Character Development - The Human-Bird Evolution

For our first Image Manipulation assignment, we were asked to design a vector character that somehow reflects ourselves. The process includes brainstorming and nine sets of sketches with three poses each.

Me being me, I wanted to put a comedic twist on my character. This was the mind map I came up with. Judging by the headliner, it's pretty obvious what approach I wanted to take on the project.

My preliminary sketches:

A stressed college kid because I thought it would be funny, plus I am sort of a stressed college kid. Oh, and coffee. Instant noodles and coffee is our lifeblood.

Ze caveman because I'm pretty darn curious, especially about the most unimportant things in life like why chair seats are concave (so your butt can fit easier). My friends probably wish they were half-deaf.

The large eyes, as well as the crouched pose and hand reaching out to touch whatever it finds amusing, illustrates this.

Also, I was going to position this pose so that it looked like it was drawing on the wall:

A girl version of the caveman. Truth be told, this was probably better than the one before it because a) it's a girl and I'm a girl and b) it's f*cking adorable and I'm, well, I can hope. Right??

The next one was inspired by Dear Dumb Diary's Jamie Kelly, written and illustrated by Jim Benton. Also one of the most hilarious and fluid tween novels I've read. Notice the continuation of large eyes. I am obviously obsessed.

The lightbulb trying to find a source of light (Electricity? Power? Whatever. It's deep stuff, man.) Perhaps also influenced by the fact that I was tired and was out of ideas, so this sort of reflects this.

The next one is also more like me because I'm a girl. DUH. And I like to draw. And I like plaid. And I like lamps. And I like pants. And I like to go barefoot.

This one is inspired by Stewie from Family Guy. Why? Because Stewie is a horrifying twist on a baby. Also, notice the bandaids for eyebrows. And braces. And oversized clothes. He's kind of an adult stuck in a kid's body, or a kid stuck in an adult's body.

Meet Ze Marionette. This sort of reflects me as well in that I feel like I'm constantly being asked to adapt to my surroundings. I am a puppet to situations. The Life Juice tank and REAL BOY tattoo over the heart are really just drunken visual ramblings.

And finally, Ze Bird. I'm often drawn to flying and moving things, such as airplanes, trains, even walking back and forth on the front porch. The bird is the perfect symbol for this, since it also represents freedom, as cheesy as that may sound. As for the wide-eyed stressful thing, well, it's a recurring trait in my sketches. Because I'm a stressed college girl and I like to ask unnecessary questions.

I was originally going for the stressed-college-kid approach, but my lecturer preferred the bird to that one. Thinking back, I should've settled on a compromise rather than go full-out bird. Maybe a more-positive-stressed-college-kid-girl. Who feeds on instant noodles through a tube attached to the aorta. However, sometimes the brainstorming process takes you to places you didn't know, and besides, I've never turned myself into an animal before. It should be interesting. Here are a few bird character sketches I used for reference (courtesy of the lovely internet):