With the goal of preparing for the creation of new graphical assets, I’m starting this series of sketchbook entries. Every week, I’ll be sharing some of the concept art that I’m working on. I hope you’ll like them!
I need to get in very good practice for drawing animals and plants, especially as I prepare to animate them. It’s quite important to me to understand how the bones and muscles of animals work so I can create a realistic and believable motion. Unlike real animals, I can’t look up pictures or skeleton diagrams of the creatures I create, so building a body of work with multiple references is necessary. The sketchbook should help me enrich this body of work.
Today I’m sharing some spring-like sketches on a grassland background. I can almost feel the equinox coming 🙂.
Damaged Tree Lookout
This idea came to me when I was thinking of how arborians could explore an area. As tree dwellers, I think they would instinctively seek out high vantage points and climb them for a better look around.
This was really fun to sketch out. I enjoy trying to figure out how the arborian body adjusts to different terrain. Recently, I’ve been gravitating towards a broader and sturdy upper body. I have cats as pets, so I naturally tend to draw arborians with catlike features, but I’m trying to get away from that. While cats can climb trees, they are primarily terrestrial and their legs and skeleton are good at moving along land.
But arborians are only semi-terrestrial and spend a lot of time on trees, so I’m shifting to a strong upper body and more simian back legs. I like the hunched look the stronger forelimbs create, it makes arborians look less familiar and more alien.
Elder Tree
I want to create some trees that are larger and older looking, this is an experiment with that theme.
Arborial Dig
Arborians are multi-talented. They are good at climbing, running, swimming, diving, and digging. They often use their paws to dig for food, or to plant trees. I fully plan on having a digging animation in the game, so this was a first attempt at what it might look like.
Arborlands 