Will Drawing Sessions

We went up to the castle to do some studies on the animals there. Will instructed us to draw any two animals of our choice and then meld them together into a new creature.
I chose a tortoise and a seal.

The combination of them looks like a loch monster and this pleased me rather a lot. 

 I went on to create a bird dragon combination which I feel works well with this project as this is what LS0036 is.

More work BA6, Spec

I asked about with some of my work and I got some great feedback

This is really helpful, though- the full body is not something needed for this project. But it is something to keep in mind.

Anaimal Head Anatomy

Here are some reference photos I collecting of animals which should help me with my work.
I then went on the create an internal shot of how LS0036's head could work in realistic terms.
I know the basic shapes of her head closely relate to that of a horse as well as of course a dinosaur and a bird. 

Horses share the same large jawline that LS0036 possesses and this should be taken into account.This is a small feature but means a lot.

Dinosaur skulls and predator jaws should also be though about. how their teeth and eyes sit.
A predators eyes face more forward then those of a herbivore.

BA6, Spec Work

While I leapt ahead with my work in terms of collecting all my sketches and making more rough drawings of my chosen subject; LS0036's head, this isn't to say I did not have other creatures to pick from. I have in fact a huge collection and I took some time wondering what sort of head shape I specifically wanted out of all my monstrous beasties. 

This is a collection of side on 2D sketches I did of around half my designs which I felt were applicable to this project and were feasible to make within Zbrush. They are all of the monster, dinosaur, dragon, bird variety, with some having deer characteristics or the like- though I tried to stay away from fur covered animals as that would be horrendously hard to sculpt, rather then scales and feathers which are for me, more engaging.


Most of these draft images are all on the flat side on angle. 
This is a bit odd for me; I am used to drawing characters from a 3/4 angle. . . 

The Magic Angle

One of the reasons I am particularly attracted to drawing characters in a 3/4 angle is because of my attentive look on animation. Animators usually draw characters from this magical angle to avoid having two characters facing one another directly and excluding the viewer or, on the other side, having two characters facing the viewer which would exclude the character they were talking to or interacting with in the first place.

Having a pair of characters talking to each other in a flat view would allow for the viewer still to feel involved with them but without having the characters look like they are disinterested with each other.

Good examples of this can be seen within series like Futurama where these angles are used around 70% of the time.

However, in some styles this is not needed at all. Usually animations that have a lack of perspective or are stylistically indifferent. Things like South Park do not need to incorporate the characters facing each other at all as it works in a completely flat 2D style with barely any perspective work included.

In my work, which generally I draw in a derivative Disney animation type style, I use this magic angle most often when drawing my characters, human and creature alike.
However this does not mean I cannot draw them from either the side or front on- as I sometimes use these dead on angles for certain types of exaggeration or for certain types of expression that look best from one look to the other. 

Just some insight into my artwork.