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Description
Vote on Patreon to decide which animals get combined into creature design combos!

I often get asked how to create compelling creature designs based on real world animals, and I'd love to help aspiring artists in any way I can.
So here are my 🔥hot🔥tips-
1.) Draw inspiration from as many organisms as possible. I always use a minimum of three. This keeps any one feature from being too prominent in your final design.
2.) Try to focus on indistinct aspects of your inspiration, like posture, or the shape of their spine/head/limbs. Usually I say "not to replicate any one body part completely" but in this case I make some exceptions. Although the body shapes/silhouettes are thoroughly mixed into something that barely resembles any of the originals, the limbs are very crab in front 🦀 and t-rex 🦖 in back.
3.) Choose a variety of organisms as your inspiration and don't be limited by extinctions. Paleontology is an exceptional resource and just as valid as general biology to plunder for creative inspiration.
4.) Have fun! The rules of biology are your playground, and you can disregard the limits of reality as you please. A good example is in the exaggeration of the limbs on this creature. The crab claws look much more streamlined, symmetrical, larger, and more intimidating than they do on real crabs. Adjusting features to create visual flair or reduce complexity is A-Okay! I did the same thing with the spines on its back and legs. The spines are evocative of crab biology, but don't reference any specific aspect of them. Creature design is an excuse to explore and experiment. Don't hold back.

That's all I got for now! Leave three animals in the comments that you think would make a good combo, and I'll create a creature based on them.

Follow me on Instagram @TopherStoll for more weird art and general life stuff.
Follow me on Tumblr for more weird art, con appearances, and book excerpts
Follow me on Twitter @TopherStoll if you want to watch me argue with neo-nazis

Also feel free to Visit my Etsy Store where you can buy weird art and books and stuff!

Description
Vote on Patreon to decide which animals get combined into creature design combos!

I often get asked how to create compelling creature designs based on real world animals, and I'd love to help aspiring artists in any way I can.
So here are my 🔥hot🔥tips-
1.) Draw inspiration from as many organisms as possible. I always use a minimum of three. This keeps any one feature from being too prominent in your final design.
2.) Try to focus on indistinct aspects of your inspiration, like posture, or the shape of their spine/head/limbs. Usually I say "not to replicate any one body part completely" but in this case I make some exceptions. Although the body shapes/silhouettes are thoroughly mixed into something that barely resembles any of the originals, the limbs are very crab in front 🦀 and t-rex 🦖 in back.
3.) Choose a variety of organisms as your inspiration and don't be limited by extinctions. Paleontology is an exceptional resource and just as valid as general biology to plunder for creative inspiration.
4.) Have fun! The rules of biology are your playground, and you can disregard the limits of reality as you please. A good example is in the exaggeration of the limbs on this creature. The crab claws look much more streamlined, symmetrical, larger, and more intimidating than they do on real crabs. Adjusting features to create visual flair or reduce complexity is A-Okay! I did the same thing with the spines on its back and legs. The spines are evocative of crab biology, but don't reference any specific aspect of them. Creature design is an excuse to explore and experiment. Don't hold back.

That's all I got for now! Leave three animals in the comments that you think would make a good combo, and I'll create a creature based on them.

Follow me on Instagram @TopherStoll for more weird art and general life stuff.
Follow me on Tumblr for more weird art, con appearances, and book excerpts
Follow me on Twitter @TopherStoll if you want to watch me argue with neo-nazis

Also feel free to Visit my Etsy Store where you can buy weird art and books and stuff!