As part of my current assignment, I was tasked with designing and creating some Back-up stage characters... mostly musicians and dancers.
This trio of Mariachi characters, I felt were fun to draw. I looked at some mariachi pictures for inspiration, though designed the characters from imagination. Aside from the oversized head and cartoon proportions, they're pretty much straight characters.
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At first this octopus was more realistic, then I added the grin to give it a little twist, and it turn it into a cartoon.
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I borrowed colors from Transor-Z for this robot drummer.
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This cow went through many renditions before reaching this current one (and a few since, I think). At first he was designed after Will Farrel in a very famous "needs more cowbell" skit, though it was clear that the cow needed to go in a different direction.
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The Idea for this bear was simple, influenced by Disney's Country bears. he went through a couple renditions, the first was closer to the Disney bear, and had quite a boring pose. I was unhappy with the pose and so this one came about. I did borrow the colors from one of the Country bear concept illustrations, only I pulled much of the saturation out of it.
As for the mantis, he first was playing a Sax, though the tuba was added, probably because there already was a sax playing ghost, and a tuba has a fun shape.