How I design - series - part one

A friend asked me to make an amigurumi specifically for his new born son and I thought since I'm starting from scratch I'd share my design process. A little step by step if you wanted to call it so ..

He wants a "finding Nemo" doll with the short fin. His son was born with one hand a little shorter than normal. But overall his son is all healthy and a super cutie!

Well what do I do when I make a new doll? first I research:

I always start with a google picture search .. I search for the original animal, in this case a clown fish ..

Since I wanted a Nemo, which is a specific clownfish, that already shows the typical signs of "cuteness" .. big eyes, I added Nemo to my clownfish search ..

Then I search for amigurumi that might already exist, I wouldn't want to make something that's already there ..

and I always take a look at dolls/toys of clownfishes ..

here I found a very good picture ..

the marked toy gives a very good picture of the overall shape of Nemo, especially the back fin was interesting to see, since it was continuous.

I sometimes (well quite often) make sketches of what I want, which I will share next time

so long, have a super start into the new week,
Diana