Concept drawing for beginners

This week in my drawing for animation class we were split into small groups and chose two items to stimulate ideas for a concept. We chose a Policeman's Hat and a Scottish Wig. From this we discussed various ideas and eventually started to develop some characters. The characters are quite a literal translation from the props we chose however the characters are very unique in style.

The first character is a Police officer. His head is simply a Police Hat and instead of a badge, he has once eye in it's place. On top of his head/hat is a siren which is set off when he's in pursuit and/or when he's surprised etc. He has an extremely slender body with a short torso and long bandy legs and arms and very small feet. He has a moustache but no visible mouth.

The second character is a small Scottish man. My main inspiration for the Scottish man's physique is based on the Loony Toon character 'Marvin the martian' with his small body and big helmet. Instead of a helmet the man has a very large Scottish Hat.

My original drawings of the characters were very rough and extremely stiff. As the post continues it will become aware of what I've changed.

Refining the Police Man:

When I went to develop the Police man characters personality, I also changed a few things about his aesthetic. First of all, I changed his moustache into a more recognisable 'English moustache'. I feel the one before was very American looking. The reason for this change is because I want to base my concept in London where this almost 'PC Plod' character spends his days drinking builders tea, combing his moustache and hopelessly trying to find something or someone to investigate. 

He aspires to be a private detective but has never quite earned his way up the ranking system, Until now... 

To create some key frames on his body structure in certain positions, I simplified him even more and I actually prefer the really simplified version to the one above.

Expressions 

A beginners attempt to character design on Maya

Quick Sketch on Flash using a Wacom tablet

Police Man Walking - Created on Flash using a Wacom tablet 

Refining the Scottish Man:

As shown in comparison from the previous sketch of this character, I have changed quite a lot in terms of proportion. Now he is much shorter, yet keeps the big feet. Again, little detail to the body but the characteristics such as the boots, enormous moustache and bush eyebrows really make him an individual. I've kept the hat because I feel like everything so fat has stemmed from hats therefore they should feature throughout.