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Rather than creating my own book pages i decided to just create a few illustrations on their own for my outcome. This is mainly because i want to focus more on improving my illustrator skills and drawing and not focusing on the graphic aspect that would come with making a book.

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for my next set of sketches i want to narrow down my creature so i can start with my final outcome.

i want to include,

some kind of long tail

big eyes

sea creature

insect inspired face

big

maybe red/blue

some kind of beak

feathers

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At the begining of this project we went to a Tim Burton exhibition and we got to see a bunch of different designs, sketches, costumes and concept arts of his. When looking around i found that my main interest was the more creepier stuff he did especially the coloured drawings of the clowns and the vibrant colours used on them got my attention.

I also really liked a lot of the concept art he created for the characters in his film because it showed how they first looked and you could see how they developed and changed in his drawings.

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For my first moodboard i had no idea what i wanted to do for a theme or anything about my project but i know i want to make something that looks kind of creepy so i looked at images and names of a bunch of freaky looking mythical creatures that i liked the look of. Creating this moodboard allowed me to do small researches on all of these different creatures and i got very interested in a few of them such as the Manticore.

After i read the brief, one of the example themes was 'creatures and hybrids' which helped me to narrow down an idea a bit more.

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After my first moodboard i had another creature in mind that i already know a lot about which is the Wendigo. I am already farmiliar with this myth and how the Wendigo is usually depicted and i really like how these images look.

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My third moodbaord i made i steered away from the mythical creature idea a bit and thought of a type of scenery. I like the look of nature and greenery taking over buildings and structures because i think it looks very powerful and can represent history and time.

I am not too focused on this idea as much as my other but i was recomended by my Tutor that mixing my two ideas could be an option so thats something i want to keep in mind.

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i used illustartor to make two pages that just has my creatures on them to have next to the main peices to show how they fully look.

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I wanted to properly know the hstory on some of the creatures i liked because all of these designs were created from descriptions and stories of these creatures so it is important i understand why they have certain features and their characteristics.

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I was recomended that i looked into Albrecht Durer because of his peice of the Rhinocerus.

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i narrowed down the face i wanted for my creature pretty quick but i need to think of different textures i could use and more about the rest of the body.

In these sketches i dont like the feathers as much as i thought so i might remove them but i do like the little antenas a made that were inspired by the insect drawings i made.

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I had the idea to use an app called Shuffles rto create some small colages of different animals mixed together that i could then draw from. With Shuffles you can look through a bunch of different cut out images of anything and make anything with them so i searched for lots of different animal body parts and features to create some cool looking ones.

At first i wanted to do more weird, creepy ones so i used skeletons for two of them but then i liked the idea of making cute little creatures with the animals so i did a bunch with different cats.

Doing this is helping me to expand my creativity and make me think of more combinations and i am thinking of how i can take this kind of thing further into my project by maybe combaining a lot more animals into one or looking for more unique looking animals.

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The game Until Dawn is the reason i started becoming interested in the history of the Wendigo and why i thought of looking into creatures for this project.

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I took part in a small illustrator workshop my tutor did and was able to learn how to pixilate different images and shapes. I created a simple flower using the shape tool and then using the pixilate tool. It allows you to change the amount of pixles so the more pixles you want the clearer the image will be. This tool can be very useful for more graphic designs and if i were to go for a more retro vibe.

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The next tool we used was the pattern tool. I created another flower using shapes and then used the pattern option. With this i could choose the direction the pattern goes, the position and size of the flowers and i could also change how many flowers there are.

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This tool is one i was more interested in learning and its creating a fur texture using pen lines. I had to use a gardient colour so i could properly see where the bends and turns would be when i move the lines around. This can help me if i want to create some kind of creature with fur and i can add extra texture to my designs.

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These are my little drawings i created of the animals i made just so i could practice making the different features and body parts blend together more but i feel like i tried to make them look a bit too normal and i want them to look a lot more off putting and strange but i am not sure how i can make it look like that yet.

I really enjoyed drawing these as it also helped me to practice drawing lots of different animals as i have not really drawn many animals before so it is good to practice especially for this project so i am going to focus a lot on trying different types of species to expand my drawing skills.

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After creating a few designs i was stuck on how to go foward in my project but i had a conversation about my project i realised i was more drawn to the idea of a sea creature and sea animals. I made this little colage of different sea creatures that i thought looked really unique and cool that i can refrence on.

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I picked a few creatures from my colage and also some other ones and drew a few mixtures of different sea animals. At first i was going for a creepy look with the one in the middle but then mixing these sea creatures together made me think of the game Mario and how they make real animals and sea creatures look unique and cool in their game so i thought of that kind of style with the other two i created.

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I looked through a bunch more sea animals and creatures to create two drawings but made these ones a bit more detailed by adding a bit of texture and shading because i want to re draw these on illustrator and try practicing mainly with some colour.

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The first one i created on illustrator was the shark/octopus looking one and i thought this creature looked very cute on paper so when i added color i wanted it to be pastel and colourful but still a bit unique so i used a purple and yellow colour pallete.

I enjoyed creating this because i had a lot of freedom when doing so since i am pretty much making my own animals but i think i like the one o made on paper better because without the color it looked a bit scarier since it was black and white and i just prefered it more.

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my next little drawing i did on illustrator is a dolphin/shark kind of one but i wanted to do one with less colour and start going into the creepier looking ones.

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For my next drawing i re created on illustrator i saw this other sea animal with a colour scheme which was very bright orange and purple. I decided to try and use that idea with this creature and tried to make it look as though it was emiting light from the orange parts on its tail and eyes which i think made it look and seem a lot cooler.

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i practiced drawing a few different types of fish scales because i didnt like how flat my illustrator drawings were looking and i thought they needed more texture.

I also want to look at other types of textures that i could use like fur, feathers or a bone texture i think would look cool.

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After working on a few fish and sea creatures, I thought about birds. I picked a few that I thought looked cool weather it was from the colour, feathers or their face features.

I don’t think birds are as interesting as the sea creatures because there isn’t much variety in birds. A lot of them look the same and they mainly keep the same shape. But I do like the different feather textures and patterns and also the colours of some o fthese like the dark green and the lighter blue one.

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i did i few little drawings on illustrator and i tried to make them look more interesting thn normal birds but it was kind of difficult because i kept wanting to keep the classic bird shape rather than trying to xchange it a bit. So i am going to try and mix up the birds with a different kind of animal or creature.

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i wanted to aim to make something more creepy and unique looking i looked into microscopic images of different insects. i knew these would look a lot cooler than the birds that i made because of all the different features and faces they have and how unusual they look.

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i like the idea of having big eyes like some insects do even though they dont look as creepy i still think it looks cool especially when theyre almost fully blacked out.

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I mixed the insect heads with bird features like beaks and body’s because I did like sketching out birds and the texture of their feathers so i incorporated that into this.

I really like how my bird one looks because the head fits in well with the body even though theyre very different species. I also like the shading i did on these two drawings because i drew them with a biro pen and i think it worked alot better than using pencils because i could get a lot more variation with the shadows.

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I looked at some of Shaun Tans work because he creates a lot of different creatures and makes these really surrealism illustrations. He is an artist, film maker and writer and when creating his books, he aims for younger and older audience and a 'dark children's fantasy look' for his illustrations.The first thing that stood out to me was the nice vibrant red that he uses in a lot of his work and the eyes on his designs are very bold and big. I like how the characters he makes look very cute and child friendly and the way he draws them with the colours and the backgrounds make them look 'dream-like'. They're what i think a Childs imagination looked like if it was brought to life and put in the real world.

I am thinking of incorporating some of his style when sketching ideas for creatures such as the more softer features and the cuter look because his style would fit really well with what i am aiming to make as i want mine to look a bit creepy and off putting but also still child friendly.

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i really enjoyed creating these little characters and how i used softer edges and lighter shading with most of them.

I mostly like the cross hatching effect i did when shading because i think it gives it the Tim Burton feel that i kind of wanted to show in my chracters and i think the mark makings worked really well.

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i made a few responses to Shaun Tans art because i really like the type of creatures he makes but they are more of a childish design than what i wasnt to go for but i want to take inspiration from the colours he uses like the reds and blues.

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i want the tail to kind of look like some sort of shell around the body to to hopefully give my drawings a bit more depth and texture.

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using illustartor i created this as my final creature. i like how his face looks and the shape/size of his body but i wish i had spent more time on the colouring part as it would look a lot better with some more textured parts esoecially in the tail and body section.

I tried to use colours that were like what Shaun Tan used in some of his designs but i ended up being more drawn to dull and less vibrant shades.

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i changed a few proportions in this one to see if it would look better with a bigger head for example.

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i used photoshop to change the colours slightly using the hue/saturation tool and made it more of a warmer red rather than the blue tone. But i think i like the origional colours a lot more because this makes it look more dull and boring.

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after i created the creature i knew i needed to do more work on a final outcome so i started sketching on illustrator and tried to create something out of my head withought any thought or ideas. I did this because i wanted to focus this project on improving my creativity and imagination with the creature designs so creating something without any inspiration or reference can really help with that.

I just used black white and grey with this peice and also included a lot of the cross hatching throughout the image. The cross hatching gives it i nice effect and makes it more interesting to look at.

I like how the rock looks but i think the ocean i am trying to create doesnt look enough like water so i think i need to add some kind of elemt in the backgrounf like a boat or a wave.

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i went back inn my sketchbook and saw the insect/bird character i made and thought it would fit perfectly with the background i started working on so i put it into illustrator and turned it into a image trace. I played around with a lot of the settings and then used the oen for outline the parts that didnt look right. I made sure to use more cross hatching so it can blend nicely with the background.

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For the background of my first creature i wanted to make it look as though its further into the ocean than the bird so i started with trying to make semi-realistic water from memory but i do not think the water looks as good as it could look. Because i wanted to use my own creativity as much i could with these peices i didnt want to see any kind of refrence for the water and the clouds i think i could have created a much better looking landscape if i did use some kind of picture.

I also think that my creature doesnt fit very well with the background as much as my other peice because i drew them seperatly.

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i tried to help my chracter blend in more by adding some water splash effects which was recommended to me and i think it works well and definitly improves the water alot.

I also tried creating a reflection/light effect on the water by adding a sun beaming through the clouds toward my creature.

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i layed out both of my peices using the rule of thirds composition to help my drawings look more natural. I did this by not placing my creatures directly in the center and instead putting them off to the side slightly and adding background elements to the other side of my drawing suc as the boat and mountains.

i added some final additions to both my peices like aboat in the background and birds flying just so i could fill in the empty space which can i also help with the flow of the drawing and letting everything blend it more.