Have you ever had an urge to just learn random facts for no reason? Yeah, me too.
Hey Everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week. Mine certainly has because this week I’ve been focusing on research and some initial character sketches.
Research
So the first thing I did to kickstart my research and character design process was to decide what exactly I was looking for. I’m aiming to create reference designs for 3 different Anthids, so I wanted to choose different types of animals and plants to display a wide range of artistic ability. I landed on taking inspiration from one animal that can fly, one that lives in the ocean, and finally one that lives on land.
Now, there are way too many animal and plant species in the world to know them off the top of my head. So I did what any normal individual does when they are curious about something.
I went to the local library and broke out the big books.
The librarian even asked me if I would be okay carrying them back to my house. He definitely thought my backpack would give out as I carried them home. I don’t blame him, though. They are the size of my torso.
Alright, so I also made liberal use of Google and the Internet, but can you blame me? The web is a vast sea of knowledge.
Fun Fact: Did you know that there are no naturally bioluminescent plants? There are plant-like creatures known as Dinoflagellates that live in the ocean and some mushrooms that are as well. If a plant appears to be glowing it’s most likely because there are bioluminescent bacteria living on them. But scientists have started creating glowing flowers because aesthetics.
Initial Sketches
With new knowledge of plant and animal species, I set out to create three pairings that I thought would be interesting.
Manta Ray + Midshore Wrack
Everyone knows what a Giant Oceanic Manta Ray looks like, but I’m betting you don’t know what Midshore Wrack is. It’s a seaweed that is also known as “Bladder Wrack” because of the gaseous air pockets that line the fronds. They help the seaweed float upright in the water, which in turn helps them exchange gases and absorb nutrients while submerged. Neat, huh?
Bumblebee + Narrow Leaved Echinacea
Who doesn’t love our big and fluffy pollinator friends? While we don’t get much honey from them, much of our food would be unable to grow if there weren’t bumblebees to pollinate them. About 2/3rds of the world’s crop species depend on them, and without their particular skill for pollination, they wouldn’t product the fruit and vegetables we eat all year round.
Now, Echinacea has a personal history for me. It’s something that my Grandmother grows in her back yard all the time and when I was younger I used to garden and take care of them with her. While you may have heard of using Echinacea as a herbal treatment for many respiratory ailments like bronchitis, coughs, and the common cold, a little known fact about them is that they’re actually a part of the sunflower family!
Fennec Fox + Bunny Eared Cactus
This is the one that started it all. A while ago I had an idea for combining foxes with different succulent plants, and so I just had to work a fox into my character designs for this project.
The Fennec fox is actually the smallest fox species in the world, only weighing in at about 3.5 pounds and 9-16 Inches long. But it’s ears, which help disperse excess heat in the desert, can be up to half as large as their body!
Next week I’m aiming to have a few more refined sketches to show you guys and work on their color palettes. See you then!
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