Living species are an archive of organisms that are alive today. There are millions upon millions different species out there, ready to be used in your character or creature design.
Animals come in all shapes and forms. Each of them had millions of years to evolve into what they are now, and this shows them at their true potential for this era. Those that survive throughout time will evolve into sub-species or maybe even into something completely new. But what’s out there already is so diverse and so remarkable, that it’s more than worth it to check it out!
Weird animal features, things you may have heard of, or never knew before. In creature and character design it can add true interest to your design when it’s well thought through. Habitat, behavior, and diet play a great role in this. But there is so much more to animals that can add a whole new layer to them! And also to your story that’s built around them. So you better be aware of every weird animal feature out there!
The animal kingdom is full of weird specializations and features. A mutation happens and suddenly an animal has a different color, or a new feature. A stronger jaw, a higher top speed, you name it. Specializations are caused by little errors in the DNA of an individual. Most of these changes go completely undetected, but sometimes they’re very evident. More often than not this mutation doesn’t change much about the animal, but when it does it either means the demise of this animal, or success. And when success hits, this specific animal will likely be able to have more offspring than it’s other species members.
Locomotion is key to understand the anatomy of an animal properly. You can’t draw an interesting and believable pose without understanding the way the animal moves. You also can’t understand the way an animal moves without understanding its anatomy. These day’s we’re a lucky bunch because current technology allows us to see animals in slow motion. Allow me to introduce you to some of the best videos out there!
The micro-cosmos, a world we only truly started to explore in the past few decades. If you’re looking for complexity in simplicity, you’re in the right place. So, there are way more shapes out there, and I mean, WAY more. In this top 10, I just picked a scope for you to get a good idea. In some other articles, we will dig deeper into the different shapes we can find when we have a powerful microscope.
But what is the use for artists, you may wonder? I think we can take two lessons out of it. 1: Less really is more, and 2: just look at the complexity of these very simple organisms that stand at the very base of our food chain. It’s a source of inspiration and something to fall back on when you want to create something really special with your art.
