Creature Design - Werewolf

Overview

As covered in my Research Study Report, I realised the usefulness of following ideas through as soon as I had them, and not saving them for another time. The process of doing initiates learning, and this creature was borne of that philosophy. As the majority of my creatures are made to subvert expectations, I was trying to think of how a werewolf could be redesigned to be different, away from the likes of Twilight, the Wolfman, and Van Helsing.

Inspiration

Creatures:

• Werewolf (Fantasy)
• Hyena
• Human
• Staffordshire Bull Terrier

Process

Typically, in fantasy werewolf transformations, the given idea that when all the bones extend and deform, the skin expands to grow over it. The film 'Van Helsing' featured human skin covering the transformed wolf, and had to be torn off, which was an interesting twist and probably bled into this unconsciously. My idea was that the skin is finite, and would be left ripped and torn on the body, giving the werewolf a much more grotesque visual and taking it back as a creature to be feared; werewolves tend to embody the duality of man, and how one can fall into the nature of the beast. This creature very much intends to show how it is not a desirable condition.

Initial sketches. The human was drawn to get a sense of typical proportions, to see what parts I would be extending for the wolf. I had multiple skeletons and musculature reference images.

 The pose came out immediately, as I wanted to fully reference muscles and bones and was unsure I could do that with a more twisted, action-based pose. Additionally, this pose seemed to give it a pained, stalking look.

Final image. The fur took a long time to complete as I referenced it properly and discovered I drew wolf fur wrong. I was inspired by 'The Jungle Book' concept art (Annis Naeem) to try and push the realism in this illustration, thus the background to set the scene was included. 

The skin tears were difficult to reference; I used a couple of upsetting dog fight images for blood in fur, and either an autopsy or surgery image that featured a surprising amount of blood clots. I don't know how true to life it would be (I assumed such wounds would drip blood but couldn't find suitable references), but I like the outcome I referenced more than one I guessed at.

Final image. Shaft of moonlight added to brighten the image and make the gore more visible.

Design Notes:

• Thumb takes place of dew claw, fingers bent into more paw-like shape
• Tail short, like vestigial tails on humans
• Skull is partially exposed as it would tear through the human face during transformation. Other rips are random in areas where bones would shift
• Heel gains a protrusion like in wolf skeletons
• Shoulders are half human shoulder-blade, and half wolf, thus why they are such prominent features
• Hunting probably based on sight as its nasal passage is unsuitable for scenting now
• Probably a one-way transformation; blood-loss and shock might lead to an early death

Reflection

• Took a while to finish due to the attempt at a more realistic, referenced creature, with fitting background.
• Definitely was a fun experiment to try out, and fast from initial conception to execution.
• Aided knowledge of wolf fur patterns, anatomy, how to push anatomy to  its limits, and how to draw open wounds and muscles.
• Need to look into backgrounds more. This one was a happy accident with the colours chosen, and is intentionally blurred as I don't have enough knowledge to add to the piece with detail. It simply serves as a setting for my creature and is not trying to take the attention from him.
• I'm glad I pushed the realism more, even if the reference images were unpleasant to research and look at.

Quick Catch-up

Of Creatures

Manta Ray/Bat Creature

• Paused
• Need to rework the pose again as the perspective is still off
• Has a paper model (used for previous poses)
• On hold till a fitting pose has been found

Ostracod/Bull

• Paused
• Research is being done - figuring out patterns of bioluminescence on ostracods and abyssopelagic fish to make it most effective on the end creature

Werewolf

• Requires finalising and adding to the blog

Other

• I've been reading an encyclopaedia of mythical creatures and am marking ones I find interesting, in order to possibly sketch and draw them later
• Looked at OpenToonz; with enough motivation and decent tutorials, I might be able to utilise this animation software for a creature's walk cycle
• I hope to complete three skillshare courses once my current three creatures are finished
• I've been doing a lot of traditional sketches and silhouettes again, I've found that a red brushpen and fineliner have an excellent effect when paired together, and I have a few creature ideas developing from it. I'll post those when I have a few more pages done

Creature Design - The Giant

Overview

This creature stalled a lot during creation, but eventually came through as a gentle giant. Reminding myself of a favourite documentary helped immensely to finish this creature to a respectable, realistic standard, and it's now one of my favourites instead of something I regretted trying.

[Unnamed properly as of yet.]

Inspiration

Creatures:

• Bull
• American Buffalo
• Golden Takin
• Elephant
• Nudibranch
• Snail
• Nautilus
• Ammonite (Extinct)

Other:

• Sundew Plant

Considered:

• Hammerhead Shark
• Fu Dog (Fantasy)
• Dunkleosteus (Extinct)
• Diplocaulus (Extinct)

Belated Afterthoughts:

• Walrus
• Barnacled rocks

Process

The Giant started out as an attempt to revive the fu dog/diplocaulus creature I'd begun with at the start and abandoned due to lack of direction. Later on, I left this creature design again as I didn't know how to progress in it. Each time, I came back and persevered and eventually everything worked out.

Original idea, hammerhead shark/diplocaulus/fu dog. Though some of the shapes are interesting, nothing was inspiring enough to continue with.

 

Favoured sketches from previous page on the left. Added in the Golden Takin as a source of inspiration due to its domed head shape. Righthand sketches are where I included bulls and nautilus; this is why the horns are swirled, to give the spiral shell pattern on the side of the head.

Final lineart. Of the two coloured sketches, the left one is where this creature stalled again. The right one, with more depth and feeling, was when I came back to it. Continuing it as a bland, sharkskin-esque texture felt wrong - elephant skin was soon taken as an inspiration and the design propelled from there. This is why the righthand lineart has elephant trunk lines on its head, as I had completed the left image by then and was preparing the second lineart for the same.

During colouring, I had to invert the textured background as it was too overbearing on the colours I was choosing to use, and I couldn't see the edges very well against the sandy tones. The blue it happened to invert to gives these creatures a very cold, arctic feel, as though they are stalwart wanderers of the snowy plains, and this idea and visual may have influenced their colours subconsciously.

Final design.

Design Notes:

• They have no eyes. Their foraging depends entirely on amazingly strong senses of smell, touch, and hearing.
• The tentacles on their backs are covered in sticky, sap-like fluid, as are their tail-tips. The tails are used to lash out at prey/foliage, and deposit them on their backs, where they will be devoured. The back-tendrils have serrated edges and towards their base they excrete extremely viscous, strong stomach acid to dissolve whatever matter they have collected.
• Horns are not used in combat with each other. It is thought they aid in communication though, as these creatures often greet each other with side-on head-touches.
• Even if crippled by the predatory horses or other attackers, these creatures are still efficient hunters due to the long, swift reach of their tail. Herds will often stay with an injured/paralyzed member and feed them a share of collected food.
• It is thought they call in extremely low frequencies, as nothing audible is present to human ears. The cat-like Ribas will vacate treetops hours before these creatures will pass by; it is possible they can pick up on the low frequencies due to using some themselves, though not on the same scale.
• These giants are mild mannered creatures, despite being voracious omnivores. Captive animals can be trained into what they are allowed to eat. They are particularly useful for hauling timber, and some have even been trained to strip bark and branches from the logs also.

Reflection

• Extremely useful creature to design; not only is it fairly different (especially with the addition of elephant skin as a texture, unused before), but it proves that designs that aren't working can always be turned into something good if you persevere and are willing to make changes.
• Belatedly realised walruses and barnacled rocks might have been useful to look at whilst colouring. A stronger visual library will fix this.
• Elephant-like skin is very tedious to draw (though maybe not quite on the same level as scales), but I really like the effect and will probably use create it again.
• Drawing a side-on creature and then one on a diagonal immediately afterwards was challenging, as some of the design were happy accidents (i.e. a Difference layer being used over the horns with colours that happened to make it much more appealing) that I then had to figure out and recreate. It was very useful to figure out the processes though.

Miscellaneous Sketches

Between my essay and my MA poster I didn't have enough time to focus solely on finished pieces, thus I have gathered a lot of spare sketches and ideas that don't always apply to other creatures in this mini-project. I also have some other creatures to finalise and then add in separate blog posts shortly.

Sketches

Digital sketches based on R.J. Palmer's first skillshare video. Technique is to build shapes first, like a ribcage, and then design a creature based on that, using knowledge of various creatures (his tend to be dinosaurs). Some of mine bled into later creature designs.

Idle sketch of woodlouse armour and fu dogs. From very early on in the project.

Brush pen. Following the idea of a creature that hides as a boulder, with rabbit-like fern ears and other plant-like protrusions that are actually external gills so it could survive underwater. Bottom sketches are of amphipods, something I'd just seen an article on and decided to copy.

Watercolour of said rock/rabbit in its environment. Used a reference. Despite the simplicity, I really like the effect, so I might try basic background details on my next creatures.

Double page spread of ideas for a bull creature with mantis arms that act as a shield, based on the design of an amphipod's armour.

Digital follow-up to the above. The headshots evolved into a more dragon-like creature, however. Both ideas (the head and the body) might come into play in other, later creatures, but at the moment I'm out of ideas for how to progress with either.

Further sketches based on the previous two ideas, breaking off into different creatures.

Break from the previous bull/mantis. Looking for shapes.

Quick sketches from screenshots from my favourite animal documentary, "Return of the Giant Killers: Africa's Lion Kings". I really like the idea of predators taking down huge prey unused to being attacked, and hope to include it in a later idea. Animals included are lions, elephants, pelicans, and buffalo.

Looking at head shapes.

Continuing from the top of the previous image. Digital sketches testing a body style for the creature. It doesn't work out so I left it for now.

Silhouettes of collected animal imagery, looking for shapes and inspiration. The pencil sketches explore ideas of tusks and teeth in different ways.

More silhouettes of creatures, only some from imagery. Chimps/gorilla were inspired by rewatching "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", as I realised I'd never drawn them. The silhouettes to the right of the four apes are using ape head shapes, but upside down.

Coloured brush pens, as a break from black. Found out some have a dry brush effect when used quickly, so I explored different shapes and textures, and what I could read from the end result. I really like some of them as headshots for monsters.

First attempt at Mudbox in almost two years. Tried to recreate Ribas, my sabre-toothed cat creature. Only got one tooth half-done, as I couldn't figure out how to aptly recreate it and get them to a fine point. Also, it was on a high level of detail but the front muzzle, where the teeth should go, was very under-poly. I think I messed up early on and it carried over to the higher detail. Despite ultimately being a failed piece, I did learn a lot (definitely need an orthographic of what I'm trying to sculpt, for instance) and I will probably spend another few days trying again.

Reflection

• Coming back to traditional art between digital pieces was liberating, and often gave new insight into a design.
• Exploring headshots is a good technique to make a creature more unique, as gazes focus on the face most, and the body can be built to match.
• Creature silhouettes were useful to break down shapes.
• Watercolour was difficult to produce due to limited colour range, but once I realised I didn't have to copy the reference exactly, it became its own piece and I really like how it turned out.
• I'd like to try clay modelling. The failed Mudbox attempt became annoying due to my lack of experience with the program, and the mistakes I made early on really impacted my ability to finish the piece properly to a degree I was happy with. Clay would be more forgiving, and would give a physical maquette I could use in illustrations, for lighting and pose purposes, like James Gurney uses.

Creature Design - Ribas and Diribas

Overview

The guiding theme of this creature was eventually divergent evolution. The starting point was a lingering idea of a cuttlefish/panther creature that could camouflage perfectly, and while I was floundering with design ideas I watched a free video offered on R.J. Palmer's skillshare page, where he freely sketched creature designs. His commentary was inspiring and the first of these sabrecats was sketched, initially with intent to replace the cuttlefish/panther, but then that one was soon sketched as a differently evolved creature in the same family.

Ribas is actually the reversal of an arabic name, Sabir, which means patient; hypothetically this could be taken as Ribas meaning impatient/quick, apt for the fast, sleek, cat-like creature. Diribas is the divergent relation, named second as its camouflage would have meant it being discovered second.

Inspiration

Creatures:

• Cheetah
• Tiger
• Lion
• Black Panther
• Colugo
• Coati Mundi
• Raccoon
• Tanuki/Raccoon Dog
• Ring-tailed Lemur
• Turkey Vulture
• King Vulture
• Lammergeier Vulture
• Secretary Bird
• Grasshopper
• Cuttlefish
• Octopus
• Velociraptor (Extinct)

Process

Ribas developed alongside Diribas in a feedback loop - initially Ribas was to replace the other, but it soon became apparent they were both similar/dissimilar enough to be in the same family. Sketches and inspiration were from various sources as I floundered in places and sped ahead in others.

Traditional sketches for Diribas, the cuttlefish/panther. Ideas were present (text is merely thoughts on teeth slotting into place like snake fangs, extra eyelids for camouflage, and what to do with the webbing on the legs), but as a whole there was no stand-out design.

Digital sketches for Diribas. There is a clear fight between long or short legs, which the 'divergent evolution'  theme solved. The coloured Ribas sketch in the corner was added later, to keep colours and anatomy in mind when choosing a final design to stand beside him

I watched the first of R.J. Palmer's videos on Skillshare to see if it was worth buying the course (once I am done with this mini-project I will use it within my next one as it seems useful). The technique shown was to simply draw, and find shapes or ideas that seemed interesting. He had no goal in mind, merely drawing dinosaurs, dragons, and prehistoric-looking mammals from imagination, and I imitated the concept. A few parts of his designs struck ideas in me (he tested horns as teeth and teeth as horns) and Ribas came as a result of looking at the longer-legged Diribas sketches, which I hadn;t wanted to abandon.

Sketches using R.J. Palmer's tutorial. Eventually, favoured Diribas sketches were placed in the top right, and sketched around. The bottom bull-inspired creatures sparked a different creature's design.

Ribas sketches (some from the previous sheet). A more developed hunter than Diribas. Grasshopper-like back legs quickly took hold, to both give the creature an interesting feature and have powerful jumps.

Chosen poses and final lineart for both creatures. Front view headshots keep the scale of the features in mind. Musculature is visible as I wanted to make sure the arms worked correctly. Muscles are based on those of a panther. Key features link the two animals - the six limbs, split tail, exterior fangs, and bald faces.

A test to see how other creatures were lining up in terms of size. The sharkdogs were reduced after this test, as were Ribas and Diribas.

Ribas, the treetop predator.

Diribas, the camouflaged ambush predator.

Final creatures.

Design Notes - Ribas:

• Long, grasshopper-inspired back legs allow for incredibly powerful leaps, while cat-like front legs aid in the landing
• Tiger stripes for camouflage in long grass or canopy leaves, fairly short fur
• Canine fangs are exterior
• Crest-like quills are taken from the secretary bird, linking in with long legs and tree-dwelling habitats, as well as suggesting strong kicks
• Omnivore, has some tolerance for envenomed prey killed by Diribas
• Large nasal cavity - they communicate in very low frequencies, thrumming in the nose and throat
• Sleek design suggests fast movement and quick reflexes, likely to hunt birds and tree-dwelling mammals, though they would not be opposed to running across plains and bringing down larger animals as a social pack
• Secondary arms have developed nimble fingers and thumbs, like a raccoon - used to grip on difficult surfaces (generally tree trunks) and carry objects
• Fairly magpie-like tendancies; Ribas will often collect interesting or shiny objects and relocate them to caches up in the trees
• Very social, though they tend to sleep in separate trees (unless the weather is wet or cold). Guards (taken in turn) sit on the fringes of the sleeping area and communicate in extremely low frequencies humans cannot hear

Design Notes - Diribas:

• Shorter, squatter body, lower to the ground
• No fur, skin is thick (with some protective blubber). Texture is like that of an octopus, made up of pigments and laced in a way it could form itself into other textures, like rock or moss or bark
• Less developed secondary limb, more vestigial - simply used to better move webbing around when camouflaged to provide the best effect
• Split tail is reminiscent of squid tentacles to show its origin
• Face is less developed, more mask-like than Ribas' skin-covered face. Exterior fangs are made of bone
• Highly venomous. Can infect through touch, or by biting. Biting is more potent, while touch is useful to keep prey unaware it has been infected
• Omnivore, eats whatever it has killed due to having full immunity to its venom's effects
• Tends to stay on the forest floor in thick vegetation, or alongside cliffs. Rarely strays into plains

Reflection

• This concept took a while to complete, but I learnt a lot from following it through and not abandoning the design.
• Bringing current ideas into whatever sketching method is being used (like R.J Palmer's, or traditionally, for example) gave a different feel to the creature. It was good to ground it with previous sketches again.
• Although I feel these creatures aren't too far from what is typical fantasy fodder (six legs, sabretooth, cat-like), the fact they co-exist together and are related evolution-wise makes them feel like a more significant step in a new direction.
• Ribas originally was much less detailed. Once I completed Diribas, who needed significant detail to produce octopus-like skin, I returned to the other creature and completed them to the same level of detail. Looking back, the version I was originally happy with was very scrappy and definitely needed the improvement.
• These two were the main focal point for my MA poster, and held up very well.
• One of my favourites of this mini-project so far.

Creature Design - Bhanmar

Overview

After several quadrupedal designs, I wanted to try something completely new. I knew of nudibranches (a colourful sea slug type animal that comes in scores of colours and shapes) and played around with what their designs might best enhance. Bhanmar came out of combining caterpillars with nudibranches and then using like creatures to play with a more unusual bodyshape.

Bhanmar was named by loosely combining nudibranch and pine marten.

Inspiration

Creatures:

• Nudibranch
• Catfish
• Jewel Caterpillar
• Pine Marten
• Weasel

Considered:

• Woodlouse

Process

In all honesty, this creature did not take long to design. It was very much an experiment with how much I could push my knowledge of forms, since I seem to stick to quadrupeds or birds. I also really wanted to play with the striking colours of the nudibranches, as they are fascinating little creatures with a fantastic array of patterns and forms, and this was a good excuse to indulge myself.

I wrote a list of creatures and started doodling shapes of what they might look like when combined. The coloured sketch used the clone tool on the nudibranch images (from google) to give a fast generalisation of potential colours.

Final design. They took a surprisingly short amount of time to create.

Design Notes:

• Though their legs are more advanced systems, they are placed similarly to a caterpillars. However, the Bhanmar run like weasels or pine martens, in a more bobbing motion
• They are fast, nimble, algae-eaters, and often hide on bigger, more recumbent herbivores. They will eat slow-moving bugs if one happens to wander in the path of their searching whiskers
• Their colouring is to warn predators away and feign toxicity, though the actual level of poisoning one could gain from ingesting one of these creatures is up for debate, as there are too many colours and subspecies to accurately measure
• A Bhanmar's eyesight is not the greatest; it is believed they can only see basic shapes in strong light, and blurred movement

Reflection

• Interesting to look into more unusual animals for this creature; I learnt about caterpillar leg placements and nudibranch colourations.
• Definitely one of my more unique designs so far.
• It was fun to explore something more odd and atypical through a random decision to utilise nudibranches in a design; it seems strong colourations and unusual shapes were the guiding theme this time.

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.