Creatures - Final

I finished five creatures for within my world, each a necessary part of the eco-system surrounding the main volcano. Below are the chosen pictures from my world-building stage, to set the scene. If I had planned my time better I could have done more within my chosen environment, and added my final creatures to a few scenes.

• The planet's main body of land is volcanic, covered in heather and various mountain plants. The dog creature creates meadows of wildflowers within this area. 
• There are some areas of desiccated desert nearby, so the sky is often filled with dust, turning it red. 
• Auroras are common around the majority of the planet, and are especially vivid during the parts of the year the planet is closest to the sun; it has an elliptical orbit, and thus twice a year it is a lot closer to the sun, making it far hotter and brighter than normal. The mangrove forest benefits greatly from these periods, though eruptions are more common. 
• Melting snow during summers causes the mangrove to flood more, meaning water-dwelling creatures have more mobility.

All the creatures I have designed have a notable impact on the eco-system. Without them, their world would be a lot more ravaged and uncontrollable. The dog protects flowers from lava. The cat and crocodile remove mercury and sulfur from the landscape to prevent contamination. The dragon controls wildfires, and the deer grazes on tangling weeds that would choke the rivers. Together they make the world a more habitable environment for each other, if unwittingly.

 Creature One - Dog

Based on:

Dog, fox, pika. Lives in packs.

Habitat:

Lives in the heather-strewn hills/plains in the volcanic region.

Diet:

Nectar, sugars (various sources; they find sugar like butterflies do).

Whenever the volcano erupts, they dig up and move the majority of the plants out of the way to a safer area, transporting them on their tails.

Their 'fur' is essentially moss, and they develop new plants on their backs in a myriad of colour and patterns.

Their place of birth and the season changes the colour of their 'fur'. Autumnal ones are more orangey and bright, whilst the one pictured is from spring-time.

In their packs, they tend to gather and cultivate plants and flowers in glorious meadows.

Rarely hunted as they have very little substance for predators to eat, however if killed their flowers continue growing, using the corpse as nutrients.

Long claws - for digging up plants, also for defence

Slim, fast, nimble build

Long, sturdy tail for transporting plants

Covered in plants, gains energy from photosynthesizing

Creature Two - Crocodile

Based on:

Crocodile, monitor lizard, catfish.

Habitat:

River systems, the water in the mangrove swamp, rarely in the ocean. Sometimes on land in the volcanic plains.

Diet:

Fish, or larger animals like the deer.

They have hyper-sensitive barbels/whiskers that allow them to seek out mercury vents, which they drink and store in their bodies to use as a slow poison on prey. By doing this they prevent the eco-system from being contaminated.

Their constellation-like markings are brighter when they contain mercury. Dark, unmarred skin means it needs to find a new source to drink from.

Tends to move at night, when its lack of sight doesn't matter, and its constellation patterns let it reflect the night sky like a pool of water.

Related to the dragon creature; essentially its terrestrial cousin

No eyes; uses barbels to sense movement, coupled with scent to find mercury

Low-slung, heavy; much faster in water

Unusually fast if hungry and stocked on mercury, six legs give it an advantage. Would have to ambush prey for this to work

Creature Three - Dragon

Based on:

Koi carp, goldfish, snake, crocodile.

Habitat:

Forest canopy, rivers. Rarely walks on land.

Diet:

Fish, fire, birds.

Essential guardian of the forest; absorbs/eats fire when eruptions cause massive forest/plains wildfire.

Rarely attacked/in a place to be attacked.

Can almost float - has hollow bones like a bird, and air/helium bladders. Makes movement in air very gliding and fluid, as though it is in water.

Will take sulfur plumes as food if there have been no wildfires for a while. Will also kill the sulfur cats if necessary, for their fire.

Long, fast, fluid body shape for quick, sudden movements

Goldfish-style tail-tip gives extra speed in water/air

Double-jointed ankles (like squirrels) for additional mobility in trees

Vibrant colours make it recognisable to potential predators, also help it blend into greenery (like a tiger) or the muddy river

Creature Four - Cat

Based on:

Lion, tiger, smilodon.

Habitat:

Anywhere. Snow, plains, forest, rarely desert.

Diet:

Typically the horse-type creature, though they will eat anything.

Scavenger and hunter. Tends to hunt alone, sometimes in pairs/small groups.

Eats sulfur; plumes of liquid sulfur ignite on the volcanic plains, and these creatures drink that or wait for it to solidify and then break off chunks with strong jaws. High body temperature allows them to liquefy and burn off sulfur to stay warm when in the snow.

Markings beneath their eyes are sensors allowing for thermal vision (like snakes).

Very strong/muscular. Can use their blade-tip tail to strike at small prey (like birds) suddenly, or to hack through dense muscle on larger prey.

Sometimes predated by the dragon for its fire, if there hasn't been a wildfire for a while.

In snow, sulfur flames give it away, doesn't need camouflage

For in plains, skin is dappled with natural mountain-side plants/heather-like colours

Strong, stocky, can survive independently

Vents on its back and neck release sulfur flames

Strong teeth/jaws for crunching solid chunks of sulfur

Creature Five - Deer

Based on:

Horse, deer, goat, crocodile.

Habitat:

Mangrove forest/swamp, rivers.

Diet:

Underwater plants.

Mostly eats a constricting weed-type plant that chokes other plants within rivers.

Branch-like antler grows as the creature does, also changes with season (sprouts leaves, loses them in autumn, etc.). There are different breeds that can grow fruit - they are known and followed by large fish that eat fallen fruit from the riverbed. Sometimes the dog creatures follow them for fruit also.

Wades through rivers looking for grazing material.

Has nostrils on its neck as well as muzzle; can breath even with its head underwater. In a pinch they can act as gills, too, but not for hugely extended periods of time.

Long legs good for wading through mud/water

Small, sensitive hooves sense vibrations in the ground/water; warned about predators

Strong tail for swimming, or defending against predators

Green, muddy colours for blending into river, algae and surrounding shrubs

Antler constantly grows, changes with season, good for camouflage

Size comparison

Reflection
Doing this four-week project has been useful to judge my workflow and practice with Photoshop brushes I had never touched, as well as give me more confidence with my brush pens and increase in speed with small sketches. I found that doing small, traditional sketches in a single colour (typically black, although breaking off into other colours was useful to not fall into a slump) was an efficient way to test poses and quickly get the sense of a creature. I would then redraw a larger version in Photoshop and test ideas on other layers, whether different poses or additional features (i.e. antler shapes). By the end design I was leaving the previous sketches up in case a pose or feature could carry over into the final design.

Additionally, I have found that texture brushes (typically downloaded as free resources from artists I follow, such as Aaron Blaise and Jama Jurabaev) are exceptional for making interesting designs in a much faster, less tedious method than it would have taken normally. For instance, the dragon's scales are mixes of a few texture brushes, and careful application of the Colour Dodge layer (a technique recommended by Ross Tran in his speedpaints) and Multiply layer (recommended by Aaron Blaise in his tutorials).

For future projects I will try to plan my time more efficiently, and definitely keep doing the small brush-pen sketches for working out poses and design features. The world-building was also extremely useful for creating more unique designs, adapted specifically for the world they were intended for and not just thrown in to fit, and I will keep doing that for future designs.

Creatures - Sketches

Each creature I designed was developed from small brush-pen sketches and notes (some seen in a previous post), into digital sketches, and then into a final design. The small brush-pen silhouettes became much more important than anticipated for finding a workable pose for some of the creatures. When drawing them up as a final design I used reference images for loosely similar poses for musculature, and creatures that featured something I wanted to include. For the horse's colours I had a reference image of a lion on a muddy riverbank to consider, possibly for muddied stripes for the final colours, though in the end it was not used as such.

Cat Creature

Brushpen - looking for an overall shape, and aspects to combine later. The differing colours of brushpen helped to break up the black images and take ideas in a new direction. I wrote keywords down the left-hand side to keep in mind while drawing.

Trying to find a shape/pose.

Took forward two favourites and continued developing. Played with face shape, tail and fire.

Struggled to decide on a pose - the turning one looked like a hunter but didn't show its back very well for flames, and the head shape of the other was more noble but the pose was awkward. Ending up combining elements of both for the final design.

 Dog Creature

Brushpen - overall silhouette, making sure the plants and branches on its back didn't break the creature's form too much.

Looking for a face shape and style of tail.

(Inspiration picture in top-right, potential colour scheme bottom-left) 

Again, brought forward favourite sketches, combined themes into designs (long tail, dog-like face, hunched), looked for pose and colours.

Crocodile Creature

Original sketches - discarded these as they were too awkwardly posed. Kept the idea of the mask-like face-plate and the barbel whiskers.

Developed more in brush-pen silhouettes as it was faster than digital for quick mock-ups. Took inspiration from monitor lizards and crocodiles on Google Images. Went for a more languid pose as it fitted the creature better than the initial running/standing sketches did.

Deer Creature

Brushpen - took inspiration from horses and stags. Toyed with the idea of a branch-like mane, or weeds/grass.

Various head shapes tested looking for the final design. Also changed from horse hooves to deer.

Dragon Creature

Poses for the dragon - trying to find a fluid shape that showed off its flexibility and also showed its six legs.

More Thumbnails

This week I revisited my technique for environment thumbnails and experimented with the setting and how colours affected the mood. As I had already done several for a swampy forest setting, I moved onto volcanic terrain, and a more arctic area.

Volcano - tested mercury pool, sulphur river, smog.

Little wilder - silhouetted, heather-strewn area, vivid auroras.

Settled on heather theme, tested colours of auroras.

More feeling of heat/smog. Volcanic activity added. Preferred this setting.

Snow - looks windswept.

Warmer aurora colours/sunrise. Looks mystical.

Much more barren and icy, green and ominous. Preferred this setting.

I also sketched some creature designs. At the moment I am favouring five main designs, though I am not confining myself to them in case something else sparks interest.

• I kept the idea of a serpentine dragon as the top creature, though it might become more of a guardian than an apex predator; with a lot of volcanic activity, a rare guardian forest spirit creature that devours fire would be essential to survival. 
• For predators, I have a crocodilian that swims in liquid mercury without harm, and will have another creature that utilises sulphur in some way. 
• The more passive creatures have become linked with greenery; one creature runs the land and reseeds as it goes, and another more deer-like animal will have fern-like horns.

Head shapes for the serpent dragon. The top one is most appealing to me. 

Looking for interesting body shapes/locomotion within small designs. Creature inspiration ranges from buffalo to whip spiders, greyhounds to ibis. Aimed for mangrove swamp habitat.

Arid, volcanic habitat. Creature that drinks mercury (has an immunity to it) and uses it as a weapon. The top sketches are deciding how it would drink (i.e. like an antelope or a cat). Decided it would dip its neck - silhouettes try to find a workable shape. Low-slung, stocky crocodilian seemed most viable.

Worked more on the crocodile idea. Deciding between something unusually fast that could run down its prey (at least enough to inject it with poison), or a slower ambush predator. Its tail is mildly prehensile and can support its body weight easily. Potentially it senses movement as the almost mask-like head I am favouring would leave little room for eyes.

Hasty sketches to figure out major creatures and how they compared body-wise. The five I prefer (1, 2, 4, 6 and 8) seem sufficiently unique to continue with. A winged creature might round out the group if I have time.

[literature]

Hyperbole Games is something I found out about through one of their recent Kickstarter campaigns, and a follow-up email led me to this blog post by Grant Rodiek, which is about world-building for a card game. He uses Netrunner and Magic: the Gathering as examples, and it's a very interesting insight into the thought behind successful games, with fitting creatures and mechanics. He says that everything should be accessible, and players should know that for instance, creatures from the forest are stealthy, in comparison to resilient creatures of the desert. Applied to my project, I need to make sure all of my creatures fit their environment build-wise and colour-wise, and that their place in the food chain is visible immediately.

"Worldbuilding should reinforce the expectations of the mechanisms where possible."

New World

[literature]
Last week Jim linked me to a journal - "The Role of Specificity and Abstraction in Creative Idea Generation" by T. Ward, M. Patterson and C. Sifonis (Routledge, 2010). It was an interesting read; it explains that in creative environments (i.e. designing a creature), those given more narrow suggestions for their work (i.e. consider elephants) made less interesting/creative creatures than others who were given free reign, or others told to consider how such animals might adapt, or what environment they are within. However, it also noted that keeping things familiar helped the design become more acceptable to an audience.

"An extraterrestrial that deviated greatly from known Earth animals may not be recognized as an animal at all."


[literature]
I have spent the majority of the week reading through a library book, "World-Building: A Writer's Guide to Constructing Star Systems and Life-Supporting Planets" by Stephen L. Gillett (Writer's Digest Books, 1996). It is a fascinating read, though slow-paced and fairly technically involved. I had no experience of SF literature or the depth of detail used within their worlds, as I normally read typical fantasy novels (which also have ridiculously common themes). Having a deeper understanding of what goes into an environment felt incredibly necessary, especially as the author often points out common themes within SF novels and bemoans the underutilised ones.

"Researching a scientific background is not such a chore ... It gives a sense of the breadth of a world - interesting planets will be as multifarious and varied as is the Earth ... that very framework imposes a sense of verisimilitude that's particularly valuable ... It keeps you consistent."

"Anyone who writes fiction knows the value of the advice to use a few vivid details in descriptions, rather than a catalog of generalities. A well-thought-out world generates such details automatically."

My idea of mangrove swamps/a jungle environment was quickly discarded, as Gillett notes that jungles are an incredibly common detail within SF literature. Amongst chapters detailing orbits and atomic particles, I noted a few interesting points which will go into my world:

• volcanic activity - flood basalts (flood of lava that engulfs a huge portion of land), and nuee ardentes ('glowing cloud' - explosive cloud of lava that forms rocks when it lands and cools)
• auroras - to add interest to a sky. If the world has no magnetic field, they could appear anywhere (and birds would have to navigate in other ways)
• sky colour - sky colour is affected by particles within the air - if there is a desert, dust particles would make a reddish sky
• desiccated landscape - fairly active volcanoes would erase a huge chunk of world that might not recover - creatures would have to adapt
• elliptical orbit - half of the year (split into two events) would be much brighter/hotter than the rest, due to a closer proximity to the sun
• oxygen-rich atmosphere - oxygen is necessary for high-energy metabolisms, which are desirable in interesting creature designs

Adding to the volcanic theme, I recently found an article about liquid sulphur flows, where sulphuric gases from a volcano ignite into bright blue flames, and can flow down the mountainside like lava. I intend to use this as a significant event within my world, where creatures would be adapted specifically to utilise sulphur in interesting ways. Another material I wish to use is mercury, which is liquid at room temperature and thus could also exist in a river form within the world, and affect creature designs as such.

[literature]

Additionally, I borrowed another book today to begin reading once the other is completed: "Evolving The Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life" by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart (Ebury Press, 2002). The astrobiology, evolution and animal behaviour/physiology books available in the library seemed far too scientific to peruse for ideas on creature design, but this one appears more open and doesn't take itself too seriously.

"Instead of looking for carbon copies of Earth, then, we ought to be theorising about and looking for the different kinds of planets, and other potential habitats for life, that exist out there in the wide universe. 'Exotic' habitats should not be seen as obstacles, but as opportunities; instead of dismissing them with an airy wave of the hand and saying 'Obviously life couldn't exist there', we ought to be asking 'What would it have to be like if it did?' ... it would help if people stopped the silly practice of equating limitations of current observational techniques with limitations on the universe, though."

World-Building - Environment

Over the past few days I have been exploring the setting of my world through a method I read about a few years ago (and no longer remember the artist responsible), where a landscape canvas would be divided into a grid and then you were to loosely draw behind it to create areas of interest within a few of the boxes. The best of the thumbnail images could then be taken into a further design stage and developed. Wherever the base idea came from, it was an interesting exercise and definitely one I will do again.

The world features abandoned military guns and tunnels, as well as swamped ground similar to mangrove forests. The main creatures are crocodiles, birds (primarily fishers like herons and ospreys), fish, and even deer, monkeys and cats, so the creatures I design will probably incorporate some elements from these.

The first two tests were cautious, and focused too much on major points of interest.

I removed colour as it felt distracting from the overall composition.

The above was a quick test for whether I wanted a town/civilisation within the world.

I became more bold with different texture brushes (mainly Jama Jurabaev's).

Added colour on a multiply layer. Experimented with positioning of creatures for later illustrations.

Once I had done a page or two of thumbnails I picked a favourite section and used it as a base for a larger work of concept art. I used the exercise to become more familiar with brushes and also to experiment with quick concepts and not linger over the details.

My apex creature would be something that ruled air, land and sea; currently the idea is a serpentine dragon, shown breaching the river surface.

Another idea is a baboon-type creature, with human-like arms for fishing and climbing. The background is an abandoned base.

Another monkey/baboon type mammal with chameleon-like feet. Fisher.

I like the idea of deer walking on water.

An old track, a rusted jeep, and a panther.

Baboon/cat. Experimented with a creepier feel to the environment.

[literature]
I also began reading the book "Dracopedia The Bestiary: An Artist's Guide to Creating Mythical Creatures" (William O'Connor, 2013). He chose creatures from various cultures to cover each letter of the alphabet, and then designed them as though they had existed on Earth.

- "By understanding the animals that exist in the real world, we artists can use the science of morphology [biology term - study of forms of animals and plants] to relate the form and function of animals to the design of the creatures that exist in our imaginations."

- "Using the historical artistic reference of bestiaries and ancient art, we can begin to reverse-engineer the creatures of legend into realistic and believable animals using morphology."

Essentially, understanding why creatures have evolved as they have (i.e. a predator having claws and fangs for hunting) aids creature design, as it means that no superfluous or unfitting parts would be added to a creature, just what it would need to believably exist in whatever environment it is designed for.

Additionally I learnt about a few interesting creatures I had never heard of before, including the Shedu (a winged lion) and the Buraq (a winged bull) from Persian mythology. I hope to look into more unusual mythical creatures over the following days, too.

[contextual]
Another point of research I encountered was the Lore Podcast, read by Aaron Manhke. He researches into places of interest with supernatural links; the best of the episodes I have currently listened to was about asylums, and why they are one of the best settings for horror media. Their links to frontal lobotomies (done without anesthetic and with an icepick to the corner of the eye) give the idea of human monsters, which are often more unsettling than creatures. He also spoke of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and elves, and I will continue listening to future episodes as something he mentions might be inspiring.

World-Building Project

Currently we are in a mini-project stage, four weeks to research our topic and come up with a result at the end of it. I considered drawing a specific creature as though it was from various cultures, or from various environments, and see how it affected the design, or picking a few obscure creatures and trying to modernise their design.

Instead, during deliberations with classmates, Jim informed me of a sci-fi writer named Hal Clement, and how he wrote stories (such as 'Mission of Gravity') based around designing the world first, and populating it afterwards according to the effects of gravity and the environment and such. This seems like an interesting way to design creatures (certainly something I have never tried), so my project will likely be to design a world, paint a section of it, and then design a few creatures that live there (probably an apex predator, a rival predator, and a few sources of food/herbivore creatures). As I also have an interest in writing, I will give the world a short backstory as to how it got to its current point, and how some of the creatures have adapted to its changes over time. I will also consider how they hunt, interact and co-exist with one another.

Today, I have been to the library to scope out prospective sources for later research, when I have a better idea of what my overall topic is (as I expect it will get whittled down after more consideration and practice), and I think looking into the origins of monsters and mythical creatures might be both helpful and interesting. I briefly looked into a book of Ancient Egyptian design and found a painting of a sphinx type creature almost immediately, so looking into ancient sources is certainly viable. I am aware werewolves and other prominent creatures in media are very old concepts, so it would be interesting to see how many of the most popular creature designs are from a similar era, or tied to distinct events in history that kept them in public knowledge (witch-burnings being particularly notable). 

Perhaps it is not their design that is important, merely the idea behind them? Werewolves probably represent the duality of man, which was an extremely strong idea in the Victorian era (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde being an obvious example), so they might have become a forerunner of creature designs during that age. Or maybe even earlier since they also represent a darker side of man, which would have been feared for far longer. It's definitely something to consider looking into; the origins of a creature and then when it became most prominent in human history, thus imprinting its design into our mindset.

Initial Concept (Presentation)

On Wednesday we shared with the group our base skills, interests, initial concept for a topic and some suggested areas of research we would look into. It was a useful practice and the feedback given was interesting (talking about creature designs being created based on the world first, not a world built around their design). My power-point presentation is shown below (the images on slides 1-3, 6 and 8 are mine, the others are from various sources).

My idea, as suggested in the power-point, is to explore why some creature designs are effective and what makes them effective, specifically more effective and long-lasting than others; for instance, werewolves are a popular monster in media despite originating from millennia ago, whilst other creatures have flagged and fallen out of typical public knowledge. It took a while to come to (originally I was interested in composition and how to best lay out a scene), but after a brief session of spider-mapping (where I combined my interests and weaknesses in drawing), it seemed like a more solid, tailored idea than its predecessor, and I think I will be able to take it further (or find a much more interesting offshoot).