Concept Development - Developing stages

I've decided to go ahead and post my development process for Shoo and the skull prop!

Development : Hair Styles and Face Shape

In my first page of development, I was exploring different variations regarding Shoo's hair and facial structure. I mainly went for hairstyles that are slightly short in comparison to longer styles due to how mature the character looked with the longer hair. I personally like the bottom left facial shape because of how it includes rounded edges just like the other two designs, but it includes variation regarding size; unlike the first which looks quite bloated whereas the third looks rather plain. 

A classmate gave me an idea about how I could go with the evil grin of Shoo. From her idea, I liked the extremely stretched mouth.

Development : Hair and Size

Throughout the development phase, I tried different shades for the shirt and Shoo's hair. I wanted a contrast between the two elements for clarity of the character and making her more interesting to look at. However, while I was contemplating how I could make her look rather "emotionless" due to her "shy" personality, different individuals asked what Shoo would look if her eyes were covered. I thought this was an excellent idea, as a classmate also showed me a character named Erma who had a similar concept (having her eyes covered most of the time)

Erma covers her entire face so reading her facial expression is impossible. However, her emotions can be portrayed through her body language. I decided to have Shoo's eyes covered by having a shadow be cast by her puffy fringe, which meant even the shadow included round shapes for a cute image. 

Shoo will also have a dotted mouth for the majority of the short...until she changes.

Development - Shirt and EVIL

My final development page for Shoo includes changes with the image on her shirt. Out of the various adorable shapes, I received feedback that the happy face changing along with her "mutation" was a clever aspect in emphasizing how evil Shoo actually is, as well as looking like a cute smiley at the same time. I also explored different ways of showing her little emotions (and cuteness!) through her body language and silhouette. Many people seemed to enjoy the top right image of Shoo with longer sleeves to cover her small hands. (It'd be easy for me to animate too! ><)

For EVIL Shoo, I plan to try different colours for her eyes but am leaning towards a red glow against black. I may also just have a fully red eye instead.