For years I've been drawing fantasy creatures and so I have done a few more sketches of classic fantasy creatures like werewolves and vampires and am also part way through drawing a medusa drawing, which I need to ink it and complete it, so that I can scan it into the computer and colour it with some fantastic layers from Photoshop or maybe Gimp, I haven't decided yet.
Right now I am still focusing my efforts on some of my graphic novel pages and ideas for new pages, so that I can tie it all together and I'll show some sketches another day for that. but right now, lets take a look at some of my current fantasy creature sketches.
Now I haven't quite got my scanner working at the current time, but when I do, the drawings will look better, but for now, I've had to use my web cam and you can't fit all the sketch in fram, so I've tried to show you a couple of different parts of the sketches below, first up is werewolf head that I sketched and inked, I just wanted the side profile view, so that I could try and practice the long nosed dog like head of a werewolf, I think it turned out well, better with more practice.
Now, the other thing I did that I was quite pleased with was sketching a gargoyle and that was on the spur of the moment, after someone requested it on my youtube channel one day, so I quickly sketched a Gargoyle drawing and it looked ok and I sketched it in the typical crouching pose that we remember from the gargoyle statues that adorn many buildings around the world, I do have a gargoyle drawing tutorial planned, so look out for it.
I took 4 web cam photos of some of the parts of the sketch that I couldn't take a shot of all in one, so you see the following parts of the gargoyle a bit closer now....
Medusa is a classic greek monster that I always used to draw back as a kid after seeing Ray Harryhausens Clash of the Titans, always loved his stop motion creatures as I always tried to draw them. Medusa here has all the elements of the 70's Clash of the Titans that I wanted to keep, just have to finish off the inking, so that I could scan it in the computer for some cool computer colouring, this is not the first Medusa drawing I've done and it won't be the last as I've had a few requests to do a drawing tutorial, so I may opt for either a video one or one right here with the step by step pictures.
Again I've done 4 web cam shots to show all the parts, such as the head and the serpent like body with the classic rattle snake tail end, so you can see the main Medusa design elements I wanted to achieve.
I may show an update in the future about these drawings and any drawing tutorials that I come up with.
Also I'm trying to set up a mailing list so that you can sign up and be made aware of any blog updates such as new drawing tutorials and also a free ebook which you can download and read, I'm aiming for the angle of the ebook to inspire artists with fantasy art, I'll keep you posted!
Drawing a fantasy creature I did three drawing videos and so here I want to expand on it with more thoughts on the drawing process together with the videos. Drawing a fantasy creature is as much about tapping into your imagination as it is about seeing other artists work and gaing some moments of inspiration from them.
The videos below are in three stages of a drawing, first sketch, development sketch and almost final pencil sketch, the thing to remember when drawing naything is that you draw in stages,nothing should be directly drawn in detail at the beginning, because you should really get into the habit of planning a drawing first and seeing where it goes.
So the first video - First sketch is about laying the foundation of the drawing and seeing if it will work, I like this stage of drawing very much because, you can see how you're drawing and also you are building up the key elements of the art and that to me can be done with quick sketching or a more focused approach. The whole idea of drawing something is so that you'll be happy with the results and that you yourself drew it and can be proud of it, so plan your sketches out and if that means sketching small draft sketches on a scrap of paper beforehand then do so.
Often when I do these videos I'd prefer you to follow drawing them or really just watch to see how you draw them, because when I talk over the drawing process, it's hard to convey my thoughts all in one 3 to 4 minute video, the idea with the first sketch is like a sculpture, building a wire frame of the drawing and you go from there....
Watch the starting video....
Video 1 - Fantasy Creature Drawing
Now the second stage of the drawing process,the development sketch is really to work with what you've got and build upon the previous sketch, I prefer to darkenpencil lines and strengthen the figures or the form and structure of the creature so that I have a clear balance of the creature.
In this second drawing step I usually fill in some more details of the creature, such as muscles and other lines to suggest more muscle form and even other details like skin folds and creases and a slight bit of shading, once this step has been completed, the next part is to shade in the key areas that you want and make the drawing look more clearer.
Watch the second video...
Video 2 - Developing The Creature Drawing
In the last drawing video of drawing a fantasy creature we have to define the creatures form even further by adding shading and darkening the pencil lines even more and I did this sparingly as I didn't want to overwhelm the creature art too much with huge dark areas, you could do what you want with your creature art, but I preferred to have some sort of light source, even though the creature was probably in a darksewer as suggested by the water surround it, almost like it's just emerged from the filthy sewage water.
At the end of the video I'm happy with the result, although it's not a prefecly finished and polished piece of pencil art, the idea is there for finishing another day...
Watch the last video....
Video 3 - Creature Shading
I hope this drawing lesson/tutorial helped you in drawing your own fantasy creatures.
Any other drawing tutorial requests I'd be happy to help?
