Insects and macro work in general is a popular subject for photographers, painters and even sculptors like myself. As a creature designer I get asked to create all kinds of insects and insect-inspired creatures. To produce really convincing concepts you need to know how a living thing works, and in the case of insects you have a number of advantages. Firstly, they all have the same basic body plan (roughly), so you only have to learn that once. Secondly, the reference material is all around you and you can get stunning reference images using just an iPhone these days.
For this type of project, I spend a lot of time researching the overall subject and then hone in on the actual species, in this case it was the humble bumblebee.
In this tutorial, I will focus on doing colour roughs to establish the basic look of the creature, and will also talk a little about basic insect anatomy – which, as I mentioned earlier, you only have to learn once as most insects have similar body plans, with a few modifications for their individual requirements.
Let’s start off by refreshing our knowledge on the basic body plan of a bee.
1 Basic anatomy – head, thorax and abdomen
An insect has very specific features that distinguish it from other invertebrate groups such as spiders, earthworms, sponges, jellyfish, lobsters, crabs, snails etc. The main features are: a hard outer skeleton (exoskeleton); they all have a threepart body made up of head, thorax, abdomen; six legs usually coming from the thorax; a pair of antennae; and if they have wings, most will have four. If the creature you are looking at has those characteristics, then you will most likely be dealing with an insect.
Bu hikaye ImagineFX dergisinin July 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye ImagineFX dergisinin July 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Jan Wessbecher
Dominic Carter talks to the visual artist about creating his own comic and why sketchbooks are great for creative experiments
Kyounghwan Kim
The Korean character concept artist speaks to Dominic Carter about staying open to ideas and the value of drawing regularly
Slawek Fedorczuk
Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist about what keeps him motivated and the advantages of using physical sketchbooks.
Raquel M. Varela
Raquel is inspired by magic, fantasy and fairy tales. She loves designing female characters from distant worlds. \"My greatest reference is Loish's art, thanks to her I learned to draw the movement and fluidity I like to convey.\"
Estrela Lourenço
Estrela is a children's book author and illustrator. Her work is influenced by her background in character animation and storyboards for clients such as Cartoon Network, and she channels comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.
Daria Widermanska
Daria, also known as Anako, has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Inspired by Disney and classic anime, she loves creating new characters and often finds that a single sketch can spark a unique story.
Allen Douglas
Allen has been painting professionally since 1994 for the publishing and gaming industries. Inspired by folklore, he distorts the size, relationships and environments of animals, and calls his paintings 'unusual wildlife'.
Thaddeus Robeck
Thaddeus has been drawing from the moment he could hold a pencil, but it was the 2020 lockdowns that gave him the time to focus on honing his skills.
DRAW FASCINATING SYMBOLIC ARTWORK
Learn how JULIÁN DE LA MOTA creates a composition from his imagination with a focus on crafting figures, volumetric modelling, and light and shadow
First Impressions
The artist talks about his journey into the mythological world