Creature Anatomy with Terryl Whitlatch: Lesson 9: The Narrative Illustration — Part 2 — "Hunting"

The final week of Creature Anatomy with Terryl Whitlatch! Our assignment was to finish the capstone project. I experimented with an unusual colour palette. I usually go for bright, saturated warm colours. This time I tried more muted, cool colours. Also, this is the first time I have produced a full, traditional under-drawing, rather than jumping into digital too soon. I quite like the effect but I could develop the background further to make it more immersive — at the moment it appears like an unfinished sketch. The scale of the dinobird was hard to achieve. The prey is a dragonfly from the Carboniferous period, they were lot larger than contemporary dragonflies! It's hard not to see the dragonfly as a modern size, making the dinobird appear very small.

Narrative Illustration: Hunting

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References

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Initial Sketches

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Development

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Thanks for reading!
Rosemary.

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www.rosemaryartist.com

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Creature Anatomy with Terryl Whitlatch: Lesson 8: Complex Poses and Problem Areas

This week was a nice change of pace again. After producing orthographic views of creature designs for the past 6 weeks it was great to sink my teeth into some more dynamic poses. I chose to focus on Greyhound and horse anatomy because they are what I find the most challenging. Below I have produced sketches to study and analyse more dynamic and complex poses, such as running or seated. Horses act quite like dogs sometimes!

Horse and Canine Anatomy: Complex Poses and Problem Areas

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References

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Thanks for reading!
Rosemary.

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www.rosemaryartist.com

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Creature Anatomy with Terryl Whitlatch: Lesson 7: The Narrative Illustration — Part 1 (work in progress)

This week was a bit of a change of pace. The assignment was to produce thumbnails for a final narrative illustration featuring one of the creature designs created in previous weeks. I chose to illustrate my Harpymimus-Bustard dinobird hybrid. The most challenging part is trying to compose the image with as much interest and dynamism and visual storytelling to create an engaging illustration. I could do with persevering with the thumbnails. The dinobird appears to be too static in many of my composition ideas.

References

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Thumbnails

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Thanks for reading!
Rosemary.

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www.rosemaryartist.com

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Creature Anatomy with Terryl Whitlatch: Lesson 6: Elephant Anatomy

Week six was all about elephant anatomy. It's amazing looking beneath the surface at how adapted the elephants' skeletons are in order to carry their huge bulk. I can't quite get my head around how they essentially walk on their tip-toes! I spliced a Red River Hog with an Indian Elephant to create quite a big friendly giant. I will pursue this idea further - I want to see how it looks in the beautiful rust colour of the Red River Hog.

Elephant-Pig Hybrid: Indian Elephant + Red River Hog

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References

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Initial Sketches

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Thanks for reading!
Rosemary.

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www.rosemaryartist.com

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Creature Anatomy with Terryl Whitlatch: Lesson 5: Hoofed Mammals

I really enjoyed this week. Horses are such a challenge to draw, but the more I draw them the more I'm starting to become accustomed to their highly specialised anatomy. The assignment this week was to combine a hoofed mammal with an animal studied in the previous weeks. I chose to combine an Akhal-Teke horse and a Saluki hound. Both orginating from the desert, I thought their sleek silhouettes designed for speed would complement each other. This is one of my favourite creature designs so far and I will definitely be developing it further.

Horse-Canine Hybrid: Arkhal-Teke + Saluki

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References

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Initial Sketches

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Thanks for reading!
Rosemary.

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www.rosemaryartist.com

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Creature Anatomy with Terryl Whitlatch: Lesson 4: Canine and Feline Anatomy

I had to draw another tiger-like creature. I just had to. The assignment this week was to combine either canine or feline anatomy with one of the animal groups studied previously. Feline and bird anatomies were quite challenging to combine because sticking wings on an existing animal is just not enough and ends up creating more of a 'chimeric' creature. There is more I could try to create more of a distinct creature, such as adding more unusual ears or exaggerating the feline claws to be closer to talons.

Feline-Bird Hybrid: Tiger + Kingfisher

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References

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Initial Sketches

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Thanks for reading!
Rosemary.

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www.rosemaryartist.com

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