my first take

Here’s my first attempt:

I started out trying to capture the expressions on my face in the mirror. It sure does not look like me. I know, ultimately I have to go further than just attaching human mouth shapes to cartoon animals. But this is how it came out. Maybe at some point I can get past the “realistic-looking” style and really push the expressions into more cartoony realms without losing the essence.

(Click on any of these images to enlarge)

As you might see I'm still not sure whether I should do caricatures for the cartoony versions or whether I should apply the expressions to a completely different character. Right now I've just made up some generic cat character without much emphasis on overall design.