She’s feisty and a bit savage, but perhaps, just what the creative house ordered.

Meet, Coco Bean! An African Pigmy Hedgehog. (6 months old)

Beside an office assistant her roles will be and not excluded too: office entertainment, model, cartoon inspiration, therapist, and distraction expert. She has some very big shoes to fill as her predecessors were very talented in this role for the Design House. When she’s not working for PMDH she will be keeping her owner, my daughter, company.

My new hire’s resume was quite impressive. Key buzz words were :

Punctual.

Sharp as a tack.

Pinpoints ideas.

Night owl.

(Me, too, girl)

When running a one woman business I tend to need help with my marketing and secretarial work. The problem is finding the right kind of help. I need someone creative to help bounce ideas off of. Someone organized and can keep me on track with projects. Someone that when I think I have the date or time correct for an event that they stick the calendar in my face to prove me wrong kind of hire. (I know I’m not the only one that does this.)

Well, after a tough year of losing my other office assistants it is time for a new hire.

As you can see she’s perfect for the job. Now, be prepared for hedgy inspired artwork spamming my blog for awhile. Like this one below. Sometimes when I have artist block, I’ve found it helpful to draw two subjects: gesture drawings of humans or cute animals. So Bean was the inspiration drawn in ProCreate on my iPad Pro. I’m also including the process video recorded in ProCreate (a super handy feature if I do say so myself.)

Hedgehog digital painting
Hedgehog Character Design

By the time I finish a warm up drawing I now have ideas on what to create. Like this hedgehog character design. I think at the time it was the combination of the music I was listening too and the animal I was drawing that I thought it would be fun to create a Frank Sinatra inspired character. I drew this a year ago before I had a hedgehog in the studio. I did research on hedgehogs to learn what I could. I didn’t know they had fang like teeth, for instance. Now that I have a hedgehog and I’ve spent some time with her, I can see how I might have created my character differently. Maybe. This goes to show that research is KEY to a successful character design. Research isn’t just looking at a few photos of the animal. Find anatomy drawings like the bones and muscles. Watch videos of how they move and what their special quirks might be. Then while  you are drawing have as many reference photos as possible on your desk.

Perhaps the hardest part of character design when you don’t have a particular project is thinking what you’re going to draw. The best way to generate ideas is from right in front of you. Draw your animals, go visit a cafe,  shopping area, zoo, or a trip to your local park.  These are all  great ways to be inspired for your next fun and creative creation.

Keep drawing every day my friends.