Animated self - animating

I decided to change from the storyboard I produced to one that included a throw cycle alongside a walk cycle. I liked the idea of a throw cycle as not only is it more challenging but also involves more kinetic movement than the jump that I wanted to include in the original. I got carried away with the design of the character as I automatically felt that the character had to change design to suit the theme of the throw cycle.

To help myself with the inbetweens I animated traditionally as I found it easier and quicker to produce a rough animation with graphite and paper than digitally. I could also check the posture and angle of the character and change it quickly compared to digitally which I would be tempted to create the design again.
I was inspired and aided by reference sheets of the key poses that go into the throwing cycle, through these poses I thought it would work well if I added a catch sequence before the main action, I felt that this would work well with showing anticipation of an action with in animation. After I had scanned in the traditional I drew over the rough animation with the pen tool to create the features of the character.

main key poses

For my walk cycle I first animated in the style of the previous storyboard but I did not want to continue with this style of character as it did not match the previous character well and I wanted it to link in with another. 

However looking at the walk cycle I can see where I have gone wrong. Besides the speed of the animation, the walk seemed too stiff as the arms were not moving either, and I had missed a key frame in the animation as well which makes it skip slightly. When creating the final walk cycle I know to animate the arms as well so that the whole motion runs smoothly.