Creature Concepts & Illustrations

THE DEEP DARK

Last year for my previous entry I created three deep sea concept creatures in ZBrush and polished them off in Photoshop. I chose the ocean because I find it fascinating, all the fauna and flora that changes depending on how deep you go. These were the results:

A goal I set for myself last year was to gain efficiency within the program, and have fun! I think I achieved this and more. This year I’m aiming to improve my sculpting ability and anatomical knowledge. Below are the types of sculpts I want to get better at, hopefully being able to create more believable skin folds and replicating the muscular makeups of animals.

SAVANNAH PLAINS

I created Savannah Plains in the latter part of 2023. The project follows on from my deep sea creature design from last year (featured above). This time I wanted to explore a different biome and the relationships that could exist between the animals that live there (predator to prey, symbiosis, etc.) But I still wanted my deep sea and savannah creatures to look like they could belong in the same world. I achieved this by using the same rendering techniques from ZBrush to Photoshop (PS), and painting style in PS.

References were crucial throughout the whole process. This is an example of what my reference board looked like at the start of the project. I made more specific boards when I knew the type of creature I was going to sculpt (after the sketching phase).

Antelope Anteater (Oryx Myrmecophaga)  

This was my first creature out of my savannah animals. I was thrilled with how he came out and I love his colour scheme. I included a second piece of him eating some tree ants, its major food source. This creature is a herd animal that roams the savannah plains in groups of varying sizes.

The Process

The process for this creature set the baseline and expectation for the other creatures in this project. I started with a sketching phase (without full colour), then I chose one of these sketches and explored it further (front view, side view, etc.) In ZBrush I blocked out the sketch and created draw overs in Photoshop to see what I needed to change. I then polypainted the model using textures from the real work and some airbrush. I rendered it out of ZBrush (with base, cavity, depth and mask passes), in Photoshop I composited these together. I then used photo bashing and painting techniques to create the final images. This was my process throughout the entire project and allowed me to move efficiently through each creature. 

Overall I like this creature and I can imagine him wading through some tall grass at sunset, or kicking up a bunch of dust in a stampede. My process also made it quick to create him - it was so satisfying to have it all come together so quickly. 

Scorpion Lion (Scorpius Leo)

This was my second creature, I struggled more creating this one. In the second piece the rendering felt harder and it didn't end up turning out how I thought it would. However I'm still quite pleased with the final result, I specifically love how the skull and eyes turned out. 

The Process

For the process of the Scorpion Lion I replicated the one I used for my Antelope Anteater. I struggled more with my motivation creating this creature and thus it made it harder to work on. However, I was still determined to finish it. 

Overall this was a real challenge mentally, but who doesn't love a good challenge. I spent a lot of time sculpting the lion without considering that it may be the silhouette that was unsettling to me. Like I mentioned in one of the sheets above I think I just needed to take a step back and look at it from a different angle. This is crucial with all art as it allows us to see our mistakes and how we can improve in the future. 

Frizard (Crepundiarana)

This was my third savannah creature, a frog-like lizard called a Frizard with a swinging rattle snake tail! With this creature I wanted to reflect  symbiotic relationships in nature, like how oxpeckers eat ticks and parasites off giraffes. The giraffe benefits because it is relieved of the blood-sucking insects and the bird has a tasty meal. The Frizard acts as a sort of directional alarm system for my Antelope Anteater, as it can swing its tail from either ear. This warns the blind Anteater so it can escape from my Scorpion Lion (which is a predator to prey relationship (predation)). 

The Anteater and Frizard both have the same food source, green tree ants, which is an example of consumptive competition. However the Frizard provides the Anteater enough protection from predators that they coexist peacefully, harmoniously even. They both benefit from the relationship as the Anteater is more protected from predators, and the Frizard can access its food source with greater ease. I explain this symbiotic relationship further in the sheets that follow (The Process).      

The Process

The process for the Frizard was similar to my previous creatures, however I changed up my sketching technique and incorporated more silhouettes into the process. I also focused on creating a more polished looking sculpt. I created more sketches for this creature than the other two as I was debating between two different directions (a bird versus a lizard creature). 

I love how the Frizard turned out, he's quite peculiar. I aimed to make his colour scheme camouflage with the Antelope Anteater so that he himself was concealed from predators. I found that reference gathering throughout the process was helpful in building my visual library, it also aided when photo bashing the final images. This creature wraps up my savannah biome for now :)

Future project work

Currently I’m working on creating Under the Shadows, which is cave-inspired environment. I'm looking at a range of references including bats, cave salamanders, glow worms, tailless whip scorpions and more! 

This is the start of my bat creature, using echolocation it can navigate the maze of tunnels in caves. With this project I’m hoping to raise awareness to species that often fly under the radar, like the Southern Bent-Wing Bat which is a micro bat in Australia that is critically endangered. You'll have to wait till next year to find out how this environment goes!

OTHER WORKS 2021-2024

This includes other university work (dmp, figure drawing, perspective), illustrations and more! I’ve included these works as they helped me improve on my artistic journey. 

Personal Work 2021-2024

2D BOOTCAMP 2023

Various drawing exercises set by Simon Scales at CDW Studios. Including perspective drawing and blender design prompts to improve our fundamentals and 2D/3D skills.

2D ANATOMY 2023 - 2024

Collection of studies, class material from Bryan Lee's and Duncan Li's figure drawing classes, and rendering (in B&W). I've also included some traditional figure drawing from this year.

DIGITAL PAINTING 2023

Digital painting instructed by Jordan Soar at CDW Studios. We used Blender and Photoshop to create assets and then painted over them to create a scene. I enjoyed creating the assets the most, especially the cherry blossom-esque tree. 

MATTE PAINTING 2023 (DMP)

In 2023 I created two DMPs with guidance from my instructor, Josh Ellem (Rising Sun Pictures). I worked from Blender to Photoshop, and then composited the scene in Nuke.

The first was a Studio Ghibli inspired scene, because who doesn’t love Ghibli. I had so many ideas for the scene I wanted to replicate, it was so hard to choose! In the end I narrowed it down to the floating city from Laputa: Castle in the Sky. 

Overall this was a very challenging matte painting and I ended up with a lot of cards to project onto in Nuke. This made it into a bit of a headache in Photoshop as I was trying to make sure that there was enough overlap between layers. If I were to return to this scene I would simplify the background clouds to cirrus clouds (wispy, high altitude clouds). However, I love how it turned out and I would definitely create another Ghibli inspired DMP.

Mossy Citadel (DMP)

The second DMP I created was in Semester 2. I didn't have a set inspiration, the process was just as lengthy as the first and almost more challenging. My instructor said it reminded him of Halo a tad, although I’ve never played it. 

I’m happy with how it turned out, and I like the colour harmonies. Honestly creating it made me excited to watch Avatar again. 

I altered the final image greatly from my original geometry in Blender, which made it hard to project onto in Nuke. I had to go back into Blender and made a whole lot of proxy geo (cubes without back faces) to get it to look more realistic. Ultimately I learnt it's imperative to have a clear inspiration in Blender and follow through that same inspiration in photoshop. 

Traditional Painting

As much as I love the digital world, there's nothing quite like the feeling of a pencil or paint brush in my hand. I've included a few studies from my sketchbook.

Thanks for reading! I wish everyone luck this year and bring on next year!