Expanding the blog

So I have decided to expand the purview of this blog to include work from my classes as well as thesis work (although the two do overlap to some degree).

Here are some quick sketches from photo reference that I did for my maquette sculpting class. Our first assignment is to do a bust of an existing character. I decided that I wanted to do a realistic sculpt, so it became a choice between a few of my favorite characters: Kenneth Branagh as Henry V, Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet, Ripley from Alien/s, and Loki from The Avengers. (There's a tiny bit of thesis character work snuck in there too)

I think I'm going to go with Loki wearing his armor and shouting angrily ("I am a God you dull creature!"). I though the shape of his armor and cape would make a really nice base for the bust, and if I'm able I'd like to sculpt his helmet as a removable element as well.

Sturdy background info part 2

Some more information about sturdy. 

  

   The titanocamelus has a long giraffe-like tongue that is able to reach and clean the entirety of the extended lower jaw, and is flexible enough to grab food pieces and pull them into its mouth to be ground up by the functional molars. Sturdy lives in the arid portion of the dome, traveling in small family groups or herds. They are mainly preyed on by hopper. Although not naturally aggressive, sturdy can be belligerent and may attack humans if they feel threatened, especially if the group approached includes a young specimen. Young individuals have a less developed hump and the extra teeth on the lower jaw take several years to fully grow in, during which time they are protected and cared for by their herd. Sturdy is difficult to domesticate, but can be hunted for food although this is dangerous both to the hunter and those who would eat the meat, which can be contaminated by hopper's deadly bacteria. Sturdy eats mostly a diet of fungi that grow underneath rocks and plants in the arid area of the dome. These fungi are most common near the nesting grounds, but are prevalent around the entire dry portion of the dome. These fungi grow quickly, and without a healthy population of sturdy to curtail their growth (sturdy eat a lot) they quickly become problematic. This fungus grows mostly under things because it is more difficult for sturdy to reach it there, although sturdy has evolved a clever way to deal with that. The fungus maintains itself by lingering in the deepest cracks and crevasses where even sturdy can't reach it. 

Sturdy background info

Well, this post may be boring to people who aren't me... But this is a bit of the writeup that I am doing for each creature. As usual, details are subject to change, but this is the gist of it. I have more, but I figure this is enough text block for one update. 

1.   "Sturdy" Sturdy Ungulate - titanocamelus polydentis

a.     Main food source: small fungus

b.     Main predator: hopper

            Sturdy is an herbivore, and gets its nutrients from scraping fungi from the undersides of plants, rocks, and debris, so it has evolved to have an under-slung double jaw, with one part where its upper teeth and molars meet, and a secondary part that has become elongated and has extra teeth angled up for scraping. The head is heavy and held low to the ground, and the neck is thick and powerful to allow it to swing its head back and forth in a powerful defensive motion. 

      Much like a camel, it stores extra fat in a hump on its back. To compensate for this extra weight, it has an additional pair of legs situated in the middle of its body. The ribcage has remained much like a buffalo or oxen, but there is a secondary shoulder girdle and set of shoulder blades for the front set of legs. The legs move in a wave pattern so they don't hit each other when walking. Due to the heaviness of its body, sturdy is generally quite slow moving. Its forelegs are longer to allow it to raise its head if necessary to search for food or scan for predators, since the head is too heavy to be raised up by the neck alone. The loose skin on the neck accommodates a wide range of motion and also is used to attract mates or intimidate predators. The neck skin has a series of small air bladders underneath it that can be inflated to give an impressive appearance. 

Sturdy silhouettes

Titanocamelus polydentis (also known as "sturdy") is one of the creatures I have already designed, but I will post my process here for record-keeping (and for keeping this blog interesting).

I usually start off with a bunch of quick silhouettes, to try and eke out an interesting shape or concept. Sometimes I'll hit on something I like pretty quickly and sometimes I go through many iterations before I find a good silhouette. When I'm drawing silhouettes I often switch between ideation and refinement, and as often as not I'll hit upon an idea for a different creature than the one I think I'm working on. Half the time I'll look at something I've just drawn and get an idea for a different beast entirely. For Sturdy however, I started off with a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to be its defining feature, which is an extended lower jaw.

Silhouettes are an easy way to run through many versions of a design quickly, but they also help you see now easy a creature will be to identify from a distance. Especially when designing with a video game world in mind, it is important for the player to be able to recognize different enemy types quickly and without detail. (I plan to exploit this at some point by having a "mimic" creature that impersonates a much more dangerous foe). Sturdy is an herbivore (or fungivore, it eats mostly mushrooms) that travels in small family herds through mostly open areas. The bulky body and low head will make it easy to spot.

Some of these were done with a brush pen, some were done digitally, and the sketches were done with a ballpoint pen.