A fun surprise in Pacific Rim - Emily

First off, if you guys haven't seen Pacific Rim yet, I highly recommend it! Monsters galore in that one, and some great designs!

We started off our blog with some studies on some real life creatures, and this movie shows how you can take that sort of study into creature design. Many of the kajiu in the movie are each based off a different animal, yet they share basic characteristics such as texture, color, and basic shape to appear as though they are very similar species. There's a shark-like kajiu, gorilla, bat, crab and even...

A sarcastic fringehead fish!!

I was pleasantly surprised to see my old fishy friend in that movie after doing studies on in for this blog.

Here are a few bits of kaiju concept work from conceptartworld.com:

Enjoy guys!

~Emily

Back to School!

Hey boys and girls,

This summer has flown by. I can't believe I'm going to see you all again in just a few days! I hope you've had a wonderful few months and feel like you learned a few things. Thank you for your enthusiasm and coming up with some cool new creatures. I can't wait to see what you do next!

I hope you will all consider continuing on the work you started here and keep sharing. Keep pushing yourselves and each other. I know it's hard during vacation when you have jobs and family commitments always seeming to take precedence over art. That never ends, unfortunately. But doing things like this, making sure you have a little place and community that will force you to keep moving forward, it makes all the difference. Keep it up and eventually making time for art will be as natural as making time for  the new episode of Breaking Bad.

And with that, I will leave you with one last fun creature list:

20 more animals you won't believe are real

A Wild Munna Appeared! Realistic Pokemon from Britt, Plus Some Goblins!

I've been painting goblins for a book cover for about 6 hours today, so when I checked in to see the blog, I decided to take a few minutes to use Emily's Pokemon project as a brain refresher. (before I get back into the goblin-y fray!)

I only started playing Pokemon this year, and I instantly fell in love with Munna. She's just about the opposite of things I usually draw. Round, Pink, Girly, Flowery, Easily Stackable, and nibbles up the dreams of pokemon like candy. What's not to love?

(My friends keep buying me little Munnas. They stack nicely on my studio windowsill)

Below is a 45 minute-ish speed paint, I'll do a bit more on it later this week I think. I was stumped as to how to start, and by Emily's suggestion, I based her off a tapir... they do have similar noses! Working in Munna's flower spots is tricky but I think as I develop the skin/fur texture they're going to be a little more abstracted and part of the "real munna's" coloration!

Pokemon Realism - Emily

I'm sure most of you guys have seen this sort of thing, but I figured I'd share some of the things I've been doing. It's fun! And coincidentally, a nice creature design exercise.

Pokemon! There are now more than 700 pokemon, each incredibly unique little monsters.

They're pretty simple cartoon characters, made with some really wacky shapes (that sometimes make very little sense as far as realistic anatomical structure). Cartooning's never been a strong point for me, so I prefer to draw my pokemon with an extra heavy dose of realism, making colorful shapes into living, breathing, and believable monsters.

Here are some examples from other artists' rendition of pokemon:

RJ Palmer

René Campbell

 

Gavin Mackey

And here are a few drawings of mine:

 

 

It's a ton of fun! I enjoy researching some of the background information on how some pokemon designs came about. For example, the last one, Tyrannitar, is based off of Godzilla, so my rendition pulled inspiration from Godzilla designs rather than making him into an actual T-rex. Being a rock type pokemon, I chose to adorn him with tough, rock-like scales (much like Godzilla's nearly indestructible hide) and interpreted the dark spots in the official art to gaps in his 'armor'. Many pokemon are based of real animals, myths from around the world, even everyday objects. 

You can stay close to the original design, re-imagine the creature completely, or anywhere in between!

The same sort of concept can be applied to most cartoons really, I just figured it'd be fun as a creature design exercise, if anyone wants to give it a try! 

~Emily

Silhouette Creature-Brittany

Hi all!
This one is definitely not quite as finished as I'd like it to be-- but today's the deadline so here we are!

I'd imagined this creature being from a dystopian future, either an experiment or a freak of nature resulting from the meltdown of a nuclear plant near a swamp.

The legs are very frog like and the torso appears to have vestigial nubs where limbs once were. It is not a creature you want to be anywhere near, as its very undiscerning about what it eats. The jaw can unhinge much like a snake's, making it capable of devouring just about anything.

This was definitely a challenge for me- I tend to soften everything i draw so doing something creepy/pointy/uncomfortable is sometimes a difficult stretch. I'm not completely happy with it yet but its on the road to getting there!

Final Design - Savanna Ape

Savanna Ape

Genre: General Fantasy

Habitat: Savanna/plains

Culture: Feral Beast

Time Period: Future


This creature would be more of a background character than anything. I see it as an environmental element, just a run-of-the-mill inhabitant of a savanna setting. Not a main character in any story he would be a part in, and any interaction would be minor. Perhaps a smaller foe for a protagonist, before facing the larger predators in the area.

It is an evolved creature that lives on earth in the future. It would co-exist with animals that live today, or at least their more evolved forms.

Many animals today share traits with others that far outside their species, Like moths that look like hummingbirds, or mammals with large duck-like bills (Talking about the hummingbird moth and platypus here!). So I took the same route with this guy. He is a primate, but shares a lot of features with cheetahs. He has the long limbs, large ribcage and lungs, and flexible spine made for long strides and amazing speed. It also has spots to aide in camouflage.

I hope you guys enjoy!

~Emily

Emily's Super Silhouette Extravaganza!

...or something I don't know...

I had a lot of fun with some of these silhouettes, I started drawing, and my mind was working too fast for my hands! I started with a ton of sporadic ideas, drawing whatever weird creature came to mind. As my initial excitement faded, I went back on some of the original ideas and explored them further. It took constant reminding not to get caught up in detail, and to work quickly. Basic shapes, basic shapes! 

I've gotta say though, drawing 100 different creatures without having follow through and finish them was a lot of fun, and pretty refreshing (guess I'm not good with commitment…) I will most definitely be saving these ideas, I'd like to expand on a few of these sometime in the future.

But for now I think I've found one idea I'd love to work on for this project. There was one I was tempted to do, but it was something I've done a lot of...*sigh* maybe some other time.. It was hard to decide, and ended up going with a pretty unique one to me.

So far this is what I have, an omnivorous ape-like creature. The silhouette was really unique I thought, and those long limbs could be useful for a lot of things. In this case, running and climbing. So I've been working on designing a running monkey. I can imagine him living in a savannah-type environment, where he would take shelter in the trees and eat the leaves, and occasionally wander down to pick the bugs off carcasses on the ground (gross). The trees are pretty sparce, so I can imagine him having to book it from tree to tree to avoid hungry predators on the ground!

Maybe I should call him the "floor is lava" monkey...

Silhouette Monster

Mike Yamada - from The Skillful Huntsman

Now that you've pushed yourselves by churning out a bunch of silhouettes and hopefully got out of your familiar shapes a bit, it's time to pick one to take further. Try to choose a silhouette that is very distinctive and maybe a little out of your comfort zone. Start making up the details for your creature, similar to what you did with your troll. Collect both animal and human reference for help on gesture, anatomy and texture.

• Choose a genre (adult scifi video game, children's fantasy animation, horror film etc)
• Choose an environment (jungle, deep sea, outer space, desert etc)
•  Choose a culture (tribal, hive-mind, society, caste system, western or eastern influenced etc.)
•  Choose a time period (primitive, middle ages style, steampunk, future etc)
•  Choose a level of intelligence and personality. 
• Make up a short history that helps support its culture. 
•  Share sketches of any animals/human/clothing reference you may need to flesh out the details.
• Name your creature!

Arrange your creature and any sketches/studies you want to share in  800 x 1000px documents (landscape orientation) 72 dpi.

 Push yourself: Create three "Accessories" that your creature might be found with. Either tools, weapons, clothing/jewely, vehicles etc.
Push yourself MORE: Design either another creature from the world you have created or a home/environment.

   Due Monday  July 31st

100 Silhouettes-Britt

This was not an easy challenge for me, so I'm pretty shaky about showing what I've come up with, but in the spirit of learning and silly looking woobly creatures, here they are!

I'm starting to see myself leaning toward very s-curve like shapes, as well as big looming figures and multiple arm... things. I tried to do these fast when I was relatively tired so I wouldn't second guess everything I painted. In attempt to inspire myself a bit more I threw a texture, a grid to keep me focused and from recounting constantly, and some color in the background... but I ended up scribbling out whatever came to me in the moment.

New Assignment: Silhouette Overload!

While we all get around to sharing feedback about your Trolls, here's the next assignment:

Christopher Burdett

Johan Steen

Sean Bigham

In all concept art, churning out a bunch of ideas in a short amount of time is a key skill. And in creature design, this means being able to develop a large variety of very unique shapes without a second thought. One of the easiest techniques to get there is the humble silhouette. It takes a lot of sketching to get out of your familiar shapes and really start exploring, so let's get back to basics here by stretching our silhouette muscles and our imaginations

Assignment:

1 week 100 silhoettes (or more!)  Deadline August 1st.

Medium: This is probably easiest done either digital with a fairly big brush,  thick markers or brush with ink/ dark watercolor. Allow yourself to get some big abstract shapes- you don't want to get wrapped up in detail! You should be able to get these done in a few hours.

If you are having trouble getting started/making your silhouettes different enough, think of some interesting keywords to help some shapes emerge. For example: Sinuous, Solid, venomous, fluttery, lethal, deep sea, dominating etc.

 Arrange  in  800 x 1000px documents (landscape orientation) 72 dpi.

Greater Amazon Jungle Troll

I want to revisit these to touch them up after I work on something else for a bit to clear my brain, but I present to you the Amazon Jungle Troll!

1800's American Troll

I decided to do with a mid 1800's American troll for this one. With genres like steampunk, the industrial revolution is romanticized, and is heavily focused on high class citizens and fancy, decorative machinery. Since we're working with trolls, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to do something a lot more grungy.

These trolls are integrated into human society, hoping to make a better living. However, lower class working American's survived on very low pay and hard labor. Being a troll, this guy is incredibly strong, an ideal candidate for a job at a steel mill. He is intelligent by troll standards, but still not quite enough to realize he's not being paid as much as he should. His wife proudly holds their night's dinner, a tiny rabbit. As trolls started growing up in a more civilized society, they evolved to be much less aggressive than their wild, savage cousins, though still known to loose their temper occasionally.


I wish I could have done another illustration with one of these guys, but work has been less than pleasant these past few weeks. However, if I do find the time to do so, I will definitely share, even if its late :)

Stephen Green - Troll WIP

I decided to go with a Japanese Fire-God themed troll.  The fire god (or Kami) was brought about upon the creation of the world and thus began the death of the world.  The troll has a demonic presence.  This idea was fueled by goggling trolls and trying to decide what kind of influences I wanted the creature to have.

These creatures cause fear in any who come in contact with them.  They are top heavy creatures with short legs that somehow support a large bulk.  Their heads are tiny in proportion to such massive bodies.  With huge fists they smash their way through a cavernous volcanic habitat.

I need to make sure that it's feet properly support the weight of its body before moving onto another drawing.  Of course I want to do some more small silhouettes.  

The creature needs a scary pose to showcase it properly. Finally I need to work on using some reference to creature texture on the creature which my last pieces were lacking in.  I'm thinking that since the creature lives in a volcanic cavern (perhaps mountains around Japan) that it's bulk is made of scale like metal that would reflect volcanic light.

More soon!

Brittany WIP

Deadline is tomorrow and I'm frantically painting my day in the life of a troll!

This is just a little sliver of my workspace right now... Lots of horses, conquistadors and... the hulk. Good reference is good reference!

WIP- Brittany

I'm not quite as far along as I'd like to be this close to the deadline, but I do have the second view well on its way. I chose a female troll and a young one, to show a family bond as well as different colorations due to the diversity of the trees in the forest which they live in.

She is mending a piece of leaf-woven-fabric, holding a spear across her lap (not seen in this screenshot). Everyone in this troll's culture shares responsibilities for hunting as well as more mundane tasks.

As for the push yourself segment, I am going to do a rather out-of-the-ordinary day in these troll's lives, and hopefully I'll get a large portion of that done tomorrow morning while I'm at work.

Trolls WIP - Emily

I've done some silhouettes to find the general shape of these guys, and have the sketches and rough values placed down.

I decided to do with a mid 1800's American troll for this one. With genres like steampunk, the industrial revolution is romanticized, and is heavily focused on high class citizens and fancy, decorative machinery. Since we're working with trolls, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to do something a lot more grungy.

These trolls are integrated into human society, hoping to make a better living. However, lower class working American's survived on very low pay and hard labor. Being a troll, this guy is incredibly strong, an ideal candidate for a job at a steel mill. He is intelligent by troll standards, but still not quite enough to realize he's not being paid as much as he should. His wife proudly holds their night's dinner, a tiny rabbit. As trolls started growing up in a more civilized society, they evolved to be much less aggressive than their wild, savage cousins, though still known to loose their temper occasionally.


Thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

~Emily

Troll WIP-Britt

I decided to go with a South American jungle troll. I did research into many different tribes in South America but ultimately decided to fashion my trolls from the Jungle itself.

They're large, lumbering, peaceful creatures, sort of gentle giants of the jungle. (say that five times fast!) While I figure he doesn't have any natural predators, this rough-skinned troll prefers to stay concealed in the jungle's foliage, where it is safe from frightened or curious humans. Saplings are bent and shaped to form headdresses that blend their heads into the lower canopy; simple clothing is created from woven leaves.

The clothing decisions weren't quite locked down in my original sketches but his hulking body and wide base were refined from my silhouettes

I know everyone's summers are busy, but I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Idea Generating... The Troll-Roll

In the spirit of fantasy and game art (and challenging myself!) I wrote up a grab-bag list of world cultures, technology periods, and other options and broke out the 6, 10 and 20 sided dice. 

I know I have certain cultures and periods I lean toward, so I hope this will give me a fairly random selection of traits to work from. I rolled 10 different troll options so I could see a variety. (because I still like options)

I’m doing this D&D style kids... Get ready for the Troll Roll.

After 10 Troll-Rolls, I’m between Columbian, Dark Ages, Small Village troll with Average intelligence and a Mexican/Mayan/Inca/Aztec flavored tribes during the colonial era with very high intelligence.

I really like the idea (and texture set!) of a South American-ish Jungle Troll, and its an area that I haven’t researched much since 5^th grade history class, so I think it’ll be a good stepping stone. I remember really loving learning about the early Mexican cultures so my instincts are leaning in that direction.

For this project I want to push myself with the drawing, to make it as solid and believable as possible, and texture, which I still struggle with. 

I'll post my numbered lists in the comments if any of you would like to use it too. I thought it was a fun way to push myself out of my usual box!

~Britt

Mini Assignment Progress-Brittany

I've got a progress shot of the Mini assignment, working on fur direction like Kristina suggested. I'll start sketching trolls tonight and come back to this after, but any thoughts?

Next Assignment: The Troll

The Hobbit - Newline Cinema

The troll has appeared throughout history in myths, folktales, literature and film. Its stories are ripe with visual inspiration that and it can range from purely animalistic to nearly human in its portrayal. While the “proper” troll is Scandinavian in origin, many cultures have their versions from the Yeti to Bigfoot. More recently it has appeared in several popular franchises like Lord of the Rings, Hellboy, Harry Potter and Skyrim, Each version completely different. (Think of how diverse the Cave Troll from Fellowship is from the three trolls in the Hobbit! These are clearly different species)

John Bauer

The Details:

·         Choose a culture (Asiatic, European, American etc)
·         Choose a period (contemporary, ancient history, middle ages etc)
·         Choose a level of intelligence for the troll and personality. Choose a culture for the Troll. (solitary, tribe, small family unit, hunter/gatherer, animalistic survival etc) Make up a history for the troll that helps support its culture. The Troll’s culture may be related to the geographic culture but still different.
·         Minimum of 10 silhouette studies
·         Share sketches of any animals/human/clothing reference you may need to flesh out the details
·         Two versions. Either a completely different design, different gesture (like running and standing), portrait close-up from a different angle or clothing choice. Choose whatever you think will make you work on your weaknesses most.
·         Arrange your troll and any sketches/studies you want to share in  800 x 1000px documents (landscape orientation) 72 dpi.
·         Push yourself: Write a short story that details a day in the life tale of your Troll. Push yourself MORE: illustrate a scene from it.
·         Due Monday  June 24th

Frost Troll - Skyrim  (Bethesda)

A very incomplete list of Resources:

The works of JRR Tolkien

Three Billy Goat’s Gruff

Swedish Folk Tales- illustrated by John Bauer (ever wonder where Brian Froud got all his inspiration for his Dark Crystal Mystics? Look at some John Bauer trolls.)

Troll- a Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo (this is a beautiful contemporary novel and very different take on the  Troll)

Fellowship of the Ring - Newline Cinema