After making my sketches, I would start making a basic character sheet for the 'Dolphin Guard'.

There were various colors that I tested out to try and figure what would work best for this dolphin civilization. I first picked purple colors, as I envisioned this civilization to be a people of royalty, which the color purple can be associated with. I also thought purple would give off more of an aquatic vibe similar to purple-colored coral that can be found in the sea. 

However, I realized that I could incorporate aspects of real-life dolphins for the civilization. As a result, when I saw the Indo-Pacific dolphin online, I thought it would work well for my original design to have the skin color be similar to the Indo-Pacific dolphin.

As a result, this led to me trying other colors from other types of dolphins that I looked at online. Making a La Plata, Bottlenose, and 'Common' Dolphin Guards. With their skin color and armor mostly reflecting their real-life counterparts.