First sketches

I have now decided on an idea. But I am not entirely sure what style to use and how do you pick the individual elements. Trying to get my head around the idea further I made a first sketch of the title (which you can see below).

I tried to find styles that I thought would work with my idea. I looked at the animation Sword in the Stone and The Secret of Kells. I also thought that the highly individual designs and the TV show Hey Arnold could be a good influence. All of which offer easy to read Characters that work well within their environment, but aren’t overwhelming in their detail. Inspiration also came from the comic-book series the peanuts as well as Calvin and Hobbes. The peanuts I looked at for their simple and easy to read characters depicting children of roughly the same age range that I want to portray. Calvin and Hobbes on the other hand, showed a dynamic between the long character of Hobbes and the short Calvin that I thought would work well for my siblings. I want to capture the fluidity of movement that Hobbs exhibits in many of the drawings.  The elder brother would more resemble Hobbes whilst the younger sister could be similar to Calvin in her build. Her movment I will try to base on Daggets animation in Angry Beavers, as they have roughly the same build.

 I did one or two quick sketches for each of these ideas, which you can also see below.