Draw a Fantasy Creature

The art of creating fantastic creatures is a fascinating field of illustration that allows artists to explore their imagination and bring to life creatures that inhabit the deepest recesses of their dreams and fantasies. In this article, we will embark on a creative journey to learn how to draw extraordinary creatures that can populate fantastic, mythological and sci-fi worlds.

We will develop essential drawing skills and learn how to construct unique creatures, from majestic dragons to mysterious beasts and unimaginable cosmic beings. Get ready to unleash your creativity and explore the limits of your imagination by immersing yourself in the exciting world of drawing fantastic creatures.

DRAWING WITH CREATIVITY

Just to illustrate the power of your creativity. We have three quick sketches illustrating how a simple geometric shape can become a fantastical creature.

DRAWING A FANTASTICAL CREATURE STEP BY STEP

We begin the design with a basic geometric shape. In this case, an inverted, rounded triangle. But you can start from infinite shapes and create an infinite number of fantastic creatures. In my case, I chose to draw an ogre.

I have now added rounded shapes to simulate arms and legs.

Then, I added some circles, simulating the hands, feet, and head. The head circle was centered, as I wanted to give the impression that the ogre is somewhat hunchbacked. I also added lines separating the arms from the forearms and delineating the position of the knees.

Now, with a slightly darker colour, I started modelling the ogre with rudimentary strokes. I also started to draw the face and thought it would be interesting to replace one of the hands with a spiked club. Note that when drawing monsters and fantasy creatures, you have much more freedom in drawing the shapes and proportions.

Always in the sketch, I added more details to the ogre. Pointy ears, fangs, a bigger and rougher chin, torn clothes, spikes on the body, and a broken handcuff on the leg. All these elements help to give personality and create a story around your character.

DRAWING THE DETAILS OF THE CREATURE

It is now time to add more detail to the drawing. Reduce the opacity of the layer and draw more carefully. If you draw on paper, you can erase lightly with an eraser or draw with another sheet of paper on top.

Continuing with other details, he added nails, eyes and a rough, rough texture to the body. It is important to consider the type of texture of the material; the more lines and coarser they are, the greater the impression that the surface is hard or rough.

Then, I added the details of the chains and spikes on the weapon.

Now, I've added more texture to the weapon and clothing. Note that each texture was made with a different type of stroke, because we want to convey the idea that these are really different materials.

This time the shadows were added before the colours. The order is optional, but it is an interesting exercise to do the shadows first. We have already talked a lot about shadows and the fact that it takes a lot of practice to become a shadow master. But don't forget to imagine the light source and cast the shadow in the opposite direction.

ADDING COLOURS TO THE DRAWING

Now the basic colours have been added to the shadows and the result is very interesting. Again, the freedom of colours is total, as this is an invented creature. But I opted for more traditional colours.

I have now added a few more details to the clothes, spikes and metals. It is up to you to decide what details you want to add, but I wanted to convey the idea of old clothes and rusty weapons.

Finally, I added a colour to the background and some simple lighting effects. Which will certainly be explained in one of the next tutorials. I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Illustrator and editor: Oli Design