Character Design Project: First drawings

Today, I felt a bit lost as to how or where to start this project so I went to see Photoshop Phil today for some advice. I wasn't sure whether to have the two genres meshed together or have them as separate which would either mean Vikings are heroes and Aliens are bad or the other way round. I thought it would be interesting to see the two genres meshed together, so I was advised to start on pen and paper and draw out ideas for each genre and then later decide what can be meshed together and what not. I also asked how to change my cartoon style as I wanted to explore and tryout to draw something in a realistic way. Focusing on my previous alien drawing, I restarted it on a fresh slate and used the advice and tips from Photoshop Phil to recreate it only in a realistic style. I also thought about looking at different anatomies of animals to help me create an alien as to avoid falling into the "generic alien" area. I'm really happy in being able to "break free" of the cartoony style and recreating a previous drawing into a realistic way. Hopefully I'll be able to use this in this project!! Anyway, here are the drawings from today before meeting with Photoshop Phil and after (which also includes an image of combined parts to form an alien on the top right!) Influence maps will come. ^_^ 

The improved realistic version! ^_^

The original

One of the first drawings