Sketchbook Animal Studies

Scans from my sketchbook. On a few of these studies I took the animal and turned it "cartoony."

Studying Animal Anatomy

I know my usual thing is environments, but I feel studying animal and human anatomy is important to helping out my environment designing skills.

Here are two studies where I took a photo of a tiger and a rhino, broke down its construction into shapes and used that same construction to draw the animal from a completely different angle. This was all drawn in photoshop.

Main Character Layout and Detail Sheets

When I had the idea in mind of a main character I decided I had better do some work to support him in relation to his living conditions. I decided that It would be nice that he is a laborer of some sorts who spends time operating a one manned excavation drill. His outfit would start with en overall look of torn pants and shawl (or "cloak") that served as way of keeping dirt off of him and protect him from and debris that might be pitched his way.

As he is a worker he would need breathing gear that would be somewhat crude but tough. His breathing system is rough assembly of five parts; two chemical chambers, a pump, a regulator and finally a mask. He also has a set of goggles, these are less important and would be tough to wear with the mask on.

Gear details for his outfit, rendered and textured. The detail on his boots includes a device that his laces go into; winding up the device would pull in the laces and fasten them, while a lever on the side would release the laces so they can be loosened. The technology behind all his gear would be from artifacts and materials found while excavating. Other textures would come from plant-like life that grows underground, the "leaves" could be cut and sewn together for use in making boots and other garments.

Trouble

A piece to go with my escaping piece.

More Character Ideation - Above ground

Escaping disaster

More work..not all parts of the above ground planet are friendly.

Character Ideation - Underground

Thumbnails for various types of characters

Travelers and Homage

Both of these paintings came from my tiny gray scale thumbnails. The piece on top was a homage to one of my favorite artist, Rainart. I'm just like any other artist in that I enjoy adopting elements that point back to my artistic heroes! Both of these pieces came at a point when I thought it would be cool if the above ground world that my traveler discovered was hub for interplanetary travel.

Gray Thumbs!

This is an example of one of the ways I work, I do gray scale studies that I later blow up and colorize. Often specific details change but the overall value system and composition stay the same.

Discovering Through Concept Art.

My idea for a traveler who lives underground but discovered an above ground world started as a short paragraph I wrote and showed to people. Starting out with words is helpful however, to really dive into my ideas I like to do paintings that support my written words. The piece above was the first I did for my idea and it propelled me into an imaginative abyss! from this point on thinking about designs and scenarios consumed me. This was that initial paragraph...

Underground life isn’t so rough. The rumors of life above are always
circulating. One underground creature, a curious one, knows what it is like.
He has seen it for himself. He found a way to get “above ground” and when he
goes up there he brings back trinkets and hides them in a box inside his living
quarters.

My idea deviated from this original paragraph and became less about a single character and more about an entire world full of stories. The piece below was my first idea for an above ground world that didn't include a thriving society.