Earlier this week I came across Romeck_ Art's channel on youtube they are a professional illustrator and designer. They uploaded this video documenting their process of designing a cow-like creature called a Mludhuz. Though not a full on tutorial, its a well documented close-up into designing a unique critter with commentary. I would definitely recommend giving their vid and channel a look.
Reminded me I haven't done any creature designing of my own in a while so this guy was born. He's not finished yet, but I've got his basic look down enough to share.
Process and wips under the cut
Basic Idea:
alligator snapping turtles
(loosly) narwhal / whale like
salt water or fresh water
easygoing lumbering giant
could kill easily but would most likely run away
Sketch and base shading
Everything is loose and proportions aren't correct. I'm not concerned with accuracy at this stage, my focus is on nailing down the basic form im going for. Shading is soft to lock down values, parts that are further away are lighter, closer parts are darker, that sort of thing. The texture is minimal and will be used as a foundation for scales, spikes, and other details later on. All of the shading is beneath the sketch layer.
Texture and correcting the pose
At this stage I merge the sketch and base together. I'll blend the sketch layer into the softer values already established and start blotting in more detail on top. First by sketching the square scales on the limbs and adding paneling to the shell and underbelly.
I made a custom brush for the square scales that made my life easier:
I also changed the leg placement and squished in the dino's torso. I decided I didn't really like the snakelike appearance the sketched shell had. With his hind legs more bulky and the turtle shell more round he seemed closer to the tortoise look I was going for.
More touch up work and color
To pull the values together I move to a separate layer and go over the ref with a soft circle brush. I'll add the highlights and darker shadows with black and white. Then use multiply, screen, and overlay to get the effect that I want.
Color is added with the color layer mode. Ill keep the colors muted and grey for most of the base only adding saturated values where I know I want them. In this case the horns, crest, beak, and tail are most saturated, added color to attract a mate maybe?
Raren demonstrating a suspicious spell in front of the royal court.
visual storytelling notes:
The bg was left blank until I started painting and the elements added to the bg were designed around the character. I didn't go into this with a little synopsis of what I wanted to convey. Only an abstract idea that Raren was going to be talking to someone, figure it out later. I decided he'd be presenting a new spell in front of a political chamber because he wears a crown and a blue crystal. So he has to be of some form of nobility and magical prowess. He also has blue eyes meaning he is an ice dragon and thus its a blue spell wow. The monarchs he's addressing are left dark and disapproving in the corner while Raren powers a statue beneath them. He could be demonstrating how the spell effects the world around them, maybe it freezes the stone? maybe it brings the statue to life? Either way its primed to eat Raren's opposition. Two of the bg guys are red one is blue maybe he's an arch nemesis who knows.
Art process and wips under the cut
I'm trying and failing to get better at visual story telling while keeping things simple. My long term goal is to have a frequent and consistent posting schedule. Most of the art would be stylized and simple like this and the rest could be fully rendered.
Art has been more of a "draw what's in you head and make it look pretty/ cool to hang up later" thing to me w/ the benefit of being a good source of self reflection as I create. Writing has more so been my go to for expressing that meditation. Writing I don't share because im unnecessarily cagy abt my emotions and my harshest critic lol. I want to tell stories with my art , convey tone, feeling, etc. and right now my paintings don't do that. I don't have the technical skill yet. This painting is the first of many to come that will hopefully change this.
The texture in this is chaotic and the line work is rough. Raren is the only part of this with a full sketch. All other line art was added to create the illusion of detail. There is less attention on rendering each section and more being put into the placement of characters and props. I had hoped this would make the painting go faster and...it has the potential to do so in the future. Sooo a piece that could have taken a couple hours took a whole day.
While im not overly thrilled with the final image im still happy about the process. Normally the dragon would be the only real focal point in my painting with the bg being a gradient, or a simple theme added last second. Conveying a message is more work but it gives more cool things for the eye to look at and the mind to ponder. So in theory even if the final result is aesthetically unappealing the theme can still salvage the work a bit.
what this taught me:
sketchy line work is passable in the final image
it can even add character to the art
plants are a great way of filling space without actually doing so
(hence the wip of the room looking empty af with out them)
the more clothing and eye candy you put on your character the more clutter you have to add to the bg to balance it out
the main oc was sketched the bg was painted on the fly
doing so saved time but harmed the natural flow of the piece
all of the storytelling is happening in quarters and it is almost abrasive to look at
what ill try in the next piece:
perspective guides
less shading and rendering
find a color palette to stick to
or work in greyscale first
write a little picture synopsis
or pick a theme
just find something that acts as a story guide
sketch out bg elements
toy around with the sketch more before moving to painting
Put these on the top layer above everything, set layer to 'overlay' then adjust opacity. You can put it on whatever opacity you want but usually 30%+ is most effective.
The point is to obstruct the picture so AI can't read your image because AI counts every single pixel in your art
Some more flight rising art, this time of my progen!
Tundras are designed for cold weather environments, but my lightning lair needs them to be flexible. My original dragon has to shave his coat for comfort, but he takes the opportunity to include fancy designs like these camels decorated for festivals!
dededos
baratheonpilled
jacobvanloon
jbbartram-illu
kaledo-art
discoholicmusic
