The Razorback Creature Design

In January I went on holiday to Lapland in Finland with the full intention of doing no drawing or creative work while I was there. I'd been stressing a lot about things over the New Year and I just needed that week on holiday to reset. However, while I was there I couldn't help doing a little bit of sketching, I've never been on a winter/snow holiday before so it was like a different world to me and I felt constantly inspired.

Obviously literally everywhere there was covered in snow, there was also a frozen lake which we walked across and stood on at night to spot the Northern Lights. Everywhere I went my brain was constantly thinking about my surroundings as if they were a world I'd designed and what creatures might live there. I thought about how if humans lived in this world it would be awesome if there was a creature there that could shovel out snow for them with it's head, so I started sketching out some ideas.

I draw random monster heads a lot to warm myself up creatively, so although I knew the purpose of this creature, I didn't know what I wanted it to look like or how it was actually going to shovel the snow. I drew up some ideas and eventually developed an idea where this creature would use horns on its head and jaw, (kind of in the shape of a circular saw if it was cut in half) to dig up the snow. I thought it would be cool to create a species of these creatures so I drew up various horns, but ultimately they all had the same purpose.

When I started developing the idea further I knew I wanted it to be a big lumbering creature that could also pick up speed when it needed to, so I thought that giving it a dinosaur type body would fit it well. I also originally wanted to keep the colours of it white and light in general so it would blend in with its environment but that ended up changing the further that I got with the design.

I've been trying to learn more about animals and nature in general recently as I feel like I've got in a comfortable habit where I just draw everything in similar ways when there's so many other ways to make a creature design look interesting, while still tying it back to the real world. So when I came across a Blue-Tongued Lizard, it made me realise that even though it's most common for living creatures to have pinkish mouths/tongues, it's not always the case. Even though the Blue-Tongued Lizard itself isn't poisonous, I think adding this design element to my creature does help to give the impression that it might be poisonous or at least dangerous.

One thing I also want to get better with is the names of my creatures, I don't know why I'm so terrible at it, but I don't have the best self confidence so I think it's a lot to do with being worried that people will think I'm daft. So for now I'm going to use random name generators for ideas because they usually spark an idea in my head! I think the Razorback fits perfectly for this guy!