Initial Sketches

Initial Sketches and practice 

Hello guys,

Today I am going to show you the initial sketches and practice for my creature art major project.  The initial sketches will consist of studies including: Red pandas, Bat wings, fire effects, plants, branches and mushrooms.  

Mushroom Study

Here I studied different kinds of mushrooms from my moodboard I did before filled with mushrooms.  I did this study to have a grasp of how a mushroom should look like in different kinds and shapes.  Moreover, another reason I did this study was to put what I have learned into the design of my mushroom.

I did some initial sketches for the Clumsy mushroom since I was not sure how it will look like as a design.  I showed my friends the 2 first designs without a face and they told me it looks boring and it lacks a lot of elements of design.  So I added the toadstool patterns on the head and added a clumsy sad face since the angry face does not show a clumsy personality.

Red panda and Tail Study 

This is a study for the red panda that I made in order to get inspiration for my red panda + caracal cat creature that I am doing.  This study was really helpful for my piece since it helped me in proportions by studying the body of the panda and learned new knowledge about the red pandas.  Red pandas use their tail to protect themselves from cold weather and to balance themselves on trees which is really interesting.  Although red pandas are tiny in size, my creature is going to be huge since I am aiming to make it a large creature.

To add to that, I have made more than one idea on how the tail of my creature would look like if it had different medieval weapons connected to its tail so it can protect it self from any danger.  I ended up choosing the last design which is inspired by an arrow since it looked simple and worked out the most with the creature's tail.

Plants and Branches study 

Although, I have not used any single plant from this research and study I made, it was really useful since I learned about new plants that I can create creatures and characters out of in future designs.  Here I studied flowers including: Orchids and Cala lilys which were a couple of pictures of these flowers put in a moodboard layout for inspiration.  Instead of these flowers, I chose to use poison Ivy for my Tree Monster since I could not draw and paint the other flowers properly on Photoshop which made the design look unacceptable.

Since most of my Tree creature is made out of branches, I made initial sketches of random branches to add to my design including: branched from trees and dead branches on the ground.  I also sketched broken routes in order to make the neck and legs of my creature similar to it.

Bat wings and fire study

I have made a couple of sketches of Bat wings and fire spells in order to know how the bat and fire looks like.  I made these sketches to apply them on my Bat Mage.

After that, I made initial sketches for the Bat mage since I was not sure of the design exactly because it has two forms ( normal form, bat form). I was not sure about the cloak that he is going to wear so I drew two designs and ended up choosing the second one since the first one did not work with the head.  I chose the fireball over the wand since it looked better and simpler as well.  For the bat form, I merged the normal form and added bat wings to it since the first design was too simple as stated on the paper.

In the end, these sketches and studies definitely helped me in the creation of my creatures since it gave me a grasp of how the final design of them will look like.  The hardest study I made was the red panda study since I faced difficulties in drawing the fur of it and the eyes.  I usually do not draw animals which is the reason why I faced difficulties studying the panda.