Responsive: Loopdeloop Cute - From ballerina to frog ballerina

I set to look out for a creative twist for my animation by doing more ballerina sketches with reference images from Pinterest where I also stumbled upon the name Anna Pavalova. She was a Russian prima ballerina from late 19th century, and also the first person who brought classical ballet on tour around the world. Her personality seems to be delicate and lady-like as I browse through her photos. There were a lot of photos of her hugging a swan and also sitting down, crossing her legs and wearing pearly accessories. Her personality has become really powerful and has become a stereotypical view to those who'd like to pursue ballet back then. 

I decided to work from this ballerina stereotype, and thought of what makes ballet fun. I remembered that Audrey Hepburn has give more energy to contemporary ballet in her movie Funny Face. Other than her occupation as an actress she is a trained ballet dancer, and incorporate ballet with other dance genres in a musical movie that people from all kinds of backgrounds can enjoy.

Some quotes from Audrey Hepburn that can inspire anyone to pick up dance:

After doing a bit of research on these two ballet personas, I decided to make a storyboard out of my idea. I was still thinking how to make it cute while having Audrey Hepburn's quotes at the back of my mind. So in the end,  I figured out that a frog ballerina would be a cute thing to animate (?).

WHY FROG?

Because Kermit the frog can do and be anything. Doo be doo be doo. Actually, I do not have a particular reason for this, it is just the first animal that comes to my mind.

Sketching frogs are fun! Also, frogs comes in any bold and striking colour which can contrast the colour of tutu. Probably that's the best reason that I can give: the striking colour of frogs makes ballet seems less feminine and it can make ballet more playful and appeal to a broad spectrum of audience.

Here are some of the initial frog designs. I like to keep it simple so there will be less details to draw when animating. When designing I thought of how to make the frog fits into the tutu. I tried to draw them differently, but it is definitely better to have it just wearing the tutu skirt without the top bit.