Precursors

Here are a couple sketches that came before the tellurian monarch pic. One problem I had with the original sketches was that they kept looking too much like a xenomorph (that is, the creature from the Alien movies). I can't deny that Geiger indirectly influences a lot of what I do; after I saw the Alien movie as a kid, I had nightmares for years about that thing.

Which ended up becoming... 

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Was throwing around ideas for the Gnixxian Assassin contest on ConceptArt.org's Creature of the Week contest. The challenge was to create a creature that was intentionally bred for use in assassinations on a lush jungle planet. Started with the idea of a giant predator that, despite its size, could move utterly silently and then bite its target in half with its crazy beak.

Eventually decided to go a different route... very small. A creature I called the "flying sarcophagus ant." One type of ant I learned about actually creates living nests around their queen by weaving their bodies together. Trippy! So I thought, how about flying ants that create living nests around prey, simultaneously trapping them while eating them? End result...

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(although it ended up looking fucking giant... oops)

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There were a couple of CoW (Creature of the Week) contests that I intended to enter, but never got around to finishing any of the entries. One challenge was to create an "8th Wonder of the World living in one of the other 7." Tried to go with the Temple of Artemis, and go with a creature based on the Artemis of Ephesus... a statue that had lots o' boobs :P. So I made a bunch of multi-breasted serpent creatures. I won't post those here :P But this was one of the better designs that only had two breasts.

I gave up, though, because all the sketches looked too humanoid, which is against the CoW rules.

Another challenge I meant to enter was based around the idea of a "cosmic pet show." Design a creature so insanely beautiful, it wins best of show. Well... how about a translucent, emerald-colored insect thing? Here was the attempt...

I then changed its face to a bird's, and gave it a peacock tail... it looked awful, and I gave up.

First Post

Have a huge stack of doodles, some of which I may post over the next few days. Here's a few:

Here's an idea I'm knocking around for the next piece, once I'm finished with the thing I'm working on, now. Just some quick thumbs. I'm going to be (hopefully) getting some reference pics, for once, and do a redesign then. It's been a long time since I've done a human(ish) thing.

That's it for now. Maybe more tomorrow.