Inspiration

Well after some sketches of ideas for my main character (the spade) I decided I wanted to give it a set of eyes (to give it more expression), and I wanted to use it's handle as a mouth.

I actually remembered a game I played on the Nintendo 64 called Conker's Bad Fur Day, which is where the inspiration for my chosen character has come from. In the game there are hundreds of inanimate objects that are brought to life simply by giving them a way to speak and slapping on a set of goofy cartoon eyes. Here are a couple of pictures of the pitch fork that immediately sprung to mind when I was designing my character: