Blue is a land octopus that I created for one of my graduate animations. In my final year at University, I wrote a dissertation on the topic of "Can animation help to reduce the stigma around mental health?", and he was a bi-product of this. I wanted to feature mental illness in my animations to both prove it could be done and because it is a topic that remains very close to my heart.
Above are Procreate (iPad) HB pencil sketches of octopus character concepts I had, which were drawn from inspiration such as Pixar's Finding Dory's Hank. Above was my final character sheet, complete with expressions (that could be pushed a lot further than they are), colour palette and some dynamic poses.