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.