Character Sketches 1- Boy

The first character I started sketching was the Boy. This was because he was the main character (alongside the grandma) and although he is only an actual human for maybe one third of the book, I felt that it was important to accurately capture his character through clothing and expression.

The character I conjured up in my head was a slightly mischievous looking boy with ruffled hair and a gangly frame. He wore shorts and a striped t shirt with boots, a very typical outfit for a rambunctious young boy in the 50s, practical clothes which were fit for all the rough and tumble he would be getting into.

The first sketch I did was the portrait in the upper left hand corner. I didn't like this much as the drawing looks rather forced and too similar to the drawings I did in the past of this character- I wanted to get away from those drawings completely.

I started sketching possible outfits for him in the middle and these led to the boy sketched on the right hand side. I liked the little vest and shirt combo, children of the 50s were usually dressed like miniature adults so this is a perfect design for him. I tried to give him some discernable features that would make him unique in his 'mouse form', such as plenty of freckles which would appear as mottles fur, an upturned nose and a calflick in his hair. This led me to do some little sketches of his mouse form which are the drawings I like best of this page because even though I was relaxed when drawing all this the mouse sketches look a lot more natural.