characters and colors are going to interact in the final illustration. Here are some composition studies done in watercolor and ink.