...more sci-fi creature designs

As an illustrator, I am so busy with my children's picture book assignments... I had two more picture books released in 2015, and two more released in 2016, with four more picture books slated for release in the next couple years as well. To date I think I've had about 25 picture books published. They are challenging and satisfying... (visit stevensalerno.com to view some of my many picture books for kids)

But I still have time to doodle and create art images for my own, some of which are alien creature sketches. I enjoy imagining what a creature from another world might look like, and have created so many fanciful creature designs that I made a separate portfolio section on my illustration web site just to show them, even though they are not at all connected to any illustration assignments I do for my clients in magazines, advertising and publishing -that is until earlier this year...

visit stevensalerno.com to view his sci-fi creature sketches

visit stevensalerno.com to view his sci-fi creature sketches

visit stevensalerno.com to view his sci-fi creature sketches

Back in January I was contacted by a publisher who was creating a book for a major motion picture company's new sci-fi film -to be released this year. (The reason why I am not giving names as to the publisher, the movie studio, or the name of the sci-fi film, is because I signed a confidentiality agreement. So right now I cannot divulge that info.)

Their project would require creating illustrations as if they were sketches drawn by a character from the film... Somehow the art director at the publishing house saw my "sci-fi" creature sketches on my illustration web site, and subsequently showed them to the people at the movie studio, and based on my creature designs I was offered the project of illustrating their book, which is a companion book to their movie. 

The images posted here are NOT from the soon-to-be-released book... just examples of some of the many creatures I have created. Lesson? Build it and they will come!

Visit stevensalerno.com to see his illustration portfolios and many picture books for kids.

The New Tinker Bell (sort of...)

If you have read any of my earlier posts, you know that I enjoy doodling in general, but sometimes I get on tangents where I doodle characters as if I'm designing new creatures for a sci-fi film project, all just for my own entertainment. Click here to visit the new portfolio section on my illustration web site named other world sketches... which is a showcase for some of the "alien'" characters I have created. 


Usually I doodle while on the phone or watching TV. (I think doing something else at the same time you doodle helps to make the images freer and less inhibited, therefore more imaginative... a kind of brain auto-pilot mode.) Using a ball point pen (so no erasing or correcting can slow you down or halt the momentum) I just make a line, usually of some aspect of a face, like the ridge of a nose, or the profile line suggesting a head, and then just wing it, allowing each progressive mark suggesting the next move. But within the first handful of lines, one cannot help to have an opinion about what just materialized on the paper, so then you begin consciously directing and shaping the image with a loose goal in mind.

In the case of this image I drew her face, and few long stands flowing back from the side of her head, and it suggested a "fairy" to me.... so I purposely pushed the image, making her a kind of fairy-nymph, part woman, part insect... maybe the counterpart to Tinker Bell, but on another planet. I placed the character on a leaf for scale, suggesting she is just a handful of inches tall, and made her appear as if she is mysteriously levitating a small egg-like orb in front of her. 

Other World Doodles (AKA: aliens at large)

What does an artist do at the end of the day, after having already spent many hours creating images for assignments and projects? Pick up a pen and start drawing some more, of course.

 Sure, I do other things besides draw: exercise, cook, maybe watch a film, etc... but at the end of the day I still find myself picking up a pen again, especially when on the phone or watching some TV. Inevitably I start doodling and sketching -anything that comes to mind. In fact, in my experience, I think doodling and watching TV at the same time makes your doodles less of a conscious activity and your creative instincts seep through onto the paper more readily. Sometimes I hit a streak of doodling one particular subject or theme for a while... 

Posted here are some doodles of alien beings I created. The joy in being able to draw, is not only being able to depict what you see in front of you, but also to give life to whatever forms you imagine in your mind. It's fun to imagine what another kind of being might look like and realize it on paper. I created these images as if they were character thumbnails for a science fiction film project... I think they were all created with ball-point pen, or markers, on paper scraps. See another posting of my doodles here. 

You can see all my illustration portfolio samples on stevensalerno.com