Research

Research-

Research things related to the ideas. Learning about environments a creature might live in help you think what a creature in a related environment might need. Understanding the principles or why an object is shaped the way it is or an animal adapted the way it has

Different types of locomotion, communication,- types of animal defenses or weaponry. Even mechanical things could have an organic equivalent.

The greater the pool of ideas or things to draw from the more you can think of interesting connections or using an idea in a new,interesting situation. This is key. If you spend your time practising to draw without giving yourself fuel to draw from if imagination is your objective, or if you only look at what others have done for inspiration, you are using something that has already been diluted and filtered.

The best source of reference and ideas is the world around you. In the case of animals or creatures  actually seeing the real thing is massively helpful- at once you can see the creature- you can see how the shape changes as the creature moves and turns- you see the behaviour, and you get a feel for what its about- the feeling. Often there are a lot of things about the form of an animal that are easy to spot in the real thing are difficult to figure from disparate photos or anatomical drawings. Sometimes it helps to look at anatomical drawings first so you know what things you are unsure about and to look for when you see the real thing.

Second to the real world I think are good books  with big clear detailed pictures specialised on the topic. Often you can get really great reference books on different environments for not much money- which is awful for the book creators but great for us.

Third on the list is searching the web.you can find good reference on the web but remember that everyone else might be using it too. There are some pay sites which sell sets of photos,- but what I do is whenever I'm in a city with a zoo I go to the zoo and take lots of photos.

When you are working on a game or film you also need to find out what the rules of the fantasy universe are that you are working in.  Sometimes these will be detailed in an art "bible" that someone has produced , or you can learn from  the story  how things work.  Knowing this stuff will help you create things that fit in to the world or universe,- or look like they belong.  In the case of games this sort of  consistency helps stop the player getting confused and keeps them  playing- because you want them to be drawn into the world not snapped out of it by thinking about how the art doesn't sit together or make sense. Basically if you make up rules about how the world works (even if they are magical fantastical rules- then you should try to be consistent.

Creatures

 Researching animals- the specific- try animals from similar environment to see what sort of adaptations are made(different animals often make similar adaptations/bodyforms- or solutions to the same problem).-

Researching details to help sell the ideas -Eyes feet- hands- skin types /- how it folds or sags- textures and types of patterning. Faces hands and feet generally say a lot about a creature and how it lives.

Finding out what has been tried before or what has been done before by others can be useful, particularly in terms of knowing what not to do in order to create a unique take on things. Unfortunately if you take only this approach- and  decide to do what the others aren't  it dooms you create something identical to what all the other people employing the same approach will do- strangely.

Unfortunately also the sort of creatures or character you might design are described in terms of reference to a combination of pre existing designs. However we are focussed on fun and trying to go where no man has gone before.