How to create a super-realistic fantasy creature

Fantasy creature: final

Painting a fantasy creature can be a lot of fun. In my opinion, you’ll struggle to find any subject that gives you more freedom to explore your ideas than creating a creature. Yet it’s this same freedom that can overwhelm many artists and lead to some serious design issues. Once you accept the fact that you’re not bound by previously established notions of how your painting should look, you then become responsible for defining every single detail about this life form.

Where does it live? What does it eat? How does it move? Where does it sit in the food chain? It’s in this moment that most mistakes are made. The two most common ones are either copying a real-life animal too much and ending up with something that, say, looks like a horse in a different colour, or creating something so alien-looking that no one knows what it is. For more creature design considerations, see our creature design tips piece.

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Roberto is a creature design enthusiast and a freelance artist. He spends almost all of his time painting weird creatures or thinking about them.
Latest in Character Design
Big Bird from Sesame Street is small
Relax, Big Bird is big again
Nightwing Discowing costume
Official DC art revives flamboyant Nightwing costume
Princess Peach
I’m obsessed with the new Princess Peach character designs
Godzilla standing in the ocean
People are only just noticing this hilarious Godzilla character design flaw
Procreate tutorial
How to add pop to your character art
Mickey Mouse
Disney's original Mickey to become royalty free in 2024
Latest in How to
Gesture drawing: all you need to know plus ways to practise in 2 and 5 minutes
How to draw a male figure
drawing of a naked woman with someone drawing it
How to draw a female figure
GIMP in pro work
Making GIMP 3.0 work for pro results: is it possible?
Pejman Rajabi 3D tutorial of Super Mario fan art
“One of the best creative experiences of my life, working with such an amazing artistic crew” – how VFX artist Pejman Rajabi and friends created a heartfelt tribute to Super Mario
Marco Teixeira 3D tutorial
“The challenge was to create a cool character design”: concept artist Marco Teixeira reveals the techniques and inspiration behind his superb 3D character render