One of our approaches has been to make InvestiGator top-heavy, kind of like Pixar’s Mr. Incredible; big shoulders, arms, with little legs. Another detail has been to make his head big and prominent.
But then we looked at making his body more “human-like” in proportions.
This drawing directly compares the big shoulders proportions versus the more human-like proportions.
Here we started exploring how to emphasize InvestiGator’s “crocodileness.” Here we removed the cartoony nose and emphasized the reptilian eyes/skull. These drawings were influenced by looking at pictures of baby crocodiles since nature has its own way of caricaturing the look of species across the planet; big eyes, larger head, minimized mouth.
Then we started to incorporate the signature crocodile facial feature of the “zig-zag” mouth line and we also started to consider how to treat the teeth. Do we include them, hide them, turn them into the line itself as a zig-zag? Do the teeth come out when he’s upset…? More things to consider.
So, these next drawings further explore the zig-zag crocodile mouth as central to InvestiGator’s character design, including what the corners of the mouth do in the neutral position/facial expression as opposed to smiling or reacting.
This last drawing is an attempt to focus more on the character design elements by simplifying the drawing tools. If you have a bigger bolder crayon, it’s harder to get distracted by details and hopefully easier to see what exactly makes InvestiGator The InvestiGator.