ETA: this post got away from me. I should have published it months ago, but got busy behind the scenes with other projects.
I am working on a secret project. In the mean time I have been working on designing characters and creatures said project. Creature designs are a new endeavor for me. I don’t really draw monsters and the like and when they get incorporated into my paintings, it is usually an afterthought.
To prep for these, I have been doing a lot of research into fantasy and game design books that were at my library. It gave me a lot of inspiration and ideas for how to approach the subject. I also took a page from my favorite cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra and often took inspiration from combining two animal designs and seeing what sticks. Sometimes I didn’t combine two animals but rather emphasis a more magical or fantastical element that they already had or could of had.
To also keep my inspiration going, I decided to participate in a color/art challenge that was going on through Instagram: April Colors. I’ll admit, I love Faunwood’s creature art along with Eva Funderburgh’s creature ceramics, so I am unabashed in any of my more obvious inspiration in designs.
This challenge gave me the push to really play with my Adobe Sketch and other digital art programs that I need to learn. I decided to stick with learning a gouache painting style and focused on trying to recreate a mostly believable painting style. Another challenge I wanted to give myself as I progress is that I wanted to really stretch my color palettes more. Hopefully that will happen (we’ll see)!
You can follow along on my instagram or see the art challenge by following the hashtags #aprilcolors2019.
Megan Frauenhoffer 