Ugly Creatures

I found this wonderful book in Barnes and Nobles called On Ugliness edited by Umberto Eco. It has great photos from art history of Medieval and Renaissance illustrations of hell, the final judgment and other stuff (Dada art, Mythological inspired drawings). There is even a photo (mind you a photo) of a man holding another man's severed head! How disgusting, I know, but really cool in a bizarre way!!!!! I bought the book with some of my birthday money!


The book!

As you can tell I have embraced my mom's advice of drawing more ugly things. I've never really explored animal creatures and humanoid monsters before in my art; I mostly drew elves and faeries and other such things. As a result, I don't have a storage of grotesque images in my head so I have to use outside sources for inspiration. I look at objects around me and see if they have an interesting almost beastly form to them or I refer to picutures of insects. Sometimes I just use the basic human figure and distort it in uncomfortable ways (elongating the neck here or giving it extra arms etc). This particular lady faery's head was inspired by a Kleenex.


This next one is a page of assorted monsters I created. I just sort of compiled them together on the page as I thought of them. It's interesting how they flow together; that was unintentional.


For this first one, I thought it would be interesting if the creature had its arms on its back and the wings in the front, opposite of an angel or something. The body is more delicate but creepy and pointy none-of-the-less. The head is your average gargoyle/goblin head.


This next one is my favorite. I envisioned the pose before the creature. I'm not exactly sure what it is doing; it's sort of siting on a cloth strip that is holding it in mid air. I'm really excited about the hollowed out chest and multiple faces. This is definitely the most dynamic one.


This guy reminds me a bit of Predator, which was not my original intent; I think it's because of the hair and face. I was going for a buggy sort of spider look for the eyes (it has lots of eyes) and and a skull/bone head with no bottom jaw. Its armor and blades are part of its skin, I guess like an insect. I imagine it being a soldier or guard to a fortress. All the intruder hears before they are slashed across the face is the clinking of hooves on the stone floors.


Mom requested this ugly fellow. She asked my to draw something that smiles like her sometimes. Of course I exagerated it; she never looks like she's about to eat someone. The hood he... or it is wearing in not clothe, but its own skin. This fellow is completely dressed in his own pooling, wrinkling skin. I would be surprised to ever see him not hungry. Ever wonder why he has two hands tied to stings when he has four of his own? They make it easier to gather his food, not the salad kind of food, mind you.


This final creature has three mouths on his face. Those are all tongues coming out; they smell the air like snake tongues. The body is most definitely inspired by an insect. Rather than legs it has arms that taper from muscle to just bone. I would love to see it scuttle around. Oooh gross!