Kangaroo Mice

After sketching several versions of what what a real 'kangaroo mouse' I came up with an exaggeration I wanted to take further.

On the left:  the original block in without much deviation from my original paper sketch.  This was interesting, but I thought, what if I made it more cute?  Can I make it feel as though it belongs in some sort of 3D animated movie?





The result on the right is what happened after some fairly thorough revisions.  This turned into a quest of how to create 'cute' and exaggerate further than my norm, which was a pretty sweet exercise.

A few decisions:
  • Deviate further from realism in proportions.
  • Rodents eyes infrequently show the white area - showing the edge of the iris added a lot of connection to the animal, and the color for the same reason.  This is uneasy for some people, however I followed the leads of Ratatouille, Alvin etc with its proportions to a better effect.
  • More youthful design with slightly fluffy fur and large puff on the end of the tail
  • Easy on the colors, but still subtly bright
  • Graphical patterns - I lightly drew from those of a Chipmunk in the face which adds a little complexity
  • Softer, less chiseled nose and eye

Comments

  1. Hey Jake It's hard to say which I like best, I think you accomplished your cuteness Goal to be sure. The one on the right could be from an old gnarled forest and thee right looks like a pixar character concept. I like the dark dingy look of the one on the left best. He looks like a scrapper I'd root for.
    -Steve O.

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  2. i already told u i like that :D!!!

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