The Monk Stays In the Picture

Here are some older designs of The Monkster and his friend Jimmy. If you notice, the design of Monkster's feet have changed. Now that I am actually designing cartoon characters to be turned into toys, there are certain guidelines I have to keep in mind while designing. His feet in previous incarnations provided what I was told could be a "choke hazard" in toy form. Meaning if the feet on a toy of the Monkster were to break off of said toy, a child could choke on the busted parts.














So on the newer renditions below, you'll notice he's got regular looking chicken feet, as opposed to the retro cool, 50's modern design above. The irony here being that when I set out to give the character an overhaul a year ago, the sturdy feet you see below were the first thing I placed on the chopping block. They were the one thing that always bothered me about the character, but now with Monkster's new properly proportioned body, they give the character a unique look. I can't wait to get him in motion and see those little chicken legs flying!















Now Jimmy here had quite the long and arduous journey to get to the sleek and fun design you see above. I do feel he needs one or two more redesigns before we hit animation. I would like to lessen some of the hard angles on his midsection and get to something a bit more rounded in some places. I was going for a hybrid Jay Ward-esk look for our boy here. He's part Peabody's boy Sherman, and part Timmy Turner of "The Fairly Odd Parents" with maybe a bit of Hanna-Barbera rolled in for good measure. I'll be posting some exploratory expression work I've been doing with Jimmy and Monkster shortly.