Albert the... polecat? WIP

[lizardillo]

Hi all, I've not really been able to start this until yesterday due to work so trying to cram it all in a few days.

Did anyone else not be able to decide on a mammal, or was it just me? Very jealous if you knew straight away

I was going to go for a flying squirrel but could not work out how it could be mischievous apart from flying about but then it needs its arms to stick out to fly (glide). My brain is not working well enough to engineer a backstory for it.

I've settled on a polecat as I like their mischievous nature in real life (it's actually a bit of a vicious predator but I'm making him just LOVE food to make it a bit more kid friendly). I have found there is a marbled polecat, which looks very fancy so hoping to get some sort of snazzy markings on him if I have time (he has stripes at the moment).

His clothing is a bandana because you can wear a bandana in a few different ways so I though it could have a few different uses (scarf, bib, mask, apron, handkerchief, sunhat, hide something underneath it...).

I am getting there I think but would like to make more of how stretchy and flexible they are which I have not done in the first final pose sketches yet. Perhaps helping get a ball out of a tree, stealing cookies from a counter top and passing it to a shorter friend, bending around a corner to have a cheeky lick of someone's ice-cream. Something like that.

Hope he is fitting the brief, any feedback always appreciated. I love to be able to make him more stylised and less 'realistic' but just can't seem to draw abstractly (if that's a word).

I have just started looking through some of everyone's WIPs and there is so many great things going on!

Progress so far..

Thanks, Liz

[Georgios Christopoulos]

Love it. I can't wait to see how it turns out. One thought I d like to share. the moment I saw him I thought "different eye colours"
Give it a shot when you colour it if you want!!

[Sabrina Gosselin]

I also had a real tough time deciding! Coincidentally, one of my options was a pine marten, which is essentially a mini polecat and bandana was something I was toying with as an accessory! I didn't do either though. I am loving your design so far. Way adorable!

[lizardillo]

@Georgios-Christopoulos thank you. I was thinking of adding colour to his fur (so not just black/brown and white) but never though about eye colour. Great idea!

@Sabrina-Gosselin my original was a weasel and a bandana kind of suited his nature and you can do a lot of things with a bandana. Then it kind of went through weasel, stoat, pine marten and then polecat and marbled polecat. I just loved their little faces and how flexible they are - even if they are little devils in real life. If you had created your pine marten they could have gone on mischievous adventures together

[Sabrina Gosselin]

@lizardillo Haha mine could've been a spazzy little sidekick

[willicreate]

Except for the polecat, I went through the same list of animals as potential candidates. There's a reason why bears, elephants, etc are beloved by humanity. Loving the exploration of the polecat's spagetti body.

[Becky]

@Georgios-Christopoulos that's a fun idea!

[Becky]

Your sketches are very fun. Thank you for sharing your visual thought process!

[lizardillo]

Thanks all. I have tried to stylalise a bit and make him looooooooong. Polecats just look like furry tubes when they stand up but I've added a bit of shape just to add some form. Going with a teal accent colour (it's my fave and I like to sneak that colour in wherever I can!), he's not wearing a waistcoat, it will just be spots or a pattern around that area. I'm having a bit of an arm positioning dilemma. Position 1 seems the most comedic but he looks like a giraffe, 3 seems the most realistic to the actual animal but make him look too skinny. I'm thinking somewhere in the middle like 2, although that limits his reach a bit to get high things but I can stretch his lower body and squash his upper body if he's reaching for something high up. I'm swayed towards 2 but any opinions welcome. I thought of having him bending on the front and back 3/4 like the top left but then realised thats not a 'neutral pose'.

I think I'm going to have to say 'polecat inspired' soon as it's moving away from the real thing and becoming a polecat/meerkat/squirrel. Albert the Polmeersquirrelkat.

[xin li]

@lizardillo lovely character. I wonder what it would look like if no.2 and 3, the arm is a bit longer. Right now the arm feels too short in these 2 versions.

[lizardillo]

@xin-li thanks I've added some length on. It will definitely help if I extend them as I was trying to draw him eating and his arms wouldn't reach his mouth at that short length.

[miranda-hoover]

@lizardillo Looking great! Love the multip-purpose garment; very clever!

[Jules]

I love your design of the polecat! It has really great shape and I really appreciated seeing all the behind the scenes with your reference and thoughts. It looks fantastic!

[lizardillo]

I think this will be my finished character sheet layout. I will redraw, colour and add fur patterns/details tomorrow (it’s late evening here ). I will try and give him a little more personality, my facial expression skills are not that good, they are all a bit generic so will be looking at trying to improve on them. He’s not as mischievous as I would have liked but I may have time to try to add some bits at the end but I may be pushing it a bit.

Thanks for all of the feedback, it’s really appreciated. Glad you are liking the process, sometimes I feel I waffle on a bit too much, sorry if I do!

I have no idea what mammal he’s turned into now. Some sort of polecat-mouse with a touch of hyena think!

Thanks again for being so supportive.

[brettb_draws]

@lizardillo This is such a fun design, I really love the proportions !!

[LordAzazel]

@lizardillo Very nice work. I love how he can use his little scarf in many ways. Such a versatile design choice!

[lizardillo]

Here is the final. I will submit in a bit as I can't decide whether to take off "spotty polecat" as I'm not sure he's very polecat-y any more

Thanks everyone, it's so nice to have such a helpful and supporting community.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's Alberts this month.

[Janette]

Oh, I love him! So much fun!

[willicreate]

Nicely done. If you're polling, I've vote for spots. It's for kids, so go colorful and imaginary.

[lizardillo]

@willicreate I toned down the spots a little so the bandana was a little more prominent but otherwise he's still spotty