Concept Art Creatures
This lesson was built from scratch to tie in with the drawing students' interest in films and computer graphics. To begin, as a class we viewed portions of movies which were heavy with special effects and watched some of the "making of" segments concerning these films. We explored the process of bringing unreal creatures and characters to life on the big screen and used books and the internet to research this process.
The students were asked to come up with a creature that could fit into a film of their chosen genre which they would then design. All of the movie creatures began with pencil and paper as a concept sketch prior to films, and so would this project. Students were required to answer a list of questions about their creature including its diet, habitat, adaptations, etc. to help them get a better feel for how this specific and unique creature should be represented. This portion of the lesson tied in with the sciences, including biology and a zoology course which was also offered at this particular high school.
To begin creating their creature students had to choose images of real animals to use as reference when building their new creation. Once references were chosen, it was time to begin drawing out their new animal as a sketch. Their final pieces were to be completed on an 12 x 18 sheet of watercolor paper, colored using watercolor pencils, and explained just like a panel for a real concept sketch would be done.
The students were asked to come up with a creature that could fit into a film of their chosen genre which they would then design. All of the movie creatures began with pencil and paper as a concept sketch prior to films, and so would this project. Students were required to answer a list of questions about their creature including its diet, habitat, adaptations, etc. to help them get a better feel for how this specific and unique creature should be represented. This portion of the lesson tied in with the sciences, including biology and a zoology course which was also offered at this particular high school.
To begin creating their creature students had to choose images of real animals to use as reference when building their new creation. Once references were chosen, it was time to begin drawing out their new animal as a sketch. Their final pieces were to be completed on an 12 x 18 sheet of watercolor paper, colored using watercolor pencils, and explained just like a panel for a real concept sketch would be done.