€¦ · Web viewI also tried to make it more streamlined and pointy by lengthening its ears and...
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Building A Fox Monster Character Design I wanted to create a semi-fantastical predator to haunt the arctic regions of a fantastical world and feature in the legends and folk tales of the local people. After considering a few different snowy species to use as a basis for the creature, I decided on an arctic fox. The first step of the process was to draw a lot of foxes. I found that the main points that visually distinguish an arctic fox from other canines are its pelt (very dense and almost spongy-looking compared to the hair of temperate foxes); its ears (small and rounded rather than large and pointed); the focal points of its round black eyes and nose; and its huge bushy tail.
Transcript of €¦ · Web viewI also tried to make it more streamlined and pointy by lengthening its ears and...
Building A Fox MonsterCharacter Design
I wanted to create a semi-fantastical predator to haunt the arctic regions of a fantastical world and feature in the legends and folk tales of the local people. After considering a few different snowy species to use as a basis for the creature, I decided on an arctic fox.
The first step of the process was to draw a lot of foxes. I found that the main points that visually distinguish an arctic fox from other canines are its pelt (very dense and almost spongy-looking compared to the hair of temperate foxes); its ears (small and rounded rather than large and pointed); the focal points of its round black eyes and nose; and its huge bushy tail.
I wanted my fox monster to be beautiful but also quite ethereal and intimidating. Arctic foxes are fairly cuddly creatures due to their small compact bodies and fluffy coats; I elongated the fox's body, gave it stilt-like legs, and changed its eyes to a more angular, catlike shape.
Thinking about the story applications of the fox, I came up with a creature that lures travelers off the path and into the snow. For this purpose, I decided to give it a glowing tail like an angler fish's lure that could be mistaken from a distance for lanterns, campfire embers or the light of house windows. I also tried to make it more streamlined and pointy by lengthening its ears and muzzle, but at that point it looked less like a fox and more like a lynx, so I changed them back to the rounder model.
The fox is semi-supernatural so I decided to ignore the anatomical problems of a large predator with a long, weasel-like body and tail. I stretched it out as far as it would go. The legs are now short-furred from the knees down so that they don't get clogged and weighed down with snow.
At first the angler-fish lures were hard jewel-like growths in the fur. That looked a bit clumsy (and kind of diseased) so I changed them to knobbly bioluminescent scales. This turned out to make the fox look a bit like an Asian dragon, which was cool.
The colour and markings are one of the more common summer coat patterns for an arctic fox. This creature turns white in winter too.
Having fully developed the fox, I drew a snowy home for it and was done:
