Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures

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VISUAL PROBLEM SOLVER

Working as a visual problem solver is what most artists do. We develop or are presented with a series of descriptions and ideas to create worlds, characters, and stories. It is our hope that we do this in believable scenarios in the form of finished artwork.

Sometimes you work within a set of parameters set by the project. Other times you set these considerations yourself. When you are dealing with licensed properties, you have to work within provided guidelines. This by no means should stifle your creativity. In fact, you can find many ways of working and creating outlooks within these guidelines.

I have worked on many licensed properties and have designed buildings, creatures, spaceships, rooms, interiors, and costumes that ranged from the humorous to the dark. I have drawn funny animals to terrifying ones, hard sci-fi to horror, and realistic settings to the fantastic. Each represented a new answer within this world, an avenue for me to conquer as an artist and grow my skill set. I try to look at it all as a challenge. What can I do to bring it to life with a set of visuals in an interesting way, a new way, or build upon the existing world and add my personal touch? When do we start talking worlds? You get to fill them with everything, and I do mean everything! This includes your favorite habitats, rocks, grass, trees, critters, buildings. . . . The list goes on and on. It is a rather daunting challenge, but here is where the seeds of this book came from.

SOMEONE SETS A PROBLEM: A SWORD.

Just what does this mean?

The mind starts: short sword, broadsword, two-handed battle sword, more than one blade, etc.

What type of pommel? Grip? Cross guard or rain guard? Leather grip or bone grip?

Type of metal? The finish? Damascus steel? Engraved? Flutes? Is it old and rusty? New and highly polished? Does it have decorations or engraving? And so on.

And if the character has a very well-defined sword, you can always practice your skills in drawing and/or painting metal and researching the method of how it was made, with the hope of adding more believability to your finished product.

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH

I am a huge proponent of research. When I started doing illustration, there was no Internet. If you wanted to find things, you went to the library, checked out books, pored over magazines and other periodicals for reference. As you collected images, you put them into file folders and labeled them. You created what was called a morgue. When illustrators died, their morgues often were passed on or sold. They were rich depictions of periods in time, examples of work by other illustrators, and amazing collections of images. Needless to say, it was a lot of paper, file cabinets, and weight to move.

Nowadays, the Internet has given us a worldwide morgue of images, but I still have reference files on my hard drive. The digital camera has added another file-gathering tool. I have shot many different references with my camera and smartphone. The information highway is just a touch away, and your information gathering has never been easier. The morgue is an old habitat. It allows you to place materials where you need them, find images quickly, and forces you to organize photos and references.

CHARACTER

Model sheets, FBS (front-back-side), or character design sheets is where we start. Everything is worked out by height, body shape, and clothing. Then the character is rotated to the side and back, and the drawing is finished. Sometimes a three-quarter shot is added for a mild action pose. Occasionally, when deadlines are imminent, I will do a three-quarter shot of a spaceship or other element and the modeler will finish the 3-D sculpture of it.

THE STORY

Whether you are working on a single page, a series of images, or a sequential set of pages, the story is the main driving factor. It can be as simple as drinking a cup of tea or as complex as the battlefield of life. You, as the artist, have many tools at your disposal. How do you use your camera? How are you going to establish the space, character introductions, reactions to one another, action scenes, quiet moments, mood, time of day?

When I was working on a comic series, I used a model to portray a major character and shot a whole series of her as I tried to capture her unique body language: holding a coffee cup; leaning forward and talking; cradling the cup with one hand, then two; looking over the top of the cup. Storyboards for movies and comics share common terms and visuals. The difference is movie storyboards stay within a horizontal orientation and comics are vertical. But all the principles and terms of establishing a close-up shot, medium shot, long shot, POV (point of view), eye level, horizon line, birds-eye, and worms-eye are the same.

When I am watching a movie, there are many ideas running through my head:

1. Entertainment