There and Back Again

Somehow time has managed to fly by and plonk me straight into the start of 4th year of Computer Arts. It's been quite a journey up till this point, but this really is the year of years; the big one, the one we've all been waiting for!

When it came to deciding what it was that I wanted to focus on for this year, a couple of things stuck out to me; namely graphic novels and creature design. The graphic novel part gives me a place to bring the creatures I would create truly to life and give them context, whilst giving me the choice of developing my own story or basing it on an already existing idea. Creature design in itself is a huge topic, but perfect for a 4th year project, as it allows so much free reign. I am also quite keen on fitting in album and book covers into the project, as those are avenues I would like to see myself in in the future.

 But of course, the first question I need to ask myself is why creatures? Now, I prefer to work via lists and create a train of thought through that, before rounding it up in a sort of conclusion; it's just the way I feel works best for me, as opposed to mind maps and the like. So, back to the question of why creatures?
- creatures add vibrancy to a world and bring it to 'life'
- many creatures are relatable to our world, making them believable, even if imaginary
- there's an almost complete freedom with design
- creatures find a part in most media: games, books, films, etc.
- creatures are just the most appealing thing to me to want to create and I want to focus my 4th year towards something which means a lot to me and will show my talents off in their best light

The graphic novel part of the project is not set at this point in time, it is just something that I am very interested in (having created my own one for my Advanced Higher Art in 6th year of high school), and gives a platform to place my creatures on. The advantage of the graphic novel idea is that I can use pre-existing stories focusing on creatures so that I can put most of my effort into the design and concepting side of things rather than the story side. This leads me to my next thought, which is that I am interested in folklore and would be keen to study into it and gain a lot more than just my base knowledge as it stands. Folklore often involves creatures of some kind, so in this way, it seems like the perfect way to start, as more often than not, the creatures in folklore are loosely described, leaving much open to interpretation. For example, dragons could be described as reptilian creatures with four limbs and two wings, but other than that are very adaptable to the creator's needs. Further still, dragons can then have off-shoots into the sub-species of wyverns and wyrms etc.

At this point in time I like the thought that one of my end products would be a sort of bestiary, a monster manual if you will. I am very fond of art books and especially books that focus on creatures of course! At this point in time, I think it would be good to look at my inspirations and influences that I have attained over the years, before I delve deeper into the topic I have chosen to research. My main influences for this project include:
- the American artist Terryl Whitlatch
- games such as Monster Hunter, Pokemon and Evolve
- films such as Pacific Rim, Avatar and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,
- books such as the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and the Edge Chronicles series' by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

What I love about creatures in books is that they are left open to the reader's interpretation, just as characters and environments are, and how a creature looks will be different from person to person. For example, The Hungarian Horntail dragon from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has been imagined in two main ways: firstly by the original cover of the book; and secondly by it's rendition in the film. Looking at the two versions, you would never be able to tell they were taken from the same description (although I would complain that the movie version is most definitely a wyvern, not a dragon, which seems to be a common faux pas in films these days).

Hungarian Horntail comparison

So which is better? Well, that depends what you're judging it on: closest to the book description?; technical detail? In both these cases I would have to begrudgingly say the film version is better, but I do have a certain nostalgic attachment to the book version, what with it being one of my favourite books and inspiration for how I first properly got into drawing dragons. Regardless of which is 'better' however, both still have equal value as a rendition of the creature and that is my point; it doesn't matter how the creature looks, as long as it appeals to the audience and shows creativity from the artist.

At this point, I would like to take the opportunity to create my own rendition of the Hungarian Horntail based on it's description:
'It has black scales, and is lizard-like in appearance. It also has yellow eyes, bronze horns and similarly coloured spikes that protrude from its long tail. The dragon's roar is a yowling, screeching scream, and its flame can reach to about fifty feet.'

Hungarian Horntail sketch

I based my Hungarian Horntail design off of actual horned lizards for a more realistic look.

This leads me back in a circle to the interest in folklore I was speaking of, where the creatures have an original description, but have been moulded and altered to fit in with artist's needs for images, films, etc. Every country has it's own folklore revolving around creatures, so this is where the new research comes in. I will start by looking at Wikipedia (though I know it is not a reputable source for quoting in essays, it is never the less useful for finding out information quickly and perhaps leading me to other external sources.), through various folklores that take my interest. To this end, I have ordered a number of books that look into a variety of folklores, so hopefully they will be helpful and fruitful in assisting my project along. In the mean time I shall continue to look for more books and research more into the graphic novel aspect of my project, as well as tutorials from Terryl Whitlatch that look as though they will be really insightful:

http://talesofamalthea.com/