From the course: The Monster Drawing Workshop

The method to the madness

From the course: The Monster Drawing Workshop

Start my 1-month free trial

The method to the madness

“

So, I think you need to understand the methodology a little bit before we jump into it. This is going to break it down so you understand it, and when it's all said and done, you're going to end up with a nice, desktop monster like this one. You can also see the ones sitting on the desk in front of you, and those watching this at home, you can access the exercise files where I deconstruct several of the monsters, as well. So, the process is simple, but there is a method to the madness, and so I want to walk you through that, so you understand how we're going to approach this, what kind of things we're going to be doing in order to design, draw, and construct our monster, and that's going to take you through six monster stages. It'll start with thumbnail sketching. Thumbnail sketching is essentially doodling, and this is to work through your ideas. Then we'll draw and create the head, body, and tail, the legs and feet, the arms and hands, scary add-ons. Think horns or wings or any other thing you want to add, and then, at the very end, you get to name your monster, and tell us a little bit about it. Now that might be the scariest part for all of you, but don't worry, it's a lot of fun. There's four of these stages that have three creative steps for each of those four stages. You're going to draw your parts, you're going to cut out your parts, and you're going to ink your parts. This is better demonstrated visually than me explaining it, so let me walk you through that quickly. You're going to thumbnail sketch out your idea. You're just going to work out what you're going to create before you try to create it. Once you have that figured out, you'll draw it on cardboard in pencil, then you'll start to cut it out, either using scissors. Once again, if you have areas that are easier to cut out with an X-Acto, you can use that as well. Both is fine. Once you have all your parts cut out, this is when you can start kind of beta-testing it, cutting out the little slots, fitting them together, and seeing how they work. Once you have that done, you can start inking it. Once you have all your ink parts together, this is where you can start detailing it with color, if you want to. Once again, I'm providing you time at each stage to do each of these things. And then you end up with a cool, little monster.

Contents