Cryptid Redesign (Dobhar-chú)

The water dog cryptid. The information on dobhar-chú appearance wise is that he looks very much like a canine however with a more elongated body and pronounced ribs. Sometimes compared to an otter, however I enjoyed much more the idea of a water dog and how a dog’s body would change in order to adapt to a semi-aquatic life.

For this redesign I went with a different technique. I knew I wanted to create something similar to a Spanish greyhound as they are thin and elongated. So I started by drawing them in shapes and poses I thought would be fun and explored some elements.

 Playing around with silhouettes and shapes.

Exploring some more elements. How to present the design a how I should approach it. However, I felt some elements were missing.

When trying to explore some of the elements I did a technique I rarely used called photo bashing. Photo Bashing is when you use one or several photos as a base and edit them and add to them in order to explore a concept. And that is what I did here, by using a photo of a Spanish greyhound I started to add shapes and colours to see what I would enjoy the most. I ended up using a variety of elements from this practise.

I created a simple silhouette and some lines in order to block out the desired design and from there on I created the line art by tracing over and adding some elements and changing others as I went by.

I tried some different colour schemes it always an idea that I wanted something blueish with some pink undertones and the occasional warmer yellow in the eyes as a contrast. 

This was the final design. I was happy with the colour and somewhat happy with the design. I also did a close-up front view of his face as I wanted to explore that in a more illustrational piece. 

This was my final illustrative piece, however, i did not like the result and ended up not using it as a part of my final project.