The Penguin Project

Here's a project that I was working on around the time I was also working on the Harley Quinn page. It was a collaborative effort with a client looking to create a webcomic about the domestic life of penguins. Here we have Frank, a stay at home dad and his wife Margie, the corporate breadwinner. (We didn't have a name for this series going in, but I would have campaigned for a pun name like "Ice Pop".)

Unfortunately its been weeks since I last heard from my collaborator so I think this comic may be effectively sunk. However I thought I might share some sketches and talk about my thoughts to perhaps serve as an example to future clients as to how I work through my projects.

My earliest ideas weren't much more than actual penguins in human clothes, albeit very boxy. They got a little rounder and more anthropomorphized in later drawings.

This is Frank. I thought it would good to establish his character by showing him taking on a typical "Dad" activity. I choose grilling because it was the last thing you would expect to see a penguin do. 

I also tried to distance these drawing from being animals just wearing clothes by juxtaposing components from one part of their character into another. In this case, I shaped the orange patterning on the back of a penguin's head to try and resemble the kind of crown you would see on a middle aged balding man. The coloring on his chest was also meant to emulate manly chest hair.

  

This is Margie. Since she was supposed to appear very professional I looked to photos of classy actresses like Meryl Strep and Glenn Close for inspiration. This was helpful when it came to designing hair without resorting to just putting a penguin in a wig. Plus it was another great opportunity to blend two aspects of the character together, by flowing the black and white patterning from a penguin directly into her business suit.

My sketch of her on the left came off as looking too snobby especially with all the upward lines in her hair. For my second sketch I shortened her beak and made her hair bigger, but also simpler.