Character Concept - Billie

Billie Roberts has just started working as a vouleteer at Tutusville City Zoo straight from school. She is followed everywhere by a chickeroo, named Chickeroo funnily enough. Her key colour is yellow, but that doesn't come into play just yet as I'm getting ahead of myself to say such things.

The character design comes from a picture that my friend Holly drew in "the wedding album" for my wedding to my other friend Chez (I can't recall why she decided we would get married and drew everyone in a book as guests.) The drawings of people in that book became preliminary versions of the characters I am currently reviving and Billie's was dressed as a bear with a square on its stomach (think teletubbies but a bears head with a persons face coming out.) I wanted a character that worked in a zoo and since I wanted to keep Billie as similar to Holly's drawing as I could, I gave her dungarees with a pocket on her stomach and a bear hat which both is suitable working gear and animal themed.

In follow-ups to the original pictures, it was seen that Billie's hair became wayward and was a big spiky afro that covered her eyes without the costume on, which is also something I wanted to use here and thought it would be better to make it more believable by having it as a hat which can just come off rather than an excuse for taking off a bear suit she always wears having to be made. I initially envisioned her with straight hair with the hat on, but now I did it otherwise, I can't imagine it having worked.

Hands aside, from the neck down I am immensely impressed at my outcome here. She sorta makes me think of Mario, like some Princess Pech (tho Diasy is yellow) has taken up plumbing, which is worrying. But, she is dressed in that to trudge through fecal matter, so it's the same thing.