Character designs... hmmm

I had been watching Lord of the Rings and had been in a LOTR type of mood all day when I drew my first attempt of a charcter design. That is probably why it resembles Gollum, I wanted to create a character that was slightly grotesque but could still have enough redeeming features to be a lovable character. I drew from aesthetics of the Gringott's goblins in Harry Potter and Gollum almost subconsciously and this was the outcome.

I suppose another strong influence in this particular idea is that of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, I really loved the Spiderwick Chronicles series they produced when I was younger and the artwork by the illustrator DiTerlizzi always fascinated me. It's most likely the reason why I love drawing things like mermaids so much. I had wanted my character to remind me of the character called 'the Knocker' that had been illustrated in the book; he was one of my favorite characters because he was so crazy. I could relate to him since he too speaks to himself like a nutter.

(The Knocker)

These are some of Tony DiTerlizzi's artworks, here you will probably see the influences on my mermaids and hopefully you will agree with me that the guy's stuff is really interesting. Come on, some of this stuff got my dyslexic brother to read for longer than an hour at a time.

I love how realistic it all looks despite it being mystical beings and such. See, this is where someone with their head as far up in the clouds as me can actually believe these things are real xD

Anyhow I will get back to uploading more of MY work I believe I have one more photo to explain...

Finally this is one of my ideas for a character, it hasn't really been developed much beyond me deciding the hair do should be like this rather that like the original I had drawn which looked like it had broccoli for a hair do...
anyway off now...
cheers