Here is how I designed the character,Leaf Sorter
First I started with her face, I was thinking about a symmetrical, cute, young and child-like face. Almost like a fairy from the forest with plump cheeks.
I added some sort of antenna on her head which she would use when communicating with fellow workers when the season gets busy with festivities. I went literal with those leaf-like structure on her face , at this point I am not sure if these are feathers, collar or ears. Her eyes are slanted to give her that pixie look. I thought a cleft chin would be interesting and a pair of nostrils ( but I removed them in the end)
The head and face is looking good time to develop the rest of the body. Being a leaf sorter I thought she needs something to clasp or poke the leaves with to make her job easy. And so I made her upper limbs to exhibit some sort of long and sharp structures for picking up leaves. Long spiny arms and fingers that are almost insect like. I am happy with the look at this point
The fingers are a little longer so I edited them so they fit her small plump stature
Time to define her clothes. I am thinking about a tailored uniform. Something slick and snug so she can move comfortably yet still looking sharp. Here I show that mandatory swirl pattern on her collar. I almost always use this pattern on my recent creations. This ties all of the creatures together.
This image above is the draft I made for her uniform as a leaf sorter. For her sleeves, I gave her a pointy pair instead of ruffles. She is wearing a peacoat with a beautiful clasp detail in front.
After a few hours I revisited the draft, I thought I would make the character look more soft instead of sharp. I removed the nostrils because the rest of my previous characters don't have any nostrils. Then the pointy edge peacoat became rounded and soft to fit her feminine character. I edited the pair of antenna to look like sprouting seeds and made them a little bigger. The structure on her face are now like feathers growing from the sides of her eyes. The mouth is open to make her cheerful and approachable. The pointy sleeves became rounded petals and her peacoat shorter. Her boots has the signature swirl pattern and I added that small tip on the back of the boots that points upward for a playful look. I guess she is now ready to be colored
These are the three colors I am playing with when I started to color this character. I am thinking about autumn colors. Although I am a bit afraid she will blend with the leaves given this color palette what do you suggest?