"Springboard" rough ideas

Last week's great dominating performance against a strong conference opponent sure made me feel good. Now if the Herd can continue that momentum for the remaining games and keep its demons of the past from cropping up again, they will have finally achieved its formula for success.
Anthony Hanshew had used the term "Springboard in his column last week and I liked the idea -- especially after playing the ECU Pirates, and you know, the whole "walk the plank" thing.
To simplify the composition, I decided to make the pirate into the plank (pretty straight-forward) and having Marco jumping on the Houston Cougar.


Next, I wanted to work on the expression of the Cougar -- at first making him seem unaware. But in doing that he seemed disinterested. I also would have missed out on getting some good reactionary facial expression. As I worked on the initial cougar, I realized he looked more like a Wildcat, so I went back online and researched the cougar face.
The wildcat has pointed ears, and bushy fur on both jowls and chin -- this gives his head a more "pear" shape. The cougar, on th4e other hand, has short rounded ears, slightly wider chin, wider-set eyes, and generally shorter fur overall.