It's a thousand years old conflict..

Story of a son not living up to his dad's expectations has been done thousand times.

It's even more so  when it comes down to animation.. recently, Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, How to train your dragon has set the bar even high up.. 

I have great examples that I can follow. Maybe too great that I feel like I'm falling short constantly...but what can I do, all I can do is to try my best. 

Here are my recent attempts

1.I was still feeling very lost with the Dad. I couldn't figure out why every thing I drew looked  not cartoony.
I tried getting rid of the details as mch as I can but without much success.
2.Then came the realization. the way I was drawing the hair was all wrong. No matter how much I tried to simplify the  facial structure, the fine lines of the hair were conflicting with my design.
This was my solution. I think it works much better
3. 4. I'm still not sure if I should give him thick eyebrows.
5.I tried the new hair aesthetics with the son. I don't want them to look too differnt in style..

More exprerimentation with  head shapes and body types.

I'm really happy with the four heads in the middle. I'll try a bunch of different shapes and use them as the villagers in my short.

I think I'm slowly getting there with dad. Designing always frustrates me but I love the sense of improvement over time.