Check out the premium course for additional lessons, demos, assignments and critiques!

I'm going to show you a fast and fun technique I use to create creatures by combining photo bashing with a method called shape carving. This process is a liberating way to sketch and explore designs, and it works especially well for horror, zombies, and designing from abstraction.

Designing from abstraction is my term for finding interesting shapes as I work, evaluating them in real time, and responding to them. It’s a very different process than consciously designing with a fixed plan.

The Foundation: Sketch and Silhouette

First, I start with a simple, gestural sketch. A human body is a good base, but I immediately begin to alter the proportions to make it less human. For this creature, I introduced more apish proportions, like sloping shoulders and long arms with big claws.

Don't worry about getting the proportions perfect at the start. I'm always adjusting them throughout the entire process.

Once I have a basic shape I like, I fill it with a solid mid-tone gray. This creates a silhouette that will serve as the foundation for the rest of the character.

What is Shape Carving?

With the silhouette ready, I begin shape carving. This is the process of describing forms by drawing shadow shapes with the lasso tool. It’s important to understand that I’m not just drawing cast shadows. I group three different elements together and treat them as one:

• Cast Shadows: Shadows cast by a form onto another, like the shadow under a projecting rib cage.
• Occlusion Shadows: Also called contact shadows, these appear in creases and where two objects touch, like the wrinkles where an arm connects to the chest.
• Dark Local Values: The inherent darkness of an object or material, like black talons on a creature.

By combining these three, you can quickly define form and material in a stylized, high-contrast way.

The Photo Bashing Process

Now for the photo bashing part. This is where we integrate real-world textures and shapes into our design.

1. Isolate Your Photo Element Find a photo you want to use, like a chimp's head. Use a selection tool, such as Photoshop’s "Select Subject," to quickly isolate it from its background.

2. Create a Two-Tone Image To make the photo match our stylized sketch, we need to convert it into a two-tone image. Here’s how:

1. Duplicate your isolated photo layer.
2. Use a Threshold adjustment layer to convert the image to pure black and white. Move the slider until you get a balance of values you like.
3. Flatten the Threshold layer down onto the duplicated photo.
4. Set this new layer’s blend mode to Multiply.
5. Create a new layer underneath it, set it to pixel lock, and fill it with the same mid-tone gray as your character's silhouette.

Now you have a stylized element that you can easily integrate into your design. Adjust its scale and position until it feels right.

Building Your Creature

With the core technique down, you can start building your creature.

Establish Focal Points I started by adding the chimp head and then moved to another focal point: a big, industrial arm made from a jet engine part. Just adding these two elements goes a long way toward creating an identity for the character.

Use "Greeble" for Detail When working on mechanical parts, I think about the concept of greeble. This is a term from film design where you cover a large, simple shape with small, noisy details like hoses, wires, and pipes. This creates an impression of complexity without having to design every single part. For this creature, I left a lot of the "greeble" exposed to give it a raw, DIY mad-scientist feel.

Find the Story as You Go As I added a photo of a muscular human arm, an identity for the character began to emerge. The combination of the ape head and the stitched-on human arm made me think of Frankenstein's monster. This led me to the name "Apenstein."

This new concept helped guide my future design choices. For example, in the Frankenstein story, the monster has an open nasal cavity, so I removed the creature's nose to reinforce that connection. This is the power of designing from abstraction; you find the character as you create it.

Refining Your Design

Invest in Focal Points Spend extra time detailing important areas like the head. I added small highlights to the eyes and refined the teeth to make the face more compelling. A strong focal point will make the entire design look better, even in its early stages.

Iterate and Evaluate I constantly turn layers on and off to see if my recent additions are improving the design. If something isn't working, I'm not afraid to remove it or try again.

Match Your Technique to Your Subject This technique of cutting up photos and smashing them together has a brutal, crude quality. This perfectly matches the subject matter of a monstrous, stitched-together creature. When your method of creation aligns with your subject, you start to find a true, authentic style.

Check out the premium course for additional lessons, demos, assignments and critiques!