The Wildlife of STARWARS

I was recently introduced to this book... and believe it or not, it's going on here because I liked it.

Admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of Star Wars itself as I've only watched the films say maybe once or twice, but that doesn't deny me the act of falling in love with this artist and this book. 

'The Wildlife of STAR WARS A Field Guide' is a book packed with different creatures from up to and covering Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, showing in-depth descriptions of each creature such as movements, life style and how they interact with other species within the world.

Each creature is described in high detail with information such as where it comes from and how it survives, but what fascinated me the most was the massive amount of detail the artist had gone into trying to show the reader exactly what the creature actually looked like. There are anatomy drawings showing muscle and skeletal structure, showing exactly how the body of a specific animal can hunt or move the way it does, and also showing a detailed overview of the skin and fur/ feathers on top.

This is a far higher level of information on a creature design than I've seen before, and instantly I needed to find out the artist of this book, and find out her ways of working!

...bat with an orange update!

The orange loving bat is being coloured in....

I'm really happy with how its turning out so far, its the first time i've really tried to put a bit of perspective into my work, and with the harsh light from the sun coming in from the top right I think it'll be a successful personal piece.

Got a lot to do concerning background, as It's pretty empty at the moment, but will concentrate on that once I'm completely happy with the lighting upfront on the bat and apple, and will once again post up any more progress! 

Paul Richards Concept Artist

 

This is a piece by Paul Richards.

I was introduced to this artist through a friend, and instantly understood why he found Richards such an interesting figure to check out.

Paul Richards is a concept artist currently situated in Seattle, USA. He's worked in a variety of different studios such as Blizzard Entertainment and 3D Realms, but is most famously known for his concept work produced for Vigil Games on 'Darksiders', where you play the role of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Unfortunately after Darksiders II being released the series was stopped due to Vigial Games falling through shortly after. (Depressing times for myself who like the games!)

Nevertheless this doesn't stop the huge appreciation for this artists work that I have! 

Creating individual designs with highly intricate detail, Paul Richards creations always have a sense of personality and life, with perfect posing and perspective. My favorite pieces are the creature designs such as the horse from Darksiders and dragons that pop up throughout Richard's work, which I have recently been using as influence for my own work! 

 

There is also a really helpful amount of information on Richards blog, where he explains is own work flow and gives hints and tips to other artists. One very handy tip I read was that even with symmetrical creatures they will still always have slight differences on either sides; changes in horns or detail on skin creates a more realistic view to an otherwise 'too perfect' design. 

This kind of approach made me think of how my creature can have have slight differences made to the original design to make them look more natural, especially things like broken teeth and different length tentacles on my creature, so I'll take this into account later on whilst modelling!

It's likely I'll write more about this guy in the future... because of how amazing his drawings are. 

Check out Paul Richards!