Character designs

Once I had the outline of my character, I needed to create a context for him. So he's a toadstool. Great. But why? What is his purpose? Why is this toadstool alive?

Before shedding light on those questions, I thought I'd try a few sketches in order to see how transferable the idea was.

As it turned out, the idea was pretty adaptable. My interpretation of this character was that he is a toadstool who lives out in the wild. In this context, the protagonist is also a toadstool who also lives in the wild. His agenda is that he wants to preserve the wild that he lives in, but the antagonist (my character) wants to stop him in order to help humans create a construction site over it in order for them to become rich, and for him to eventually become spiritual leader of the new site. The overall message of the show would be to protect the environment, and the audience would learn the consequences of not protecting it if my character were to succeed in his plans each time.

I thought a mock-war idea would be an interesting approach, and thought about an army of toadstool men similar to the on above, but something was strangely familiar about my design. Eventually I managed to put my tongue on it.

It was resembling the NVA/Viet Cong a little bit, and I don't want any Vietnam war political backfire. Plus, a subject like this may be too much for children of 4-14 years to grip. In light of this, my immediate next idea was to swap the gun for a samurai sword, which was a better choice.

I added wooden Japanese samurai slippers, and the toadstool cap served as a makeshift conical hat as below:

This, in lieu with the slippers and the samurai sword, would create an eastern theme, which I thought was perfect. Many youngsters these days are inspired by eastern culture and its art forms, such as anime and video games, are becoming very popular.

So at this point, there is a message to be conveyed -- protect the environment -- and there is an appealing eastern theme which makes it more interesting.