Creature 2: Final piece

Here is the final piece for creature 2. The cave entrance is to the right of the image as I didn't want the cave to be pitch black. It also draws more attention to that side of the image where the creature is. There are lots of fireflies within these caves, insects that the lure mimics to attract prey such as lizards. Babysitters will also bring the pubs here on their back, so they can watch and learn as the adult hunts. Doing this will help the pup learn how to hunt as well as where the best hunting grounds are. The pups are perfectly safe on the back of the adult. The reason why the pack has babysitters is because there are only one breeding pair (the dominant male and female), who gives birth to about 6 or more pups, its too many for the mother to handle and take each one on these educational hunting trips. That is why other and older members of the family help take care and protect the next generation.
Overall I am quite happy with how this turned out, like the last final piece, I will be coming back to this with fresh eyes and editing it.

Creature 2: Final piece sketch

For the final piece, I wanted to recreate this illustrative piece because I thought about what I could paint that would show an interesting aspect of this creatures life. I thought about a family scene, showing the team work adults make by babysitting, guard duty etc. But I thought that wasn't visually interesting enough and that the lure was the most interesting part of the creature (and the most alien part). 

I wanted the final piece to show this creature hunting in a dark cave, using its lure to hunt other creatures such as lizards. The lure is a bright glow and doesn't spread light like in the illustrative piece. It is a glow that can been seen from far away but it doesn't like up the face of the creature. Below are the sketches for the final piece and the rule of thirds over it. I know that from reading the article '10 myths about the rule of thirds' I want to try and use different techniques for my paintings. However, because of the landscape shape, I thought the rule of thirds would be more helpful to me rather than over complicate things. I do want to try other composition techniques for my next creatures final piece.   

Showcase thoughts

My Degree showcase will be held from the 6th May to 15th. I will have two days to set up my exhibit on the 4th and 5th. There is some debate about how many pieces of artwork we're aloud on our wall but during a lecture we've been told that we're only aloud one A2 poster to summarise our project. For this poster I was thinking about having all of my creatures running across the page in the same direction. This will show the size differences between each creature and will be a good way to introduce each creature as they are in mid run. I also want to print out an art book showing all the final sketches, illustrative pieces, turnaround sheets and final pieces of each creature. There will be little written work within this book, just some breif annotation and header titles, I want my work to speak for itself and I will also be there in person incase anyone has any questions for me. The book will be place on a plinth beside my A2 poster. I will also need to create business cards for the showcase, I want to wait till I've finished my 3rd creature or even the 4th to see which will look the best. Then I will start to quickly design a business card.
I've been looking at the website Blurb for printing my book. They have a lot of options for templates, formats, layouts and paper etc I think I could create my own book easily through this website. I've ordered one of their swatch kits which show all the different kinds of paper that they offer so I can see in person which one I think will suit my book the best. It says it will be delivered on 4th April but I've heard from other people that they have gotten theirs in a week. I hope to have the book finished at the beginning of April so there is time for it be actually be printing and sent out to me in time.

Supervisor meeting

Today in my meeting with Lynn, we discussed a lot about my dissertation and how I should go about finishing each chapter. I've made a weekly target for myself to email Lynn a chapter each friday. I made sure that some chapters had time to get second drafts. Creating this has made me very aware of how little time I have left so it is a must that I reach each friday deadline. We also discussed the length of the dissertation itself, it can be 6-9000 words in length; contextual review is around 2,500-3000 words, and both methods and findings are around 1000-1,500 each.

Dissertation timeline

Friday 11^th March

Email Lynn Contextual Review

Friday 18^th March

Email Lynn Methods 

Correcting Contextual Review

Friday 25^th March

Email Lynn Case studies/interviews

Correcting Methods

Friday 1^st April

Email Lynn 2^nd draft contextual review

Correcting Case studies/interviews

Friday 8^th April

Email Lynn 2^nd draft Methods

Correcting 2^nd draft contextual review

Friday 15^th April

Email Lynn Conclusion/Discussion

Correcting 2^nd draft methods

Friday 22^nd April

Correcting Conclusion/Discussion

Last look over during meeting

Other things that we discussed were about my blog, she had a look over it during the week at I need to included more annotations of my work and make things clearer. For my upcoming creatures I'll make more of an effort to make my theories clearer and be more critical of my work too. For my blog I also need to include the jobs and internships I have been applying for as well as what I plan to do for my showcase as well as business cards for the event too. To help prepare for the showcase, I should start testing how my designs - especially my final pieces - print out like.
One of the main problems that I'm having with my project is with my interviews, no one has gotten back to my thus far. Lynn suggested I contact another lecturer, Ken about if he can get me into contact with any creature designers. If not, I'll use my case studies as a plan B to back up my research. Overall, I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Creature 2: Side view

Here are the side views of both male and female. The males of these creatures are a bit bigger than the females and they have more prominent brow and nose features.

Male Rethink

After my meeting with Lynn on monday, we discussed size differences between male and female horns. We talked about how the males horns might be smaller than the females because of how much less fighting they do. Females would get regular competition for their grasslands from other females, whereas males fight other males over females, which isn't as often.  
Above is an image with the male with smaller horns, its still an impressive size but obviously a lot easier for them to carry as they roam. I quite like the idea of males with smaller horns and it does make much more sense.

Progress Presentation

Today I had my progress presentation in front of my peers and lecturers. I only had 6min to present my project, which is why I focused on the two creatures that I have created so far rather than theory which I could discuss with my supervisor in greater depth.
Overall I got really good feedback and some lovely comments on my work which made me very happy! One of the feedback comments that I got was how I rendered fur. They said that I didn't need to put that much detail in and that with some brushes I could easily create the look of fur. This is something that has actually been on my mind, if I do create another creature with fur or with a skin type I haven't worked on before, I think some texture spheres would do me good. Another comment was to think about the fictional world context more. For example, explore how elements such as gravity could affect my creatures etc.  
One of the most interesting comments I got was is my project a design or illustration based project? For me, I aim for design, the comment was relating to the final piece of creature 1 that I created. I still want to create these final pieces because it helps me round off each creature and to show the viewer a more in depth look at the creature in an action scene. I do think I should do more design work on little details for my up coming creatures. Details that included how the environment affects them and how they breath etc I believe it will create an even more detailed and believable creature.