Monster Tattoo Trials - Colours?

Which one is your personal fave? Mine is the red one! :D

Monster Tattoo Trials

I've been having a lot of fun with the glow effects in Photoshop! Here's some examples of what I've done. I'm not mad on some of the patterns and shapes I've given this little fella, but I like the way it makes certain areas of his body stand out more.

I also tried outlining his body with a black glowing line, which made this:

I kinda like it, though I think it would need to be toned down a bit, so that it doesn't hurt people's eyes!

Lizard study

Just having a look at Komodo dragons for my Monster character designs. Here's some nice images that I like:






I think my monster will probably not have that long snout, but I like the heftiness of it, and the anatomy.

Here's the skeleton of a Komodo:

Looking at the Komodo will help if we need to rig the character.

Character Design progression

My drawings of the Monster are taking on a rather lizard-like stature. I'm trying to avoid making the lizard look like Randall from Monsters Inc. I really like the first design on the second row. I think I may develop it a little more

... Which is what I have just done!


Please click the image for a better view of the images and notes

Here's a blank coloured version of my present monster idea. I rather like it. I have composed it in a similar way to Darkjak, as you can see. I'm gonna mess about with some markings later.

I just want to clarify that i don't want to copy Darkjak's designs, but I want to toy around with the tattoo idea a bit, (the glowing effect at least) so I can give this character more oomph

Environment Design

Here are some Photoshop drawings I have drawn of the house and the bedroom:

(Sorry this is a little pixelated, I wanted to show it fairly big so you can see the detail.)
Above is a panning shot from the roof of the house to the window of the bedroom. I used my own house for some reference. We have a pipe that runs down the house like that, and I figured this would be a good way for the monster to climb down to the window.

Here's a shot from a mid level camera angle of the bed looking away from the wondow. That's "meant" to be a mirror on that chest of drawers. The lamp is subject to change if I design a good lantern toy to replace it. The carpet is designed to lead the eye to the bed (hopefully the stripes cause this to happen) The same can also be said about the duvet too.

This is a slightly better wide shot of the bedroom. I included a dolls house and monster toy, which are meant to resemble the house this scene takes place, and a slightly friendlier version of the monster in this story. He is meant to slightly resemble Sully from Monsters Inc.

The cupboard is to the left of the bed through that door. I wanted it to look like a fairly unassuming passage to somewhere, which would turn out to be a place where someone could hide (for one of my ideas for the story)

The kite on the wall is taken from one of the bedroom photos I found in my research. It is meant to look sinister in the dark.

The trunk is there as a "step" for the monster to climb from the window.

I will probs add a few more toys to this scene. I will need to think how the textures will tie in to this idea if this is going to be made in 3D.

Character Design Thoughts

There's an artist on Deviant Art that I really like called Emma Sarkela aka "Darkjak". On the train earlier I remembered that she did some really cool monster designs that I really like. Here are some images I found:





I love the idea of having glowing "tattoos" though maybe I could use them for my monster in a different way? I still need to do some revamped designs, but I just want to clarify that this is a direction I am definitely considering. I have always figured that the illuminous look might work quite nicely for the monster, especially if the scene itself is very dark.

Research - Waterlollies