i-m-a-g-i-n-efx-august

ImagineNation Artist Q&A
Question
How do I go about creating a characterful portrait of a creature?
Victoria Swift, England
Answer
Belinda replies
When painting a portrait,
my objective is always to
tell a story through the
pose, expression and
lighting. Achieving all these goals
ensure that i’m able to give my image
a narrative depth. This applies to all
manner of portraits, from humanoid
characters to animal robots.
Knowing the core characteristics of
a character or creature will help me to
begin visualising how they might
look, and give me a starting point
when looking for reference. Are they
a timid creature that spends most of
its day hiding from predators, or are
they a confident apex predator that
strides across the grassy plains. Or
perhaps they’re a sneaky ambusher
that stalks its prey, or a nervous grazer
that roam in packs.
in this painting, i’ve tried to
illustrate a creature called a Hross.
it’s an otter-like race that lives on
the lower planes of the planet
malacandra in cS lewis’ cosmic
Trilogy. i’ve tried to capture the
general qualities of the race, alongside
the environment they live in and
some elements of the lifestyle they
might lead as farmers and fishermen,
while leaving the design open to
expand upon.
A characterful portrait of a
non-human subject relies upon
anthropomorphisation, which is the
use of human traits to describe a
creature or object.
Artist’s secret
Getting to know the creature
I like to find out as many abstract characteristics
of my subject as possible, such as their
personalities, emotional traits and habits. These
are rich sources for the imagination, especially
when paired with physical descriptions.
Step-by-step: painting the portrait of a hross
I start with a rough design of a
generic Hross and then use
silhouettes to explore how best to pose
the figure, to ensure that its character
comes to the fore. I use simple lighting
to give form to the shapes.
I settle on a pose that best expresses
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their unquestioning and honest
personality traits. Hross also like to create
poetry, so I also want to express their
philosophical nature alongside details that
might indicate their agrarian society.
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Finally I light the scene to hint at the
type of environment that the Hross
live in. Because they live on the lower
planes of the planet I use top-down
lighting, as the steep cliff faces will leave
them mostly in shadow.
30 August 2017