Creature/character design studies - Terryl Whitlatch.

Before I begin, here is a sketch of a baby honey dragon.

Terryl Whitlatch is perhaps one of the more well-known creature designers and has worked on films such as the recent "Alice in Wonderland" and "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace". Her works have the distinction of looking incredibly believable as they are based around real animal anatomy.

I recently received a book by Terryl Whitlatch, "The Principles of Creature Design". I've already had "The Science of Creature Design" for some time now and have done a lot of drawings from said book over the last few days to try and drum animal anatomy (particularly tetrapod anatomy) into my head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also been watching a lot of animal documentaries and taking notes. Recently I've realised that just copying a lot of animal anatomy studies wasn't going to help me learn it properly as the workflow is repetitive and my brain tunes it out after a while, the same with human anatomy studies. There is also the issue that Terryl herself covers, that you need to keep your ideas spontaneous and fresh.

 I decided not to do studies from "The Principles of Creature Design" in that case, but instead just read through it and look closely at the creatures she had created. What I find interesting is how similar her approach to creature design is to mine. She usually thinks of the personality first and then builds the creature around it while taking in mind the environment it lives in. She explains how the "why" of the creature is important and how it affects its environment and the story it is in. She also goes on to say that it is important not to get too formulaic and stick to the formulas of "what makes a character look cool/popular" as this has stagnated the creativity of other creature designers. She also uses the example of how the traditional "Disney style" has become somewhat formulaic and good want to find what is new and fresh.

This is reassuring to me since it means I don't need to learn any "magic formulas" when it comes to character creation, rather I just have to create them with common sense. I will still continue to see how other people design their creatures and characters, but I won't try to regiment the design process too much by trying to figure out what appeals to people. I am also going to design creatures in a more spontaneous way rather than going on these study marathons so that the information is more likely to sink in. Hopefully this will mean more finished pieces and less sketches.