I have been doing extensive studies for a species called the "whistling unicorn", so-called because of the whistling sound they make through their horns. They are the predecessors of modern unicorns in the Gretchen Goosander universe, though modern unicorns ended up going extinct while their ancestors survived due to their smaller size, making it harder for predators to find them. I intend these species to be somewhat goofy and playful looking. I previously had a go at drawing the species in earlier concepts, though I feel the ideas lack refinement. Below are links to the first whistling unicorn concept design and the later refined version.
One of the reasons as to why I am starting with the whistling unicorn species is down to the advice of Terryl Whitlatch. To quote her in her book, "The Science of Creature Design";
"Once you have a basic understanding of horse anatomy, all kinds of doors open up in creature design. It's the literal Pegasus that gets you to where you want to go. And enables you to fly". (Whitlatch, 2015).
Following her advice, I decided to go through this website, http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-breeds/ , and draw every single horse breed there is. On my travels, I found that several horses suited the look for the whistling unicorn. These include Newfoundland pony and miniature horses for the feathers for their tufts of hair, Shetland ponies for their feathered legs, Shagya Arabian foals for their build and Marwari mules for the oversized and tufted ears.
Below are many of my horse sketches, plus studies from Terry Whitlatch's book. I studied a wide range of horses including prehistoric horses. These sketches are all taken from photo references on Google and from "The Science of Creature Design."
I then blended all of these elements into the final whistling unicorn design.
I will eventually do a fully-realised version of this creature when I move to zbrush and Photoshop hybrids.
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