vultures

The 3rd week already (has been the 4th when I finally upload this message) and I have been doing many things, but found it difficult to get it organized. Time to get some things down here to see what I have been doing and where I'm at now.

During the first week I have mainly been researching a lot of birds and their anatomy. I looked in books in the library and went to the wildlife department of the Bristol museum, I made a lot of sketches, of which I will share a couple later on. I also collected many images to define the style and look of the bird character I want. I already knew that I wanted some kind of large bird, so from an early stage started to look into birds of prey. I came across the vulture, and decided that this would be a really interesting type of bird to base my character on.
Although I want the bird to be anatomically a lot closer to a real bird then the Fowl play birds, I don't want to recreate an existing bird. I want the bird to have its own character.

What really caught my interest of the vulture is its 'uglyness' which at the same time makes him so beautiful. The weight shifting walk with its head hanging low at the end of its long neck makes him a very typical character already. Then there is the opposite look when the bird is flying, and its movements are very majestic and graceful. His wingspan is enormous and makes him a mighty appaerence.

I like the idea of an old character, a bird with a deep frown in its face, expressive but tired eyes, a curved beak with a little hook in it, and some roughness in its textures and colours, reflecting the time that has passed, leaving an aged body. Perhaps there are some feathers missing, there might be a scar in its neck, or even on other places of its body. I think the head would be the most important part of the body to portray the character. Perhaps it would need some more 'humanized' shapes/alterations to give him more readable expressions. The character is slow when he is walking, and doesn't seem very efficient doing this.
However, when he is flying, the bird is still in its full glory. Despite his age the bird will never forget how to fly... He flies without thinking, and it seems to cost him no effort. He is dancing in the sky.

I was also considering making it a female vulture, but I am not sure about this yet. I don't know how much difference there actually is in the appearance between female an male vultures...

I have been still looking at many different birds bird shapes, to consider if I would combine certain elements. But then there are still even many kinds of vultures. I like the 'creepy'  look of the Griffon vulture, but then there are other vultures with more streamlined bodies and more bare skin on their feet, which I would like to incorporate in my design. Also to make it easier for animating, not having this big mess of feathers at the body and legs. The feathers will be quite an issue to get right, which I am already trying to come up with methods for, but that is something I will leave for a next post.

Below is a selection of vulture images that inspire me for this character, I keep collecting more and more, but it would not be very helpful sharing all of them here.