He's Totally Excited
Bringing him out of a straight side profile is a bit challenging too, especially because my art training is extremely limited. I always opted for photography and video work when taking art in school, and it shows in my difficulty with bring objects into 3D space. This revision is my best so far, but at first, Ardvark's little stumpy legs in the "quarter turned" picture at bottom here made him look like a hybrid pig-dog.
It's amazing how much creativity can spill out of you in a 5 minute doodle, and then how much you can struggle to fill in the missing bits and really bring it to life. I can feel myself burning out on this project, but I'm determined to see it through to completion. The first draft story is coming along and about 1/2 done, and then I need to begin deciding where illustrations should go. It's already too long, and I need to make some cuts to make it feasible.
At the moment my real challenge is to stay true to the deranged whimsy that Ardvark was born from and not hammer this into a complete beginning-middle-end tale. We'll see how it goes.
