Initially, Patrice, the sensible and no nonsense snail, cannot stand the bothersome Humphrey, and tries to get away from him in any way possible.

Even if it means ascending to the highest branch of the tallest tree to escape his jibbering and jabbering...

Patrice would eventually warm to the incessant tomfoolery of Humphrey, and they would become the best of friends.

I then drew out the shapes of my characters mouths, so that they would be easier to Lip sync, when the time came.

Both Humphrey and Patrice live around a pond/bog. And they spend all their time together.

To then make a cohort for my character, I came up with the idea of a snail, having done a sketch of Humphrey holding a snail up above his head. I thought that a snail would make a good contrasting character to Humphrey, as I wanted Humphrey to be really energetic, lively and sporadic, wheras a snail would move slowly and methodically.

I then started to draw Humphrey in different positions and scenarios...

After looking at Frogs and Newts I decided to create a character that was a mixture of the two. And to also draw upon my interests in folklore and mythology, I looked into marsh/bog dwelling creatures.

A Boggart is a mischievous imp that lives in marshland. It is often seen as a malevolent being. So I wanted to create something that wasnt evil or spiteful, but something that was cheeky and humorous.

This led me to create Humphrey Boggart (his name being a wink to the late, great actor Humphrey Bogart).

He is a mixture of elements of both the frog and the newt, albeit with heightened human

After having the idea to have a garden based character, I then thought that an even more interesting place to base my characters was in around a pond. As there is a wealth of possible scenarios for my characters to encounter. Not only that, but with Pond life, I felt I would be able to create characters with a more unique aesthetic. An aesthetic that made them instantly recognisable as pond dwellers.

So I started to look into the creatures one may find in and around ponds, and did some initial sketches of them, to see what characteristics they portrayed, and if i would be able to use any of these characteristics to embelish my characters.

After my initial idea, I came up with this character. He is an inquisitive earthworm named Garth. I wanted to come up with a character that would be simple to animate, and thought that this design would be fairly straight-forward.

However, after a while, I felt that this design was a little too plain, and that a more elaborate character was needed.

I did think the idea of having a character based on that of a real creature was worth keeping though. And I particularly liked the idea of