Categorizing our references is essential in the creature design process. I like to organize my references into distinct categories: motifs, icons, and symbols related to the creature; organic design, including flowers and bugs; hard-surface details; and body language of different animals. While some of these details may not seem crucial at first, they become invaluable when designing humanoids grounded in something familiar to some degree to human perception. Having these references ready ensures a cohesive look without interrupting the creative flow to search for them later.

After completing the research process for a creature design for a game or film, we start to have many ideas bouncing around our heads, inspiration is not lacking. Now, instead of jumping straight into sketching ideas after reading the initial creative brief, we have a north star to where we want to go—it’s embedded in our findings. A good reference board will provide direction and alignment for our creature design, ensuring both the concept artist and the client agree on the key results for what our creature design should ultimately achieve. Creative briefs and their wording may be sometimes ambiguous, and we all interpret things a different way, the idea of a “badass creature design” may be different from person to person. If you give ten concept artists the same assignment, they all come with different results, this is because we perceive the world in different ways, a client will too, have its own interpretation of the creative brief, and it is important the concept artist aligns.

Testing ideas fast is not only a cost-effective methods for sketching, but at the preliminary stages, it is often the most reliable, as we’re just testing our first ideas, and seeing what works and what doesn’t, from a creature concept artist perspective, any sketches, have no value yet, from a production stand point.

For Creature Design for a game or film, I will often rely on speed and efficiency of production. This means I will use whatever tool at my disposal, and deviate from being a purist. I don’t just 3D Concept Art, and I don’t just do 2D Painting, I mix many different processes and tools to whatever gets me to the end result faster.
For example: An hard-surface design may be best to tackle in 3D Software such as Blender or Maya, but a organic subjects are usually easier to tackle in 2D software like Photoshop. Often, I’ll create complex components in 3D—especially those with ball joints and pivots requiring precise perspective—before bringing them into Photoshop for further painting or sketching.