Trying to learn from Pixar

I'm gearing up to apply for an internship at Pixar and I realized that I have very little that demonstrates storytelling in the vein of animation. I have loads of background paintings from previous work, but not a lot of character oriented stuff.

I own a copy of The Art of the Incredibles and what I thought was so remarkable about the designs in that book are the fact that the best ones are all collage! I've only experimented with collage here and there but I definitely saw it's power when I did. Below are some examples of some character design collage stuff that I did my freshman year, it was a complete blast. This one to the right is obviously from the Incredibles.

What I found to be incredibly powerful about this process is that while you had absolute control over the process, you were working with a very limited palette, meaning you could only create through what you could find in old magazines.

 It definitely made me consider the shapes of the characters that I was creating because you had to cut everything out by hand. I would love to try to find a way to emulate that process digitally of being restricted through outside sources for texture and information. I may have to experiment with the clone tool a bit in the future... anyways. Yes. You can get some interesting designs completely by accident using collage and you have no choice but to focus on shape, color and texture.

That emphasis on shape is the hallmark of animation because it's a medium that relies on its audience being able to read the visual stereotypes ( to steal from McCloud) to further the narrative even as the characters first are appearing on the screen. with these sketches I was hoping to play with some imagery that I already enjoy but use color more in the way that I see pixar doing it, and pay more attention to the shapes the characters occupy.

 I think these last color keys are a little weak, but they are just meant to be experiments and as such, they can slide.
Please give your comments and especially critiques if you've got em.
eth.