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The Art Ritual: 31
Let's Draw: Dwarven Creature Companions
Let's Check Out: The Art of Paul Bonner
Let's Talk About: Ugly Drawings & The Design Process

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In this Art Ritual video, I'm doing some of those ugly, awkward, but super necessary drawings that we need to do in order to get an idea from our head down onto the page. I'm tackling a design problem from one of my recent illustrations - creating a more interesting dwarven familiar/creature companion. The original creature I drew was kind of lame, so we're going back to the drawing board.

First, we check out The Art of Paul Bonner, an amazing creature designer who creates this incredible mix of realistic painting with real caricature and exaggeration. His work is full of character, great anatomy, and these unique takes on fantasy tropes. Every little detail in his illustrations tells a story, and that level of design thinking is really inspiring for what we're trying to do today.

Then we dive into the messy design process. I start by thinking through the logic - if dwarves live underground in hot forges, would they need something to keep them cool? An ice drake for air conditioning? Or would they need warmth when they go above ground? We explore different ideas - from elemental cold creatures to chunky mole-like things with giant spiky heads for mining.

The drawings start out really rough and ugly, and that's the point. This is what the real design process looks like - lots of awkward sketches, abandoning ideas that aren't working, and pushing through until something interesting emerges. We end up with a couple of promising directions including these chunky bulldog-lizard creatures that could be developed further.

Tools for today: Blackwing pencil and Strathmore 400 series hardbound sketchbook. Just the basics to focus on finding ideas rather than making pretty pictures.

Check out my free Brainstorming Toolkit in the description if you want to learn more about the ideation process and how to push through those awkward early stages of design.
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00:00 Intro
01:48 Welcome
02:38 The Art of Paul Bonner Book
11:25 The importance of Ugly Drawing
13:33 Let's Do Some Ugly Sketches



Happy Drawing!

Tim Mcburnie:

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