Dagon design inspiration and research

As the Dagon is a monster from the sea I wanted to research in to other creatures from the sea. My first choice to look as is one of the first to spring to mind when thinking of sea monsters; The Kraken.

 First I thought I would look at iconic depictions of The Kraken, to start with I decided to look at the film industries participation on our image of The Kraken.

The Kraken, Clash of The Titans, 1981, Desmond Davis

The Clash of The Titans was created in 1981 by Desmond Davis and the Kraken for the film was created by the amazing artist Ray Harryhausen. The films monsters were made in to models and stop start animation created the movement. Granted the movement was jolty and not very realistic in the slightest in the opinion of modern day minds where we are spoiled with high quality animation and CGI. Nevertheless, I love this film, I think so much effort and creativity was put in to the making of it and the monster is brilliant! The flawed movement just shows me the old craft that was used in the process and I appreciate it greatly!

Ray Harryhausen was the spectacular master mind behind the design and making of the monster, I love the facial features and body design he created. The spikes add a scarier look to the monster, as does the heavy brow and cheek features. The Kraken has four arms and the bottom half of his body is a tail, creating a cross between human and aquatic features beautifully. I think the dipped spike at the front and centre of the mouth is wonderful, the mouth rises around this spike to show his large gums and teeth giving a scary snarl to the monster.

Ray Harryhausen working on the Kraken for The Clash of The Titans 1981

The Clash of the Titans was re made in 2010 by Louis Leterrier and the monster was created by Jerad S  Marantz. This Kraken was digitally created, so differs largely to the original. Jerad seems to have created a whole new look for his version of the Kraken and in my opinion has done so very well. 

The smaller eyes and jagged jaw work very well, I love the multiply rows of teeth and wide thick shoulders that jut out from the base of the head make the monster look strong and terrifying.