FiddzyDesign – Concept Artwork

Here are a collection of some of my most recent study sketches. They where drawn primarily as background preparation and research for some of my newest creature designs such as the Bone Calcibus, while others such as the tree frog illustration where done solely for fun and general study.

Anatomy studies – Human Teeth & ReptilesAnatomy Study – Swine Facial FeaturesAnatomy Study – Tree FrogAnatomy Study – Mammoth Skulls & TusksAnatomy Study – Sheep Skull

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Bone Calcibus

The Calci are a colonial race of microscopic semi-corporeal entities that gather together in the trillions to form the Calcibus, a powerful hive mind which acts as a single voice for the colony, and as such is often viewed by others as an individual entity. In addition to this the Calcibus has the power to incorporate inanimate objects into its body, to create a projective shell for its occupants, and as means of further interacting with the corporeal world. Dozens of myths surround the Calcibus, with many cultures mistaking them for ancient golems and demonic guardians of the underworld.

The design and inspiration of the Calcibus came form some recent animal skull studies I had been doing over the last month (which I‘ll post at a latter date), as well as the mythology of the golems.

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While this blog may have been in hibernation over the last month, I have been busy going back to basic’s once again, working on anatomy studies for both humans and animals, helping to further develop my drawing skills. While human anatomy training is still ongoing, with allot of help from the excellent anatomy study books by Bridgman and Hogarth, today I have decided to upload some of the animal work I have been doing, from both real world and fictional sources.

Animal Anatomy – Real World Studies

The first image above looks at the structure and form of real world animal anatomies, here studying the facial structures of  the Babirusa, Turkey Vulture and Lingcod.

LOTR – The Great Beast

This second image is a creature design based off a fictional animal from The Lord of the Rings, known as a Great Beast. To create this redesign I not only looked at the Great Beast design from The Lord of the Rings films, but I also studied the anatomies of real world animals such as the Rhinoceros and Bison.

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These two creature designs were created as an extension to alien shark designs done previously, only this time I had gained my initial inspiration from the utterly bizarre looking Australian deep-sea fish, the Blobfish, particularly the Blob Sculpin species. Although unlike the shark designs which focused primarily on linework, these alien influenced blobfish where drawn specifically looking at developing my colour application, using a more defined brush to help show greater contrast and form.

The Blobmander

The colour application on the Blobmander is similar to how I normally work, however here I have tried to use less blurring to gain sharper lines  on my colours creating greater contrast, especially in the highlights. The creature itself is a cross between the blob sculpin and a Chinese giant Salamander.

Cave of the Opinnanite

This piece showing the primitive cave dwelling Opinnanite was done as a purely digital creation, unlike the Blobmander above. This allowed me to concentrate on building form with colour rather than with linework. Overall while not perfect I felt it was a good step forward in the right direction, with this design also allowing to be play with depth of field, here using a series of 2D layers in a similar fashion as to how I use to build depth in Flash animation. While not designed to be an aquatic species the facial structure of the Opinnanite was based on the illusive blobfish.

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Continuing my project on studying both human and animal anatomies, I have started to look at the apex predators of the sea, sharks. However rather than just create some direct anatomy studies, I decided to mix both study and imagination together and come up with some rough sketches for some alien shark designs, particularly focusing on the Hammerhead shark, which is undoubtedly one of the best looking sharks, atleast in my mind.

Double HammerheadArbiter Shark

Semi-Fun Fact: The design of the Arbiter Shark was inspired by a combination of the facial structure of the Elites from the Halo franchise and the jawbone of a sheep.

Lime Shark

Semi-Fun Fact: The Lime Shark, was not named because of its bright green eyes, but rather because its serpentine appearance was based on the body of a moray eel, with “Lime” being a call-back to the sketch of a moray eel I had drawn previously.

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Recently I have decided it would be very beneficial to take a short break from producing new character and creature designs and instead take some time to reinforce and strengthen my drawing skills by going back to basics and working over the winter on some anatomy studies. Something I have not done properly for awhile now, and would greatly benefit my future work. The Images below are some of the rough sketches I have been doing, focusing particularly on skeletal structures, particularly skulls.

Four Digit Alien Hand – Anatomy StudyHuman Skeletal Studies – Rib Cage & Hand BonesHuman Skeletal Studies – Skull & Leg BoneHuman Skeletal Study – Leg BoneTyrannosaurus Rex – Skull & Anatomy StudiesMoray Eel – Facial Anatomy Study

I find that doing these kinds of studies to be extremely beneficial, allowing me to flex my drawing muscles and  develop as an artist. Over the next few weeks I shall continue to do more of these studies and begin to incorporate them into new designs.

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