Sabreosk: A Creature Concept

Hello! This project is inspired by venomous sea life and the British Virgin Islands. I wanted to create a brightly colored and dangerous looking creature that inhabits a coral reef environment. 

For the final rendered image I wanted to create a pose where the creature was in action while still being able to showcase the body. I've always loved the amazing photos of sharks jumping out of the water. That thought heavily influenced my final decision for the setting. 

The first thought I had for the design was large head muscles with sea urchin spines all over the body. Then I remembered a quick sketch I had done a while back that I had always thought of creating a better version of it. I tried that concept with spines but didn't like it. Eventually I landed on Lion Fish. I really liked the head sketch so I moved to body sketches. I ended up liking how a mixture between a gator and big cat mixed to create a believable body design. 

Next was figuring out the colors I wanted for the creature. I ended up going with a more ribbon eel inspired palette with bright orange stripes. It came off as the most 'don't get near me' color option. 

I then built the creature from inside out! Having a basic map of the anatomy would become critical to the final pose of the creature. 

I sketched out various poses with the head angle that I liked. Then created a background sketch on the pose I liked. 

I then solidified ideas about the creature in to a reference sheet! 

Finally I colored and rendered the final image! I had a lot of fun creating this guy!