C O U R S E G U I D E

W E L C O M E !

Congratulations on enrolling in Creature Painting. This is one of my favorite courses and I know you will find it incredibly
fun and valuable! The techniques and shortcuts that I will lead you through will have you creating creature art at a higher
level than you ever thought possible. My sincere thanks to all students for taking the leap and joining our community and
we wish you a very warm welcome. Once you’ve completed the course, I hope you will post some of your work so that we
can all see what a rock star you have become. If you feel stuck at any point in the course, just let me know! I pride myself
on fast and helpful support.

- Course Creator Hardy Fowler

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS COURSE

Creature Painting teaches real world skills and is designed to have students creating professional level work much
faster than they ever might on their own. Here is the general format we will follow and some tips on how to make sure
you’re getting as much out of this course as possible.

• BRUSH UP ON FUNDAMENTALS - If you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to check out both
Art Fundamentals in 1 Hour and Photoshop Fundamentals in 1 Hour. These courses are free to all students and are
packed with great information about art and the software we’ll be using. Even if you’re an accomplished artist or feel
relatively comfortable with Photoshop, these courses could really help and will guarantee that you’re not missing
anything in Creature Painting.

• REVIEW OF ‘BEFORE’ WORK - In order to gauge how far you’ve come, it’s a great idea to find a piece of creature art
that you have done already as a baseline. If you’d like, post it for review and I’ll give you my honest thoughts and let you
know which parts of the course you may want to pay special attention to.

• LECTURE / DISCUSSION - Before diving in, we will spend several videos talking about some of the concepts and
best practices to keep in mind when creating creature art. These will include the Course Overview, Shape Language,
Animal References, Thinking Like a Designer and Making Creatures Seem Alive.

• COURSE PROJECTS! - After viewing all lectures, it’s time to dive in for our real world creature projects! I will
creature 4 full artworks and every single step will be explained and discussed in detail. Once you have viewed all 4
projects, it’s time to start one of your own. Feel free to copy my designs as an exercise, but it is my hope that the
design principles that I teach will have you feeling comfortable coming up with your own awesome creature concepts!

• PRACTICE / CONTINUED SUPPORT - The course does not end once you’ve reached the end of the videos.
I strongly encourage you to keep creating creature art following the steps that we lay out. Practice and repetition is the
best way to see fast improvements, so keep at it! I’ve also created a list of additional creature briefs to give you a good
starting point for additional creature projects. Let’s fill that portfolio up with awesome work! Also, post as many and as
often as you like and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts. No one flies solo in this course!
 C R E A T U R E P R O J E C T S
The full projects that we’ll do together are the core of the course. I’ve included a wide variety of creatures to give you a
broad base of knowledge. The techniques covered over these 4 projects cover just about every creature type that you
might encounter as a student or a professional. Below is a look at each creature that we’ll cover and what design and
rendering techniques they were chosen to highlight.

H O W L E R
Inspired by a bipedal dinosaur, this creature will show us how to
create a basic predator type character. He will be scary and
menacing but not to the extent of seeming like a monster.
The techniques highlighted by this creature include
realistic musculature, realistic skin textures, realistic teeth.

R E A P E R
An outright nightmare type creature, this insectoid monster will
show you how to terrify and disgust your audience! We will learn
how to create realistic bug shell textures, realistic teeth and how
to give the impression of sliminess with ‘wetlights’.

P H O E N I X
This is a majestic marvel type creature designed to inspire awe
and reverence. We will learn how to be restrained and artful in our
design and rendering to arrive at a beautiful and noble looking
creature. Realistic skin and muscle rendering techniques will be
covered in further depth, this time focusing on how to make the
creature likable rather than scary.

G O L I A T H
This is a likable, big brute of an alien. He will have huge hulking
muscles but a friendly and amiable disposition. We will explore
techniques for making a creature seem strong, yet likable.
Rendering techniques covered include making realistic
musculature, realistic eyes and realistic fur.
 P R O C E S S O V E R V I E W
Let’s take a look at a breakdown of the steps that we’ll follow in the course. This will give you a very easy-to-follow road
map for success that will give you consistently great results.

1 . S K E T C H
This is the starting point! We will tackle the blank canvas and start
getting our ideas out there. This part is wide open - be as free
and creative as you want. Don’t worry about nice looking lines or
marks - ideas is all we’re worried about here.

2 . I N K
After your basic idea and pose is defined, we’ll do another line art
pass with much bolder, crisper lines. We’re essentially just tracing
the sketch, but focusing more on nice looking lines. This is also a
good step to refine and polish your idea.

3 . V A L U E
Once the creature is inked in and ready to go, we’ll block in the
line art and begin a value painting. Here we’ll use light and dark
values to make our creature seem three dimensional and organic.

4 . C O L O R
Next, we’ll convert our value painting into a nice looking col-
or scheme. Photoshop makes this super easy. With just a few
commands, we can turn a simple value rendering into a really
nice-looking color painting!

5 . F I N A L P O L I S H
Here is where we add all kinds of finishing touches to make our
final product shine! Photo textures, secondary light sources and
edge treatment all work together to make our character look
awesome! Be sure to save a version of each project step so that
you can look back and see how far you’ve come. It’s really re-
P H O E N I X
warding to see your simple rough sketch next to your brilliantly FINAL PRODUCT

painting, polished final product!

 K E E P R O C K I N G !
The course doesn’t end here! Keep rocking out creature projects and your progress will continue to skyrocket. I’ve put
together a page of additional project briefs and web image references just to give you some ideas. Consider this a
worksheet of creature painting homework. If you have aspirations to be a professional concept artist, use these briefs to
get some stellar portfolio pieces!

LEVIATHAN
• massive undersea creature
• so large that coral colonies grow on it
• should seem to glide along effortlessly
• intelligent, soulful eyes showing ancient age
• whale, turtle, fish animal models

WAR TURTLE
• very large turtle used as a mounted animal for war
• make spiky fierce looking (alligator snapping turtle, but more extreme)
• shell should be augmented with spikes and cutting blades, ornate armor plates
• warpaint and decorations applied by its owner
• scarred to show battle experience
• perhaps some kind of crest on head or shell to enhance creativity

ANGEL ALIEN
• flying humanoid (but winged) alien
• feminine, lithe and beautiful
• soulful, intelligent eyes
• elongated proportions (low gravity home world)
• bioluminescent
• clothing, jewelry - evidence of technology

HIVE QUEEN
• massive, insectoid monster
• spikes, claws all taken way over the top
• large egg producing body part
• pale skin color (termite animal model)
• blind - no eyes

FIRE SPRITE
• small, fairy like creature
• humanoid, but with heavy insect influences
• should seem like a real biological creature, not purely a magical fantasy
• able to summon/shoot fire, either through hands or mouth
• insect wings

CHARGER
• hulking, rhinoceros-like alien animal
• large feature on front of head (horn, crest) that acts as a
weapon and a threat display - perhaps brightly colored
• interesting skin pattern (stripes, spots)
• furry mane

TRIPOD ALIEN WALKER

• huge alien biomechanical vehicle
• three legs, eyes, tentacles
• sprays some kind of corrosive as a weapon
• contrast color scheme (not just flat gray, make it different from past versions)

Images included here are for reference and educational use only and are not the copyrighted property of Digital Painting Studio