Character Design Challenge - Axolotl Adventurer

To practice my character design, I participated in the December Character Design Challenge where I created Axel 'Adventure' Otel:

Proof of submission (2 days before deadline just in case)

Making lots of rough sketches helped me find out what worked well and prevented me from being too precious with my initial designs. I focused on character alignment, shape language and the world it would be in. Creating a character using the guidance of a brief helps me practice creating a character for the animation pipeline and so I focused on creating a character suited for animating, so it had be made of simple shapes, flat colours, and too many details:

 

I also experimented with colour schemes, keeping in mind personality, environment, and fashion sense:

2 was the best suited as it conveyed a light-hearted, goofy, but also realistic mood.