Fortunately, I simply didn't like the way the first attempts looked. So I decided I would go ahead and try this guy as a centaur. The next sketch was mainly to see if a centaur would even fit into the scene. The resulting sketch is shown on the left. The general direction was fairly horse-like, hints of a unicorn, with the face a cross between human and horse.

While I wasn't happy with the result, I thought the direction deserved further exploration. So I made some quicker, smaller sketches. I particularly liked the smaller figure on the right. The pose was not only more compact, but gave a much better sense that the creature was in the middle of rising. I thought this felt more dynamic, that it gave a better sense of pent-up energy on the verge of release. So I stuck with this pose.

The figure itself, however, still left me cold. It violated one of my biggest rules: aggressively avoid characters which are too standard, too ordinary. SO I started trying other hoofed animals... not shown are the quick sketches of buffalo-centaurs, giraffe- centaurs, etc. None of them worked quite like I wanted them to. Then Robin suggested something a little more exotic that she'd seen at the local zoo, an okapi. An okapi is a relative of the giraffe, but much smaller and much closer to a horse in proportions but with some very interesting shapes and colorings and a wonderfully bizarre face. I pulled out some reference pictures, gave it a quick try and immediately loved the result.

I liked the way the body shape fit with the pose, the markings looked exotic, and best of all, I immediately got a sense of the personality of this creature. He was a rogue, a rough and dirty highwayman with a good dose of scoundrel in him. Sinewy and seedy, but strong and fiesty. All I had to do was make a face to get all of that across! I still liked the idea of blending human with animal, so I went back to it. Again, I really liked the results.