Character design is a favorite subject for many artists. Knowing what you’re doing while you’re at it is incredibly helpful. Find out more about this subject, and its close relative: Creature design.
Creature design is one of the harder professions to master. You have to thoroughly understand art fundamentals and the world around us. Not only animal and plant life, but also the human mind if you want to make appealing creature designs. So as you may understand: This guide is not a shortcut to becoming a great creature designer. It’s rather a guideline so you understand what it takes to become one, and what you should be focusing on when you decide to take this route.
Creating a pleasing balance in your artwork is key. Not just because this is pleasing to the eye, but also because it’s the ultimate test when it comes to art fundamentals. When you understand your art fundamentals, creating a pleasing balance will still be a challenge, but should be fairly easy to achieve. In this article, we will run through the thing you have to keep in mind when it comes to creating said balance.
Using exaggeration in your creature design, or even in character design is a little secret that will help you communicate your idea and add interest to your design greatly. It’s that big hooked nose with a mole on it that tells you someone is a witch. The big horns on a creature communicate that it can be a hard hitter. Flashy colors that communicate that the mating season has started or that the creature is toxic. You name it, everything that is ‘extreme’ in shapes, colors, contrasts, and so on, could be a tool. So, how do you use that properly?
Anthropomorphism. To those that don’t use English as their first language, it is quite the word. As a Dutchy, I thought it was a word for a specific era. Like the Jurassic, the Devonian, or the Phanerozoic. Yes No, I know, they’re not all eras, They’re in fact a period, another period, and an eon. But that’s exactly my point. Anthropomorphism sounds like something it’s not to someone that’s not English and/or doesn’t know too much about expensive words like these. But as you may have guessed already: Anthropomorphism is the art of turning an animal into a human-like being. So how do you do that?
Our imagination would leave a lot to desire if not for our surroundings. There would be nothing for us to imagine if we didn’t see it somewhere before. A true artist can take what already exists and make something better or more beautiful from it. Mother nature is a great tool to achieve just that.
