Research

Knowing that I was practically creating a whole new species I had to make sure I did my research in what exactly made this swamp/pond creature tick.  Therefore I dove straight to David Attenborough's series's 'Life' and 'Life in Cold Blood'.  I specifically looked at reptiles, insects and amphibians.

From watching the majority of the series I looked at how the animals interacted with other animals and ones of their own kind, how they lived with their cold blood, what they ate, how they moved and the environment they live in.  While watching a wrote a list of questions that needed answering for my creature, and what were the best characteristics to apply to her including appearance and behaviour.

While watching I also toke note in what specific animals I wanted my creature to take the most influence from.  One frog I was fond of was the South African Red-Eyed Tree Frog,  I liked it's long athletic yet thin limns and the way it climbs plants and trees.  It's skin is every close colour to the leaves it grasps onto and therefore has excellent camouflage.  To help me get a bit more out of human poses I did some sketches of these frogs to help me get into the mind set into how they walk, climb and sit.  I also liked the look of the Blue Poison Arrow frog, that is a bit rounder ans has some amazing markings on it's body.

Combining the two designs of these two frogs, with the red-eyed tree frog's slim athletic body and webbed feet and hands along with the dark softer eyes of the blue poison arrow frog, this will help me in making my creature a believable living being (design wise) taking already existing animals and applying them to a humanized canvas.

A lizard that caught my eye was on another one of David Attenbourgh's programme's 'Life'.  It shows a defenseless little lizard mimicing an oogpister beetle by the way it walks in the hope to trick predators in thinking it is the beetle.  This is shown in this video (start from 1.49) 
http://www.snotr.com/video/4732/The_Oogpister_Beetle


When I try to explain to people what exactly my creature is like the only existing character I can think of (appearance wise) to compare her to is Gollum from Lord of the Rings.  Well more specifically Smeagol, his hunched back and walking on all fours is the sort of movement I want to apply to my creature.  I would rather compare her to Smeagol rather than Gollum as she isn't meant to be insane or evil, and for a time Smeagol is pitied on, and is shown in a different light.  I was thinking of having the creature shown to be friendly then turns out to be evil but I think it's a little more interesting if she's not, I mean why does she have to be evil? Plus I am playing with the fact she's not a typical fairy tale female creature, that are usually beautiful such as fairies or mermaids, and as such I defiantly do not want the audience to compare to already existing characters such as Tinker Bell or Ariel.  In some scenes no matter of his appearance the audience does feel sorry for Gollum/Smeagol, and isn't even sure if he is good or has actually turned a new leaf.  When Smeagol he also has this innocent naivety about him which I think I would like to apply to my character.

Lord of the Rings - Two Towers. 2002

Overall from looking at all these aspects, I want my creature to be believable!  If she is just living in the same small area for all her life and living off no meat then she would be skinny yet since I will probably make her cold blooded she will also get her energy from the sun/heat from the water and therefore will not be slow but rather a quick moving creature.  The most import aspect of this character is that people actually like her, so aren't is put off my her looks but are curious and drawn in by her personality.