The Gentle Giant

Recently i have been working mainly in my sketchbook creating creatures of all forms which is why my updates have been a little sparse. A few weeks ago myself and my fellow MA's went on a contextual visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park (see Research section).

I found a particular piece inspiring and with my creative eye, i spotted potential. I took a photograph of this piece (above) and took it into photoshop to show you exactly what i could see in my head.

I saw the large muscular structure of a giant, first i saw a Gorilla, but as i developed this creature i began to see a sloth like animal of huge proportions. Although he looks intimidating he is far from it. He is the Gentle Giant of the forest.

Although at first i couldn't see the Sculpture Park being beneficial to myself, i was obviously wrong. Seeing an abstract sculpture clearly proved inspiring.

Don't Panic!

I am still here!

I realise it has been a while since my last post. I have been working a lot in my sketch book recently producing new rough sketches of creatures which i will be posting on here in time. It was also my birthday last week, so its safe to say i have been celebrating with friends and family... but this is no excuse!

Its down to serious work from now... wheres my pencil???

Creature Developing in process!

Since my 'Crit' session last week i have been producing some rough quick sketches of creature ideas that could live on this new world.

This is one i have quickly sketched in Photoshop today, i was inspired to create a snake/panther combo, which i have also mutated and given it 6 legs, so far this is how it looks.
I have published this as i have also experimented with different colours of the same creature to play around with what suits best. This was another quick experiment that i will be continuing to take through my designs as the colour can dramatically change the creatures feel and overall appearance.

MORE Direction! :D

This week i had a group 'crit' session. This was basically a gathering of other Ma students and teachers where i presented work i have been doing and my current ideas and direction.
After this discussion suggestions and comments where made all of which helpful and encouraging, but one idea seemed to stick with us all.

We all decided that my T-Rex/Elephant combo was a great start but we wanted more crazy creatures! I talked about my idea of this creature having a tree/plant growing from its muscular back, which was great and then it hit us...

'What about another world living on its back filled with crazy creatures of all forms, with their own individual characteristics for survival?!'

So the T-Rex/Elephant acts as the planet on which others live. This in mind i have added below a quick rough sketch of what this could look like.

Another Direction

Still keeping in the Creature Design theme, but with inspiration form my previous posts, i have thought about taking an existing skeleton of an animal but developing a new creature from it.

So the skeleton of the animal remains the same but the exterior is different to what people would expect.

Above is an example of what i have worked on today, i started with an image of a Deer skeleton and then built on it to create a new creature. It is still recogniseable as a deer but the steriotypical bouncy cute deer has clearly been lost as this new creature has an evil scary feel to it and looks swamp like.
Its structure is very slim with bones showing and the joints clearly visible.
This was a quick design and i may take this further into a more detailed creature later.

More Experimentation

This was another quick experiment, but this time i did the opposite to what i have done below, i have taken an existing creature from a film and tried to imagine how its skeletal structure would look.

Learning More!

I have found this technique to be very beneficial when trying to get to grips with a creature/animal! I have also really enjoyed this experiment and will apply this in future to get a feel for a character, as i feel i am learning basic positioning of a creatures structure - where the bones appear just below the surface of the skin and how the muscles look.
Most importantly i have learnt to be able to fill in the gaps- from the shape of the skeleton i have been able to work out where the muscles connect and how the overall shape of the creature joins together.
I am really pleased with the second of the two images as i feel i have managed to keep the energy in the creature.