Here there be monsters...
Hello, all.
It's time to break my blog virginity and actually write something. Scary, right?
To kick all of this off with, I'm going to talk about creature design as it's surely something you've noticed about my book(s) if you've even glanced the cover of Crystalline Chaos. One big monster holding a crystal orb, certainly not the standard fantasy beast. In fact, its strange features may stick out: stiff, useless wings and crystals protruding from its face. How does one create the base work for weird things like that? Well, the answer to that one is Sausages.
Yep, that's right. Sausages. Or ovals, if you prefer.
It's a simple technique that doesn't require any pedigree of art, just a piece of paper, a pen/pencil and a reference. In this case, references can be as simple as google images of animals.
That's an example piece of mine, and another for good measure (spine added back in since the pencil lines were faint).
Hope this helps!
Til next time. o/
It's time to break my blog virginity and actually write something. Scary, right?
To kick all of this off with, I'm going to talk about creature design as it's surely something you've noticed about my book(s) if you've even glanced the cover of Crystalline Chaos. One big monster holding a crystal orb, certainly not the standard fantasy beast. In fact, its strange features may stick out: stiff, useless wings and crystals protruding from its face. How does one create the base work for weird things like that? Well, the answer to that one is Sausages.
Yep, that's right. Sausages. Or ovals, if you prefer.
It's a simple technique that doesn't require any pedigree of art, just a piece of paper, a pen/pencil and a reference. In this case, references can be as simple as google images of animals.
- To start off with, look at your chosen reference animal/image. Note the position of the head, front and back legs, and where the tail starts. Draw small blobs at each location and connect them with a line. This is your spine. As we're just making reference images, tracing is fine.
- Now it's time to think about what you want to create. Let's take an example of a six-legged creature with a few additions (spines, etc.)
- Find your front leg dot mark and draw two sets of interconnecting sausages. One sausage makes up the body-elbow, the next sausage is elbow-ankle, and the final sausage is the foot. Now your creature has two sets of front legs. Add the back leg(s) in now to give you six.
- It's time to consider the rest of the body. Is your creature a thin, sleek hunter or is it a lumbering giant? Use a few sausages in one spot to give yourself a reference point.
- Protrusions, extras and so on. Does it have spines running down it's spine? Mark it so. Are they centred in only one location? You get the idea.
- Finished product! It tends to be crude, but I find having that small bit of reference on something completely imaginary helps. The fun comes now of finding words to describe it's appearance and behaviour. This is where using an animal base helps as you can find videos of said animal moving and doing things on Youtube and other such sites.
That's an example piece of mine, and another for good measure (spine added back in since the pencil lines were faint).
Hope this helps!
Til next time. o/
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