Taxonomy Exercise 01- Sketchbook

This started off as a weird little experiment. I was sitting there wondering about what was fun to draw, and I could only think of two things, reptiles and African Hornbill birds. Then I started thinking about what birds would look like as reptiles, starting with the Hornbill (A) then testing with a few parrots (B). Then, I thought, if all the birds have reptilian features, would reptiles have bird-like features as well? After all, they do share a relatively close common ancestor (closer than that betwixt mammals and other vertebrates, anyway.) Thus began another of my attempts to make feathers look, shall we say, Big And Dangerous. While it didn't work as well with the crocodile as I wanted it to (C & D), I do like how the Frilled Lizard turned out. (E)
What do you guys think- is this a good idea? How would this work with other animal classes? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned for more!

Rendered in Graphite