My Process 01: Painting a Creature Design From Start to Finish

Here Is a Demo of a creature design I am currently Working on for a FB contest.

1.  Getting Big Ideas Out: Napkin sketch: I call my first attempts at creating a design the napkin sketch. It implies rapid drawing where the big ideas are of concern and details are ignored. It isn't something you show to people but is a personal  way to get  ideas out to see if they work in a general way.

 Version two of a napkin sketch but massing in big shapes instead of just line. This one is slightly more developed. I do napkin sketches until I am satisfied with the general idea.

This is the final iteration of the napkin sketch. I am satisfied with the overall idea and can move ahead. Note: After several iterations of sketching the design, I have become very familiar with it. This familiarity is paramount if I want to have a smooth process from beginning to end.

02. Form Exploration , Correction , Familiarity and the Three  P's : After I finish the napkin sketch stage, I need to explore and correct the forms so that the details I add later will work. The degree in which I am familiar with my idea determines how much effort I put into this stage. On a rating scale of familiarity I would say I was about a 3 out of 5. I still needed some exporting to do. Here, I started with putting in the skeleton at the core of the design. This helps to better understand the 3 P's: The body's  Plan, Posture, and Proportion.

I continue the form exploration to the surface with the muscles. Please keep in mind I am already familiar with anatomy.  I need to get the big idea out. This means I don't need much detail to work with . There is a lot going on and being brief and simple is important. I recommend getting very familiar with anatomy before trying to be brief. Know all the details first then simplify later.

03. Rendering: Once I have made corrections and  familiarized myself even further with the design, I am ready to render. I start rendering basic forms first and with multiple passes, I further refine them. The front half is my first pass while the back half is the second pass. Note: there is a big just in the beginning passes but as you see not so much in the later ones.

The second pass is completed for the back half.

I begin to render the second pass for the front side. The black dot in the center indicates where I am going to work next after  I complete this pass.

Second pass is completed for the front side.

Started the Third pass. please toggle back and forth between the images to see the difference.

Third Pass Complete.

Post Processing with Instagram Rise Filter.