Dark, gangly and sinister: An alternate approach to character design

Most of my characters up until this point, although still slightly weird and strange, have been quite cutesy and innocent in appearance. There for I decided to experiment with creating some more sinister character. 

I found the work of David Foldavari particular informative for this line of development. Where as in the presentation we had been shown his more complex designs that often depicted negative characterisations of various celebrities it was his more basic almost crude characters shown on his website that I found most interesting. More often than not they are comprised of long tortored looking limbs with simple faces depicting either distressed or distressing expressions. In particular I like his use of rough and violent marks, presumably with ink and brush, that further add to the disturbed feeling of his characters.  

Where as before my characters had been quite short and stubby with heads far larger than  they should be when in normal proportion here I tried the opposite creating characters with long, gangly and emaciated bodies. 

I feel that this immediately gives them a much more sinister and rather unsettling feel. To further this effect I then played around with taking away certain facial features, in particular I felt those with only mouths were particularly disturbing.

Rather than showing something more carnivorous and full on terrifying I felt it would create a better consistency with my previous work to include the fruit due to the fact it adds a bizarre almost humorous element to the images. Furthermore visually I like the stark contrast better the monochromatic, jittery characters and the bright simple shapes of the fruit.

Much like my previous characters based on the word agitation I feel the main issue with this set is that they feel slightly too messy and jarring on the eyes. However, given the themes on display here I am still undecided as to whether or not that is necessarily a bad thing. I have once again experimented with creating rough unpredictable textures within the characters that, although they certainly add to this jarring aesthetic, also add an element of visceral intrigue.