I knew from the get go that I wanted to design multiple mythical creatures, similar to a project that I did in college. Since I found that project fun I did it again but this time I designed less creatures but I put more effort into them as I took two different creatures and merged them together.
First thing I did was to look up multiple different creatures, some simple like a Vampire and some a bit crazy, like a Nuckelavee which is like a zombie centaur made up of sewn together parts.
In the end I decided to settle with a Centaur, Dullahan, Hafgufa, Leviathan, Griffin, Behemoth, Baku and a Haetae.
To make them more interesting and because 8 was too many for me to do I decided to merge them together. I merged the Centaur with a Dullahan, Hafgufa with a Leviathan, Griffin with Haetae and the Bethemoth with the Baku.
I first started with the Centaur because I have never really drawn horses before, it took a while but I managed to get the hang of drawing horses to a decent extent.
I very quickly decided to make the Centaur produce a black mist similar to the Dullahan from Durarara!!, this is to make the lack of head not look so boring and to make it look creepier.
I very quickly decided I wanted my Centaur to be female because strangely enough when looking up centaurs I rarely found female ones. I also found drawing a muscular female to fit the dutch heavy draft horse body quite fun.
I didnt really look at clothing them at first because I wanted to get the other features out the way first.
Next I started looking at the whale, I looked up multiple types of whale whilst trying to figure out what type of whale to use for my Hafgufa, I looked at a Bowhead Whale, North Atlantic right whale, Blue whale, Bryde's whale and a Humpback Whale. In the end I decided to mix them up to create my own type of whale and I think it looks good.
Here I was thinking of designing the Centaur's hair like a show horse but I later decided that I was spending too much time on the Centaurs head even though you wouldn't see it.
I also at one point wanted to design a 5th creature but I scraped the idea fairly quickly as I realised I didnt have the time.
Here I started working on the Baku, trying to figure out how to make its body, a Baku looks similar to a Tapir, so I looked to tapir's when trying to deisgn it but they looked too gentle especially considering its a Behemoth, so I decided to model its body (at least at the start) off of a Rhino.
Here I started working on the Griffin, at first I wanted to make it look like an Owl because I have a weird love for owls but after developing it for a while it ended up not being an Owl. But here I was drawing different Owls, like how I was with the whale. I looked at a Barn owl, long eared owl, tawney owl and a great grey owl.
Here I was looking at bones/skull structures for the griffin and baku. I looked at two different ways the Griffins horn could be attached.
In these notes I was thinking of what Biome to make each of the creatures from, to make it easier to design them.
Because I decided to make the Whale a sand whale with an Oasis on its back instead of an island I started looking at traits it could have (like long lashes and a second transparent eyelid to keep sand out of its eyes) as well as how it would disguise itself when it was stationary. I decided it would pull its tail up and over to look like a Rock arch.
Here I was yet again back to designing the Centaur's face as well as its weapon that was sadly enough not used in the end.
This was back before I decided to keep the centaurs head on their head, so I was thinking of ways they could hold their head.
Here I was looking at the Baku's face and I love the way it looks, he's very scary but you cant really tell when his eyes and mouth are closed.
I wanted to figure out how the Whale would move through the sand so I drew a few pictures of him using Plasticine models to help me draw the whale from different angles
I also drew its open mouth to show its a filter feeder.
Out of all of the creatures I designed the Baku was my least favourite because I found it the hardest to design, I wanted to have the mist leaking out but I couldn't get it to look as good at I wanted.
In the end I got rid of the mist and changed it to a puffy chest and cheeks as well as bring back the scary face.
Here is the Centaurs final armor, design as well as when I was trying to give it some type of hook to hang its head from the body but I decided to scrap it because I couldn't get it to look right.
Here I was trying to figure out how the armor on the Horses but would look and I also drew ideas for the griffins feathers
I decided to use my DnD characters to show the creatures scale and to give them something to interact with.
These 4 images were the ones that after a bit of development became the design of the final images.
Figuring out names for the creatures.
