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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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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Between the festive cheer for Christmas and the build up towards the new decade I have being playing around with a rough holiday sketch of a demonic snowman character, known as the Snowdemon.

The Snowdemon

The initial idea behind the Snowdemon was the pure and simple concept of “an evil snowman”, which is exactly what it is, a animated snowman embodied by the a psychopathic winter spirit, able to walk the earth again for however long the winter chill may last.

…and on that cheery note I wish you all a Happy New Year!

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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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The Flesh Teddy

This new demonic creature design was an experimental piece done entirely digitally. Designed to be an animated, stitched together leathery monster, the Flesh Teddy is inhabited by a devious yet playful spirit which roams the world looking to both scare and entertain with its sometimes deadly practical jokes. Here I have shown the demon in its own twisted “Toy Box Dimension”.

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Zear Zip (Left) & Zear Tark (Right)

Although I will admit that its not one of my best or personal favorite drawings, what I do like about it is its use of colour. The idea behind the piece was to design two different yet closely related sentient species, here shown in the form of the Zear Zip and Zear Tark, two not very sentient looking bird species, hence the necklace.

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Po Po Nuff – “Koala Crab”

The rather bizarre Po Po Nuff was a somewhat random creation made from my desire to create something cute, yet creepy. Its alien appearance draws its inspiration from many real world animals including koala’s, bushbabies and even species of small single clawed dinosaur called a Shuvuuia.

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Taking a Kaiju break, I decided to revisit, redraw and revamp an old character design. The outcome is the newly named Black-backed Stilt a dinosaur like creature based on a real world wading bird called a Black-winged stilt, one of my personal favourite animals. This new piece shows an adult female with her child, that still sports its juvenile plumage and colouration.

Black-backed Stilt’s – Mother & Child

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A slightly more experimental piece, this battle scene was originally drawn as a very rough pencil sketch then scanned into Photoshop were it was coloured,  edited and sharpened. This piece features my Mulood “Fungus Creeper”, a creature originally designed as a dungeon dwelling demon, rather than a Kaiju. However I liked the design of the Mulood so much I decided to reuse it again here.

Ba’Bate vs. Mulood

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Alien Bolt Rifle

My first individually designed weapon prop done specially for this portfolio. This alien gun was designed to be a cross between a rifle and a shotgun, with the intent of it being wielded by a large, strong race. Although I will admit its not perfect for me this is a step in a new direction. Since I generally consider myself to be a character/creature specialist.

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While allot of my past designs were very Humanoid in their appearance, with mostly sentient alien characters. These two branch off into looking more at animalistic creature design.

Crimson Mountain Noth

Oxentrurus

Semi-Fun Fact: This Alien Anteater, Oxentrurus, draws its name from a stegosaurid Dinosaur from the Oxfordian stage called a Dacentrurus.

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These three creature designs were inspired by a random collection of objects and things, both real and fictional. Like the last post below, these three images are some of the earliest drawn from within my portfolio.

Alien Lemon Face

As the name suggests this alien character’s head was inspired by a quarter slice of lemon.

Alien Horse Detective – Hippolumbo

This alien with traditional green skin and an untraditional horse like face was an inspirational mix of a really old horse-like character design I had done as a kid and the legendary television detective Columbo.

Gharial Elite Shocktrooper

This alien soldier is a cross between the ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek and a species of  modern day crocodilian called a Gharial.

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