Builder Research

For my builder I'd like to take him down from the 'Strong' kind of sense and make him a bit more dopey and fat, something of a stereotypical builder.

I like the eyes of the first picture I have where the expression is shown through eyebrows and they also give the impression of a blunt kind of character.
I'm going to increase the gut on my character as well rather than making him overly muscle bound, as to keep in with the builder stereotype I want.  

Mantis Research

Looking at reference of Praying Mantis' I can see how I need to change my design for Mantis Dad.
Firstly, instead of the rectangle with two circles on each end for the head on my original design is noticeably wrong, I need to make it into more of a triangle kind of shape.

Secondly, I need to add more legs and make them skinnier as well, on my design the character looks a lot more human, I think I need to add more mantis like traits but with a human twinge to it.
  

Characters to take forward.

Out of the character designs I've looked at, my two favorites have been the Mantis dad character from the Insect Family brief and the Strong Builder from my builder designs.
These are the two I'd like to clean up from the rough designs and add into my animation reel.