Dance move research

X-pole video. 

This is a video by the leading company for Pole dance products. This video shows so many beautiful moves that I can take inspiration from for my creatures. Right now I am researching dance a lot especially for The Guardians of the Eternals. 

The Eternal of Suffering

Here is the process of my Eternal of Suffering at its current stage, I have been focussing on the body for now as I have decided to change a few features of the piece. 

Here are some images from The Lords of Salem, a film by Rob Zombie. Like his other films this one is just as crazy and horrifying. I also loved this part of the film, it shows the burning of some witches, and in the scene one of them wears a crude iron maiden looking mask. 

I also want to adapt the idea of an Iron Maiden torture device to add to the theme of suffering.

I have also been looking at different variations of this. I have also been loping at Thir13en Ghosts and Bram Stokers Dracula, in both there are characters wearing cages on their heads.

Im going to go away and draw up some sketches of what ideas that I like for the rest of my creature.

Body pose

I have been looking at many sources for ideas on body poses, I have been researching both primary and secondary sources. One cool place for body poses and drawing tips and help with skills is http://artists.pixelovely.com. I also have found a lot of inspiration from people with weird distorted bodies, one example in particular is Iggy Pop.

I like the ideas of my characters being skinny and distorted and these pictures of Iggy are perfect to take inspiration from. You can see many of his bones and he flings his arms in the air and jumps about so this gives me a lot to work from and a wide range of poses. 

Here are some more sites I have been looking at for figure reference. 

http://www.quickposes.com

http://reference.sketchdaily.net

http://www.lovelifedrawing.com/category/lifedrawingtips/

Figure Drawing!

I've always had issues when drawing male characters so I have been doing a lot of practice and done a lot of research on techniques in preparation for my male Eternals. I have been looking back through my pieces and sketches and I have decided to revisit the Eternal of Suffering, I feel like I want the character to be a male torso and less human to create the clear idea that the creatures are not human.
I have found http://artists.pixelovely.com/muscle-tutorial-from-the-punchline-is-machismo/ to be a brilliant tutorial for drawing figures and muscles.

Here is my first version of The Eternal of Suffering. Since I have done more research in to creatures and monsters I have decided that I want them to have a few less human qualities about them. And also, as the story is that these creatures are God like beings that reside in a cave where they are trapped to as to not reek havoc on the world any longer, they have been in that cave for an unimaginable amount of time and also away from human society. Because of this I thought that these creatures would not have things such as barbed wire or metal meat hooks. So I want to make the chains and hooks and ect. look more natural, like they have been make from natural materials from The Keepers (The guards of the Eternals)  

Here is the second attempt of the Eternal of Suffering, I do like the face on this one a lot more, I thought that taking away the mouth would show more suffering, and I like the idea of it to be all weird gooey skin. I drew the hooks as if they were made from stone this time and i thought this worked a lot better, and I want the wire to be roots and thorns wound together for a thick rope holding the Eternal up in place. I am going to keep to the idea of The Eternal of Suffering to be just a torso, also I still like the idea of the guts still and I want to add thorns and roots growing through the intestines and such. 

Even though I like this one more than the first I think it could be improved with a few changes, for example I really want to change the pose of the body, I have drawn a small sketch of the pose I want in the bottom right corner of the second attempt. 

Pole Dance Positions

I take a lot of inspiration from the human form in motion of dance. The grace and beauty that the human body holds is endless so I am fascinated by dance and in particular Pole dance. Pole dance is a form of true athleticism, the opposite of the negative stigma that has been attached to it. 

In the last few years Pole Dance has become recognised a true form of beautiful and athletic dance. It needs years of practice and a body in peak condition to achieve the advanced results.

I have been attending Pole fitness for a few months now and I have developed a real love and obsession for it. The effort and love that I pour in to it helps me perfect skills, become stronger and it is also a huge place for inspiration when it comes to my work. 

I went to The Pole Dance Dictionary to look up some moves and shapes that I could use in my work.

Each position is beautiful and poised. I like to look at these and think about how the body works and what makes a graceful piece.

 

 
 
I want my creatures to have appropriate poses, I am going to do an hours session of Pole and take numerous videos of moves and holds to get and idea of what poses I would like to use.

The Eternal of Wrath

Here are a few scanned in images of my sketchbook on The Eternal of Wrath, I do like my sketches but I don't feel like she is angry enough, I need to capture a true presence of wrath and pure anger. I want to do some exploration of drawing faces with seething expressions. 

I also want to do a lot more thinking about what features I could add to make the atmosphere more fearful and sinister. Im also going to do a lot of life drawing to explore some twisted and almost inhuman looking positions to draw from. 

Evil Within: Monster research

I am also looking at a game similar to Silent Hill, it too is about a hellish place filled with monstrous creatures born from tragedy and madness. These creatures too have significant meanings behind each just like the creatures from Silent Hill. I love that each of them have a significant origin born from human emotion, this gives artists the power to personify the dark side of the human mind. 

This awesomely horrific creature is called Reborn Laura, quite like The Memory of Helen (Silent Hill) it is born from the memory of Laura Victoriano, Ruvik's sister who died in a horrific barn fire that Ruvik himself barley escaped from. The only thing that can scare her is an open flame, and as somebody who's played the game I can say she is terrifying.

This creature is the Amalgam Alpha, a manifestation of the consciousness of the final test subjects that were connected to the STEM, and they are forever fused in to one single sinister creature filled with rage and revenge. 

The Sadist.

"A creature born from the mind of a murderer merged with Ruvik's madness. He has lost himself to rage, becoming murderousness personified" -In game quote. 

This is The Keeper, this is a monstrous creature born from Ruvik's mind. He comes from memories of a safe that Ruvik kept his research and horrors, this combined with the atrocities that Ruvik has committed, the creature protects these by killing anyone that comes near.