The Beast- Werecupine
polycounter lvl 11
"Tale as old as time, Song as old as rhyme..."
...Wereporcupine...
Yep. So that's where I'm at. I love folktales and the mysticalness of creatures like Bigfoot; The wonder and fear they provoke in people who believe. However, in stories like Beauty and the Beast, Harry and the Hendersons, Ludo from the Labyrinth, the Iron Giant, etc, these seemingly monstrous beast may not be as ferocious as they appear. The outside does not always reflect the inside.
The Story:
In the case of the werecupine, I'm calling Quilson, his very dangerous and threatening appearance frighten the nearby townspeople who spin cautionary tales of this beast to their children to stay far away from the woods. But little do they know, Quilson is a docile beast with an attraction for shiny, colorful things. One day a single balloon escapes a backyard party and floats towards the woods. When Quilson finds it, he becomes enamored with it and ventures into the town to find more of these beautiful balloons. Tragically, he finds out very quickly how a wretched beast like himself can never keep these beautifully delicate delights.
The Beast:
He is the size of a bear with lots of huge quills and sharp claws. He has thick skin and many scars from fights with other woodland predators and humans looking to hunt him. Once he finds his way into the backyard party, his clumsy nature results in becoming covered in party decorations and popped balloons. Much like a bear will follow the scent of food into a yard/campsite.
The Model:
I have a lot of challenges with this one. The main one will be how to make a beast with no clothes/armor seem equally as cool to look at as some of the other entries. I don't want him to seem "simple." After thinking about it for a while, I came up with a few ideas:
- Lots of asymmetry. Every inch of him should feel unique to itself. You see it a lot with sculptors who work in clay for movies and such. They don't have a symmetry tool with clay. This may be stressful when it comes to the texture layout but I think it will be worth it.
- Material contrast. He will have a lot of nature driven elements with skin, fur, quills, dirt, etc. and I think the party debris on his back and pedestal will allow for the "manmade" elements, mylar, paper, plastic, latex, etc. In the spirit of the theme, Man vs Beast.
-Color contrast. Looking through images of porcupines has me thinking he will be mostly black and white/neutral. The party elements will be full of color. (this plays in nicely with the beauty and the beast theme I think).
-Fantasy vs real world. He can be as crazy as I want him to look because the human elements will give the final piece something to relate to. These party decorations will also help sell his size.
-Emotion. I want this guy to have a lot of emotion in his face. I want the viewer to feel his torment.
Anyway, that's enough words for now. Here are my image boards!
Mood
Inspiration
Ref
...here we go...
...Wereporcupine...
Yep. So that's where I'm at. I love folktales and the mysticalness of creatures like Bigfoot; The wonder and fear they provoke in people who believe. However, in stories like Beauty and the Beast, Harry and the Hendersons, Ludo from the Labyrinth, the Iron Giant, etc, these seemingly monstrous beast may not be as ferocious as they appear. The outside does not always reflect the inside.
The Story:
In the case of the werecupine, I'm calling Quilson, his very dangerous and threatening appearance frighten the nearby townspeople who spin cautionary tales of this beast to their children to stay far away from the woods. But little do they know, Quilson is a docile beast with an attraction for shiny, colorful things. One day a single balloon escapes a backyard party and floats towards the woods. When Quilson finds it, he becomes enamored with it and ventures into the town to find more of these beautiful balloons. Tragically, he finds out very quickly how a wretched beast like himself can never keep these beautifully delicate delights.
The Beast:
He is the size of a bear with lots of huge quills and sharp claws. He has thick skin and many scars from fights with other woodland predators and humans looking to hunt him. Once he finds his way into the backyard party, his clumsy nature results in becoming covered in party decorations and popped balloons. Much like a bear will follow the scent of food into a yard/campsite.
The Model:
I have a lot of challenges with this one. The main one will be how to make a beast with no clothes/armor seem equally as cool to look at as some of the other entries. I don't want him to seem "simple." After thinking about it for a while, I came up with a few ideas:
- Lots of asymmetry. Every inch of him should feel unique to itself. You see it a lot with sculptors who work in clay for movies and such. They don't have a symmetry tool with clay. This may be stressful when it comes to the texture layout but I think it will be worth it.
- Material contrast. He will have a lot of nature driven elements with skin, fur, quills, dirt, etc. and I think the party debris on his back and pedestal will allow for the "manmade" elements, mylar, paper, plastic, latex, etc. In the spirit of the theme, Man vs Beast.
-Color contrast. Looking through images of porcupines has me thinking he will be mostly black and white/neutral. The party elements will be full of color. (this plays in nicely with the beauty and the beast theme I think).
-Fantasy vs real world. He can be as crazy as I want him to look because the human elements will give the final piece something to relate to. These party decorations will also help sell his size.
-Emotion. I want this guy to have a lot of emotion in his face. I want the viewer to feel his torment.
Anyway, that's enough words for now. Here are my image boards!
Mood
Inspiration
Ref
...here we go...
Replies
Anyone else having this problem?
Here is a WIP of the blockout. I like to concept as I go. I had the idea of the party deco pieces acting like clothing for some parts. Ex. maybe he snags a table cloth and it becomes a cloak like element. punctured and twisted by the quills.
Anyway, just started base anatomy stuff tonight...
Minor updates. Was messing around with ideas and fur but tossed most of it out. So for now just updated the body a bit more, and tried out the snagged cloth. It's easy enough to say the towns people attempted to throw the table cloth over his head to blind or subdue him... and failed. So I'm not worried about how it got in that position so much as does it benefit the asymmetry or not. Still deciding, might try other positions for it. maybe have one that drapes over the head more. After that I'm gonna start adding moles, large pores and hairs to various spots on him to see how they feel. Need to get this blockout finished faster.
Thanks!
Here is a quick pose idea. Another one I want to try is him holding the balloon in both hands. We shall see.