My main characters for my story

So I've been working on my story again FINALLY. 

I've had this concept in mind since the beginning of 2013! I was full of hope and excitement, eager to get my ideas down on paper. As an illustrator, I was quick to jump to the layout first, immediately trying to visualize my story. Once I got a rough draft of my layout and the overall story arc., I had to work on the real writing...... I was stuck, I've never considered myself as a writer and the best I could do was writing descriptive paragraphs, rather than a proper manuscript.

Very soon, I was busy again teaching or doing other projects and I started setting my story aside. This lasted for about a year. SHAME! I KNOW! Lesson learned: NEVER set aside a difficult personal project. The fact that there isn't a concrete deadline makes it that much harder to pick it back up again

So during the break from teaching last month, I finally got around to designing my main characters. Bubo the owl and Bella the Racoon. (And yes, those are also names of my cats!) I did a lot of doodles everywhere and those painted designs are what i'm going to settle with. Still debating whether I should stick to the top left feather pattern or the top right for Bubo. Bella is all set.

For your amusement, here's Bella DANCING!