Animals and Creatures/ Final desgins. Fantasy animals

I have already talked about my early designs for fantasy animals. I wanted to refine them and make them look more like creatures that look possible in nature. I looked at my first designs and then decided what animal elements I could include. I tried to use parts of other animals that made sense, for example if my animal was a predator I would look at predatory animals. Some of my first designs looked a lot more alien than I wanted. I know there isn’t really a problem with that but it wasn’t the direction I wanted to take the design. 

I came up with five designs the first animal started as a combination between a Snake, Scorpion and a Porcupine. The idea for this animal was a small predator that lived in forests and was a very good hunter. I had drawn a small animal with a Snake head previously, I thought this was a good place to start. I gave the animal a Scorpion tail because it fit well with the design and made sense for the animal to have it. The Porcupine influence came when I added spines to the animals back so it had protection. The final design looks a bit like a dinosaur but I like this because it gives the animal a hostile look. The last thing to do was name it and I decided on the Quillrunner.

Images below show progress.

First idea of an animal with a snake head

The final design after I added animal influence

Animal number two was influenced by one of my first sketches. It was the most unusual looking one, it looked quiet alien like. I wanted it to look more like an animal and decided that this animal was very territorial and have a lot of displays. The animals I looked at were Frigate Birds, Moose and Giraffes. I wanted this animal to be tall, this is why I looked at Giraffes. Giraffes and Moose tend to fight a lot in the wild. This is manly why I wanted some Moose characteristics in the design. There isn’t much but I included some small antlers. I imagined it's behaviours to be most like the moose. The other animal was a Frigate Bird. The males can blow air into their chest to create a display. I thought my creature would look really good with this. I named this animal the Baloomer. 

Image below shows progress.  

The first drawing witch I thought looked too alien like.

This was the design after I made it look more animal like.

The third animal didn’t come from the first sketches. I realised I had nothing that was like an insect or a marine animal. I toyed with the idea of an unusual insect but I wasn’t happy. I then thought of making a kind of crustacean. The animals I looks at were Crabs and Conchs, I basically just combined the two and was really amused at the result. It’s probably had the least thought gone into its design but I still like it a lot. I named this animal the Conch Crawler. 

Image below is of  the Conch Crawler.

I really like this one despite how simple it is.

Creature number four was a combination of two initial drawings. I drew two animals which had six legs, they wear both similar in design so I just combined them. There was a drawing of a Cat like animal with six legs. I liked the body but not the face, the other one had a more Owl like face. I want with the Owl face as I thought it fit well. For reference on the body I looked at Lemurs. My animal would be a small insect hunter that lived in the trees and hunted at night. I called this animal the Owlemoor for fun.   

the two images below are the animal designs I combined to make the Owlemoor.

The final design for the Owlemoor

Although I was only required to make four animals I wanted to make a backup. I had drawn an animal that looked like a bat. I thought I would re-design it like the others so I did. I looked at Bats and Rats for my influence. I quickly noticed that the design wasn’t like the others and was a bit boring. It was just a big bat with a long tail and no legs. I still drew up a final design but I don’t think I will use it. I didn’t give it a name because I will probably scrap it. 

This was the first drawing I completed

This was the re-design I did but didn't think it was very interesting

Now that I have four designs I am happy with I can go on to design and make my final illustrations. I’m thinking of making them look like old pen illustrations with printed backgrounds.