For this assignment, you'll be creating creature designs from imagination, using no reference materials.
Just like in the Roadmap lesson, you'll be creating a primarily ape-based creature with additional design elements. You could create an ape-crab hybrid, an ornithologically-inspired orangutan, or even a botanical bonobo! The possible combinations are endless.
The goal of this assignment is to create a starting point and provide something to look back on as the course progresses.
I liked the idea of trying to combine a gibbon with a plant or tree or something, working with thick vines. I didn't render it too much because I actually don't know much about gibbons. But here it is.
Cool!
- When you draw something, consider the shapes it's built out of. This helps a lot when trying to keep the proportions and model consistent. It might be worth studying some drawings of King Louie (Paused from the 1967 Disney Jungle Book or from a drawing by the Nine Old Men, such as Milt Kahl), drawing the simple shapes he's built out of.
I hope this helps :)
Here's my quick stab at sketching a monkey-leopard creature. My sad attempt at remembering what a cats hind limbs look like ended up making my creature look like he has some goofy frog legs. I'm looking forward to learning about animal anatomy and working on dynamic and interesting shapes and poses.
Hey everyone and David, thank you for making this lovely course. I've always liked drawing creatures and I'd love to know how to give more dynamic or life-ness to my creature along the way.
In this first assignment, since the primary animal is primate/ape, my instinct tells me to mix it with other arboreal animal, in this case two-toed sloth. Although this is not a concept class for sure, I'd love to incorporate some of the real function of each limbs and apply knowledge from your class. I did my best to draw it from imaginations after doing tooooonsss of studies haha.
Really enjoy the class so far, looking forward to the next lessons!
ohhh nice! I like how natural this combination is looking. Each part of the separate animals is really coming together well and it's feeling like a creature/cryptid that you could find somewhere out in the wild. Wouldn't want to encounter it myself though haha
here are my attempts for the first assignment. I tried different things: wasp, sloth, squirrel, chameleon.
But I remembered you said it could be anything, so my mind chose a balloon baboon! hehe
On the other hand, I don't remember enough the anatomy of the baboon... :)
I really hope to improve the dynamic side. It's like my brain is always stuck at the static conceptual point! I think this course will help me!!
Thanks @DavidColman!
Hi @David Colman and fellow creature-students.
I just purchased the course, so im a little bit late, but here are my drawings for the first assignment. Its the first online-course that im doing while its beeing released and with a lot of active students so im a bit nervous, but also very exited and ready to learn a lot.
I did a mixture of a anglerfish and a gorilla (because its the ape ive studied most in the past). I had a lot of fun inventing this creature. I tried to implement some of the tips from the video and also tried to implement some things from the Drawing with live, energy and story and the "Fundamentals of Character Design"-course (wich im going through at the moment) aswell.
Looking at my drawings now i notice that i didnt use any dynamic angles, only some front and side-views. That is something will try to consider next time.
Tips or any kind of feedback would be very appreciated.
Greetings Linus
Hi David - I gave this a go but couldn't really get anywhere without reference (?) Feel like there's so much information to each animal that I couldn't possibly recall enough to even get through a sketch without knowing the subject that well... Is that kind of the point, or would you recommend just trying to push through anyway and seeing what happens? Thanks!
Hi, here is my first assignment. i tried a very basic Ape but i addet some Plants. It was a challange though to draw an ape with no reference. If someone got any Tips, pleas feel free to help me. Greatings Vincent
Hi! Here is my assignment. Tried a variety of things: cat, bat, mouse, fishman(?), etc. Looking forward to this course, really hoping to improve the creativity and making the creatures more dynamic.
I just did my first assignment for this course. I tried to do a fun little mixture of a monkey with a bettle morph thing going on here. This lovely creature can fly and swing and feeds off of light sources. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this course of yours takes me in creature design David Colemen. Looking forward to this journey. I chose to take your class because I wanna get back into physical drawing again. Also, I have always wanted to learn to create animals as well with a fantasy theme attached to them. Hope ya like it Mr Colemen.
Water apes! I thought I could try a mix between a gibbon/lesser ape and a platypus. But in hindsight, he just looks like a monkey with webbed hands and feet.
Anyway! Really looking forward for what will come in this course. I like your take on subtleties and believability and hope to bring some of that into my own work as we go on.
Thank you for this David!
Illustrator working in film as a designer and storyboard artist- known as the "animal guy" for my passion for doodling animals. insta @davidsdoodles
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For this assignment, you'll be creating creature designs from imagination, using no reference materials.
Just like in the Roadmap lesson, you'll be creating a primarily ape-based creature with additional design elements. You could create an ape-crab hybrid, an ornithologically-inspired orangutan, or even a botanical bonobo! The possible combinations are endless.
The goal of this assignment is to create a starting point and provide something to look back on as the course progresses.