This project tells the story of a small, winged creature – gentle yet strange – which holds the buried memories of a lonely house. Behind its smiling face lies a secret, well-kept, one that only the few tiny inhabitants still living in the house can truly see.
Creature design, for me, is by far one of the most creative parts of imaginative art. Whether you’re sketching with the best pencils for artists or blocking out forms in the best 3D modelling software, creatures can take any shape at all – kind, unsettling, or somewhere in between. It’s that sense of duality that makes them feel alive.
Each creature becomes a mirror of our own contradictions: fragile yet resilient, familiar yet unknowable. Every person, creature, or living being carries a private collection of emotions and memories that belong only to them. When we try to bring something to life on the page or in 3D, I think it’s important to honour the depth and complexity of the world we’re responding to.
I’m not trying to be overly technical. Instead, I want to concentrate on what matters most to me as an artist: the way of thinking. Technique comes through practice. A perfect line can exist, but without intention behind it, it says nothing at all.
01. Think about the project
Art is a visual language, but defining its path with words helps us find a clear direction. It’s often hard to know how to start the process of creation. You just have to dive in, scribble something, write down your intentions, and try to extract a part of yourself. A project often begins with a scratch on a blank page.
02. Bring words into sketches
The first sketch phase is, for me, the key part of a project. It’s the freest and creative, but also the most decisive for everything that follows. Here, your intention is at its strongest, and it’s crucial to keep it alive until the final step. I also use a lot of ‘automatic drawing’: simply letting the pencil wander and surprise me.
03. Find your inspirations
Once your ideas are on paper, it’s time to turn a vague thought into something tangible. Gather your inspirations, define the visual language: the era, the mood, and so on. I choose something nostalgic, strange, and lonely. For this project, much of my inspiration comes from theatre scenery, German expressionism, and fabric dolls that evoke childhood memories.
04. Get to know your character
Once your direction is clear, it’s time to really get to know your imaginary friend (or enemy). An important part of visual development for characters is understanding their attitudes, expressions, and hobbies. Now it’s time to play and bring your acting skills into practice and step into your character’s shoes!
05. From lines to volume
Next, make your creature real and give it form. Sculpting, for me, is a continuation of drawing, following the same rules of understanding volumes, blocking out main shapes first, and quickly capturing the core silhouette before refining the second and third passes of details. In my case, I keep the volumes very simple because the creature is covered in fur.
06. Add the details
Once the sculpt is finished in ZBrush, I bring it into Blender to add fur using the Native Geometry node system. I pay special attention to how the fur can add rhythm and flow to my creature's silhouette. I ensure the fur is in sync with both the creature's rhythm and silhouette.
07. Posing the creature so that it looks alive
The shift from the spontaneity of drawing to the technical side of 3D can quickly become tricky when you want your creature to feel alive. So it’s time to give life to that inanimate puppet! I create a skeleton and apply it to my model, which enables me to pose it freely. The key is to find a rhythm and silhouette that reinforce the creature’s personality.
08. Place your character in an environment
Once your character is posed, it’s time to anchor it more in its environment. This step adds depth, gives a sense of scale, and helps us understand that he belongs. I start with a simple block-out, then add texturing, props, and finally lighting. It’s important to take a step-by-step approach, just like a set-dressing team and a director of photography would.
09. Set the right mood
How do you define the right atmosphere to faithfully convey what you want to say while remaining true to the initial ideal? It’s essential to remember that for creature/character concept art, you should keep your subject as readable as possible and clearly highlight your design choices for your audience. The chosen atmosphere helps define his personality and habitat. In my case, I choose a warm and soft atmosphere to counterbalance the ‘strange side of my character.
10. Compositing and rendering
Time for rendering! Since I know I’ll move to Photoshop for compositing, I don’t waste time chasing perfect lighting or render quality. In Photoshop, I play with ambient occlusion, depth, and the object passes to separate my creature’s silhouette and make it pop out of the scene.
11. Add life and personality
A common complaint made about 3D renders is that they look stiff or too clean. So I add a photobashing pass to bring in imperfections and small details. When doing this, the most important thing is to balance values, colours, and contrast so that everything blends naturally. I do a lot of back-and-forth, switching to black-and-white and working while zoomed out to maintain a clear overall view.
12. The importance of keyframes
A keyframe is a pivotal moment in a story, often drawn from a storyboard. It projects your character into a crucial moment of the plot, bridging concept art, illustration, and storytelling. For this project, I want to explore solitude and the mystical aura of the universe I had in mind, through two keyframes with distinct atmospheres.
13. Bridging intention and technique
One crucial point for me when creating a character is keeping that spark
from the first sketches alive until the very end. Our work is a long, sometimes bumpy process, and losing that initial emotion means taking away a vital part
of the character: their soul.
14. Create something that resonates with yourself
A last thought about personal projects, whether it’s for a portfolio or just for yourself: as with writing, we can only truly speak about what we know best. So what’s more fulfilling than putting a bit of yourself into something as personal as creation itself? Enjoy!
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