Sweet Dinos
This is a personal Illustration I started to create a year ago. It came across a long process of character design and style exploration, until I got to the finished product.
There are some motivations and influences behind it that I'll explain below, but overall I wanted to make something fresh in terms of style.
It's been a great journey in which I have been accompanied by these fellows of various sizes, shapes and personalities (and flavors... maybe). Enjoy!
Detail View
The singing raptor is a Zhenyuanlong, one of my favorites.. Colors are based on an upcoming figure of the Beast of the Mesozoic raptor series, by David Silva.
The Process
It all started when I got hyped again by Dinosaurs on 2015. Pixar's A good Dinosaur was a great motivation and inspiration to create my own set of cartoony Dinosaurs. I knew from the beginning that I wanted fluffy feathered Dinosaurs, and that I wanted a different style from what I've seen before in other Dinosaur cartoon movies.
First sketches, more like children's book illustration.
Other explorations, turning a little creepy.
This is more like my personal style, with more corners and rougher line.
A more creepy exploration, I just wanted to try all possibilities.
I made a lot of style studies, from very childish versions, to a more creepy ones. I found this was difficult, since I didn't knew exactly what was the feeling I wanted for this illustration. I tried to keep it close to my personal style, which is a little rough, but then I realized I wanted something softer, warm and joyful.
At some point I got influenced by Nintendo, since it's characters and games make me feel like a kid again. I wanted to make my Dinos reproduce that feeling of happiness, and then I got to a point when they started to look like if they where made of sweets and candies, so I decided that they should look kind of flavoury.
New explorations, with more round shapes.
After that I got stuck in a point where I didn't knew what kind of render I wanted so I tried a lot of stuff, from something very painterly to plain vectors. At last with many things learned, I decided to return to the first idea I had, which was more plain but with a traditional art feeling, for which Kyle T Webster Brushes where like angels. At the same time I get to polish the final details and proportions of the characters.
And at last I decided to add more Dinos to the party, since I felt It was to empty, and I wanted more chaos and joy! But not all designs made it to the illustration.
First version almost finalized.
Various render tests.
Unused designs.
Final sketch.
So that's the process of this illustration. I hope You have enjoyed this behind the scenes.
Don't forget to appreciate the project if you liked it, and follow me for more!
