Character Design (2/3): Turtle

  Another main character present in this story is the turtle (sea turtle in technicality due to the setting being in an ocean, but most characterisations do follow more of a land turtle’s), who function as the communicator between the sea king and the rabbit due to it being the only animal to ‘travel through both the water and the land.  I wanted to put more focus on the sea turtle elements to my character, so I have simplified the shape of a sea turtle into two shapes: the teardrop shape which comprises the head and the limbs, and the ‘muffin’ shape which composed the body or the shell. 

Photo of a sea turtle by NFWF

 Then, as I have with the rabbit character, I analysed turtle characters from famous media. I have suspected that sea turtles would not be a common character since ocean-focused cartoons are very specific and rare, and my search had shown as such. Land turtles were more common to be used, with the rare exception of the sea turtle Crush from the movie ‘Finding Nemo’. Unlike sea turtles, land turtles have more circular body, so this is a point I would want to avoid if I want to emphasise the ‘sea turtle’ element.

 However, the limbs of my character had to be redesigned as it is supposed to be able to travel through both the water and land, not just the water. So, instead of following the normal limbs of the sea turtle (thicker part of the tear drop is attached to the shell), I reversed it to make the thicker part of the limbs to function like hands and feet.

 Below is the finished character design. The element of the hat and the ‘KR based design’ will be discussed in the third part of the Character Design post, which is for the sea king.