I went to the local zoo a couple of weeks ago with my rendering class for a sketch outing. I was ill and running fever, but trooped on in spite of it. The BIG giveaway that I was really, really sick, was that I could not finish my delicious Chick-fil-A meal that I had taken with me to enjoy by the lake.
The outing was for gathering sketches for inspiration in developing a cover for a children's book assignment for class. I could not do a lot of walking around since I felt terrible, but I managed to gather some good bird sketches, none of which, were used to develop my character!
In the end, I was inspired by photos my teacher shot of a playful ostrich. It had a game of peek-a-boo going with her while she was photographing it. She showed us the photos in class, and the ostrich really made me happy. So I decided to make my character an ostrich. "Noodle" is my character developed from thumbnails I sketched from various images I found on the internet, and inspired from my teacher's photos. My daughter came up with the name, and I think it fits perfectly.
