Creature Design - Calt

Overview

Inspired by watching my staffie run around on the beach during a dog walk; she played with everything, including sea-foam, seaweed, driftwood, and balls of whelk-eggs. It formed the idea of a pack animal that resided on the ocean shore and had no cares, constantly playing, as it could easily defend itself on land and in water. The underlying theme for this creature was something as comfortable on land as in water, and could live in either world indefinitely.

Calt were named by taking the sound of 'Khal' from Khaleesi, and searching for a viable ending so that pointing out a group of these creatures would not be a strange taste in the mouth (i.e. as Caloses, Caltorens, etc. might be).

Inspiration

Creatures:

• Staffordshire Bull Terrier (Khaleesi)
• Dachshund
• Giant Amazon River Otter
• Colugo
• Leopard Seal
• Squirrel
• Vampire Squid
• Whale Shark
• Puijila (Extinct)
• Dunkleosteus (Extinct)

Process

Actually a relatively quick creature to design as I hit a concept I liked pretty early on. I knew the main animals to draw inspiration from would be seals and otters, but I was surprised by just what I ended up turning to for ideas.

From sketchbook. Quick ideas fora fluid pose, based on seals.

Strong, stocky pose, loosely inspired by dachshunds and giant otters. Similar themes carry through all designs, like no lips, flipper-like front feet, and a webbed tail. The coloured sketch at the top left was inspired by velociraptors and ultimately was the reason this creature does not have long fur, as that sketch did not look apt.

Chosen pose, with side-on views for reference. Pose is to show how it could hang in water by stopping itself quickly with its tail webbing.

Final, coloured state. Colours inspired by whale sharks for aid in water-based predation, though they could probably blend with pebbles fairly easily too.

Design Notes:

• The Calt's front feet has six appendages, all webbed. When pressed close together, it can run easily. When extended, the bones of the actual 'hand' stretch aside too, to give a wider space for the webbing to stretch, and aid more in swimming
• Closeable nostrils, and large lung capacity. Teeth are bared, with no lips to cover them, and press together tight enough to form a seal with the tongue on the inside, to prevent unwanted water going into the throat
• Its hearing isn't the best; communication between multiple Calts is mainly done through body language
• They play with anything and everything, thus their digestion has developed to be exceptionally strong, as well as resistant to the majority of poisons
• Its eyesight is fairly sharp, able to discern prey even in the dark depths of the ocean

Reflection

• This design was the first to be outwardly inspired first, before adding in creatures - it made me realise inspiration has many sources.
• Posing was very important for this creature, to show it could survive on both land and water.
• I should probably have created more varied designs but the concepts I drew were very prominent in my mind for this creature, and hard to work around.
• Colour choice was difficult; I had to choose between land or water for what camouflage would be most effective.
• An illustration of them playing and hunting together would best show their personality more than words and the main image could.