Below are some of the concept pages from my sketchbook and the road that Darwin took to his final look. I knew initially I wanted him to have goggles seeing as he exists in a bright desert environment. I messed around with scarves and other things as well. Darwin is the character's name by the way, although it is never mentioned in the film. But why wouldn't I give him a name?

This is about the point where I started to realize that we were creating a Jack and Daxter knockoff so I went in a more feathery direction with the character. I looked at tons of different birds. I started small but decided he needed to be a fair sized creature if he were to be of any use to his owner. I ultimately decided to give him a more hawk like body type with some longer legs making him a more useful creature to have around in a desert landscape. Not only can he fly, but he can book it on two feet if he has to. 

Below is the Darwin's evolution from his beginning design to his final. Darwin's evolution. Eh? Eh? Nevermind. 

That about does it for the character design of Darwin. I may set up a separate version later dealing more with my background designs but for the sake of organization I'll leave this entry just for Darwin. Below is the final film.