Monster Monday- July 8, 2013

The past week has been busy with the 4th of July and general beach traffic of summer, luckily today I got off work early and was able to sit down to work on more legendary monsters. 

The Hippocampus is coming along. For the most part I am happy with the design and it's ready to hit some bristol with ink. It's been different for me designing for aquatic animals because I'm honestly not use to it. But now I am enjoying aquatic creatures.

The leviathan is a monster of the deepest of waters, known to crush everything in it's mighty jaws. The inspiration was many sea animals: crabs, eels, angler fish, and lobsters. I want to go back in to add more exoskeleton elements to protect the leviathan for the pressure of the deep as well as other predators. It also needs to be more intimidating.

The Manticore is an addition to the Legendary Monster line up. The manticore is known as a red lion with a scorpion tale and a trumpet like roar. Since it was described as a lion, I used a male lion as the main inspiration for the creature. Then looked at horned animals like gazelle to see how savannah animals horns looked like. There are design elements that still need to be solved, but it's off to a good start.

Monster Monday- June 17, 2013

Sorry for posting so late at night, the past week has been a little crazy starting my new job. I got horrible sun burn making it difficult to draw over the weekend. Then I spent the day overhauling the third floor to make what little space I have work. 

Here's more of a fleshed out sketch of the Cockatrice. So far taking the Cockatrice has been one of the easier creatures to design since I had a clear concept of what I wanted from the beginning of the project. Still a few details to work out but getting close to starting the ink drawing of this guy.

The Minotaur's design is done. I flipped the idea of a bull face with a face with some human like features and a body that is heavily inspired by bulls and other cattle. When I do the final drawing, the Minotaur is going to have wider stance since he is a bulky creature and more of a hunch.

After being disappointed with the design I created for the Behemoth, I went back in with new reference. With a cattle inspired body, horns of a giant goat, and legs similar by an elephant, and a rhino horn, the Behemoth is more of what I originally thought.

Stay tuned tomorrow, got some awesome news to share!

Monster Monday- June 10, 2013

More sketches I've created for the Legendary Monster project. I was in an art funk for a while last week but finally sketched my way out of it...today. The project is going to be split into chunks so I can scatter the work in their different phases.

Last week I posted ideas I created in my sketchbook for the Hippocamp. Here's more of a refined idea. The animals I used as inspiration were: horse, seal, fish, and a seahorse.

The Minotaur is another creature for the project. Minotaurs are typically depicted as a bull head on a human body with hoof feet. The face has human characteristics with more of a bull nose and large jaw, it keeps it away from looking like a typical human proportions. I wanted the minotaur to feel strong with a bulky body and large arms. So far I think the design is heading in a good direction.

This is the Behemoth. Though the idea I wanted to get across wasn't realized in this drawing, I decided to post it anyway because sometimes things don't work. I was aiming for a hulking monster with a horn. This drawing looses the large sense of scale I wanted, I think I am going to give him more of an rhino body and add some of the other ideas I had in my sketchbook.

After I feel comfortable with the design of the creature, I draw a bunch of poses till I get one that feels right. Some of the poses may seem obvious to the creatures I've revealed so far, but others will be discussed next week.