Succesful Creature Concept Art.

[Atastrophea]

Ok, hope this is in sort of the right place, I tend to lurk in the background admiring everyones work normally so not au fait on forum conventions I'm afraid!

SO, a plea for help from everyone. (especially creature concept artists who do it for a living!)

I'm wrestling with my dissertation at the moment. I'm working on the theme "what makes 'good' creature concept art" I'm focusing on animalistic, beast type designs, rather than humanoid/character design and looking at both 2d & 3d forms, but only at the concept art stage.

Problem is, I'm finding it hard to find reading matter on the subject. So any book reccomendations please?

also thoughts on "the golden rules of creature concept art" and who are the most succesfull creature concept artists and why (i.e. how do you gauge thier success) would be very welcome. What do you think are KEY pieces of creature concept artwork (links please?!)

I understand that if there was a simple "how to" guide to follow, we'd all have it easy and nobody would ever suffer any self doubt etc. I'm not expecting to write 5,000 words that suddenly make it all simple! just have to write a well structured argument about factors that effect the success of a piece of creature concept artwork and back it up with plenty of well referenced research. :x :xpld:

God I hate writing essays. They suck the fun out of a topic - why cant we just have discussions instead???? why?!

anyway thanks for your help, I'm a desperate woman! ;)

[MattVogt]

No books come to mind but what I've found is:


All creature design is based from real creatures. Therefore proper study of such is required
Combinations of creatures works well (especially if you read the first point) only if there's a predominating one that ties everything together. This is called Unity of Design


There's some tidbits in the wiki too.. http://www.conceptart.org/wiki

[Atastrophea]

thanks :) this link from Wiki was very helpful:

http://www.turtleart.net/artists.php

looks like its from somewhere on here to me.

Anyone else feeling helpful? even if you just want to point and laugh at the unfortunate student having to write stoopid dissertation it will help - I could use the moral support ;))

[Justin.]

Look up M.C. Barrett.

He is, without a doubt in my mind, the best creature concept designer in the video game industry right now. He fuses real animals in a believable and extraordinary way to create compelling little critters that are both original, realistic and completely believable. paired with his artistic Prowess, he is a dynamo.
He posts on these forums too, he works at ArenaNet (Guild Wars). I don't know how portfolio site, though.

[Atastrophea]

Thank you :)

[Seedling]

Wayne Douglas Barlow would be another good person to research. A few decades back he wrote and illustrated a book called "Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials" that may have been the inspiration for every other creature artist since.

[Atastrophea]

very helpful thanks!!! :)

[bonaparte_jones]

I am by no means a professional, but I second Seedling's suggestion of "Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials." Also check out his "Expedition" which turned into animal planet's "Alien Planet."

[Jake Kobrin]

I remember Alien Planet! There was absolutely no scientific fact in there so it was really all bull shit but the art and creatures were cool!

[Silvertone]

You could check out Terryl Whitlatch too. She was majoring in vertebrate zoology, then switched to illustration. Not a bad background for a creature designer.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/bts/profile/f19990210/index.html

[Weeda]

I remember reading something about Bobby Chiu's "Creature Sketches". It seemed like it might be pretty helpful, but it's sold out.

However, here's a link to a tutorial he posted from the book: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=199&t=360426

[Funkyskull]

I cant believe nobody mentioned Lorne Lannings (sp?) Oddworld.
I got his book and its AWESOME.