William O’Connor - Dracopedia the Bestiary: An Artist’s Guide to Creating Mythical Creatures

For millennia historians, artists and scientists have chronicled their ideas and discoveries of mythological and magical monsters in encyclopedias known as bestiaries. From Asia to America, Japan to the jungles of South Africa, the vast menagerie of exotic and legendary creatures has populated the imaginations of all cultures for centuries. Early bestiaries by classical authors like Aristotle and Herodotus included a wide range of exotic animals such as giraffes, leopards, elephants and rhinoceros. By the Middle Ages the bestiary had become very popular chronicling the mystical creatures of legend like the unicorn, dragon and chimera. Beautifully illustrated and fantastically detailed, these compendiums of magical monsters captivated the medieval mind. By the seventeenth century, however, the dawn of the Age of Reason and the scientific method abandoned the speculative nature of the bestiary for the more empirical study of botany and zoology. In 1735 Carl Linnaeus established the Linnaean taxonomic system in his writing Systema Naturae, which categorized the animals of the world into a codified system still in use today.

Dracopedia: The Bestiary is a modern reimagining of the ancient bestiary for contemporary artists, an A-to-Z guide to both the well-known and the rare animals of the legendary world.

The branch of science that is dedicated to the study of legendary or mythological animals known as cryptids is called cryptozoology. For the past century this science has gained in popularity and mainstream acceptance.

Morphology is a biology term denoting the study of the forms of animals and plants. The study of morphology is integral to the conception of mythological and legendary creatures. Morphology is just a big word for understanding why animals look the way they do, and why and how animals evolve into the forms we know.

By understanding the animals that exist in the real world, we artists can use the science of morphology to relate the form and function of animals to the design of the creatures that exist in our imaginations. Simply using the historical artistic reference of bestiaries and ancient art, we can begin to reverse-engineer the creatures of legend into realistic and believable animals using morphology. To that end the creatures in this book have been designed to look as if they have evolved in a natural manner on Earth. That means that all of the designs are based upon living creatures that are well known. Although you may design more exotic creatures for your own projects, the animals within are designed to look like they came from our planet, not an alien world or fantasy realm. With each beast, we discuss the important aspects of its morphology such as where the animal lives and what it eats.

The answers to these questions will help you conceptualize and design the morphology of the creatures. For example, fangs are unlikely on an animal that eats plants, and an animal with long legs for running probably wont live in a dense jungle. An animal that lives in the water might require webbed feet, and one that lives in the mountains could benefit from small cloven hooves for climbing rocks agilely. A creature that eats big animals needs powerful claws and teeth for grappling and clawing, while a creature that eats small animals may need only small teeth and no claws. Creatures living in environments where there may be fierce competition from other animals might require armor plating for protection. Whatever the creature, the understanding of morphology is decided by form following function. Try to think about these things as you read forward and conceive beasts of your own.

William OConnor

WARGRIFFIN
Digital
20 14 (51cm 36cm)

What materials you use to create your own mythological creatures are entirely up to you. My hope is that Dracopedia: The Bestiary can be used as a reference by artists of all disciplines. For my own purposes and for the demonstrations, all of the images in this bestiary are produced using pencil sketches, then colored digitally on a computer using editing software such as Adobe Photoshop.

Sketchbooks

Here are some of the sketchbooks and drawing materials used to create the artwork in this bestiary. I believe the sketchbook is the artists best tool. This is where the real creativity happens.

Experiment With Lines and Mark-Making

These are some examples of the kinds of marks and lines that can be made with a pencil. Experiment with different pencil weights to find a hardness that suits you. They usually range from 9B (softest) to 9H (hardest). I like HB, which is right in the middle. The softer the lead, the darker the marks the pencil can make.

Any Medium Will Do

Any medium will work to create the creatures of your bestiary. Experiment with a range of materials to find which types work best for you, such as colored pencils, markers, pens, paints and chalk.

When creating animals, nothing is more important than having good referenceyou can never have too much of it. The Internet, natural history books and animal models are invaluable sources to the fantasy artist. If you have a zoo or a natural history museum near you, there is never a substitute for working from life.

Animal Photographs

The Internet is also a great place to search for animal images. Organize your digital files by subject into easily accessible folders.

Books

Books about animals, both real and imaginary, are a great resource. Hit the library or build a collection from used book shops, garage sales or discounted online sellers.