More magician doodles

Terrible terrible terrible. Felt like poo, ended up doodling in bed last night, sort of felt a bit happier with what I came up with but looking at it this morning I just don't know.

I reverted back to my original idea of having a really bouncy, flexible character with a ludicrously simple design. I really felt like it would be more fun to animate — every time I picture the shot I see him bouncing on-screen, for some reason, so I opted not to give him any legs. He started becoming a lot more human in shape which I was okay with. Then I just... gave him a tiny floating top hat which I loved the idea of at the time. I think it could give some really nice animation. As he heaves himself on stage (think bouncing like a space hopper) the hat  could spring around and bounce and lag behind. His moustache could be really expressive — a knowing wiggle as he watches the audience. Something like that.

The difficulty came in thinking of what he was supposed to actually do, though. I'm crap at ideas. I just like making things move. I started considering a few options — I thought of the rabbit again, but then I dunno. Maybe he just bounces on stage and kind of mucks up all of his tricks? Then the E4 logo... maybe he bounces on, faces the audience, DRAMATIC drum roll, and then things kind of go ass-over-tit and he drops his cards, the mirrors collapse and his smoke machine malfunctions, leaving him to vanish in a puff of purple smoke and the E4 logo is there instead.

Of course the issue there is that he would require arms. So, I tried them out. Not sure if I like 'em. Bleh.

Getting tired at this point. So... yeah, I tried legs as well, just to see. He could still bounce and be quite energetic — hell, maybe he leaps and somersaults on stage so you get the idea this is going to be REALLY spectacular. He stands there expectantly... maybe cards pour from his sleeves, and as he bends to pick them up? Or he's supposed to make himself vanish.

I AM RUBBISH.

Don't know how I feel about his design right now — it feels okay, but I'm thinking it's boring and generic. Don't know how it would be coloured or anything, or how it would sit with the set. It's tricky to know what I should be working on first — the idea itself, or the style? Which is more important? GAH.

God. Okay. I'll just need to keep... playing around. Maybe I'm worrying too much.