The Tailypo Creature

Above are the previous inspirations for the creature design in 'Tailypo' (the creature is never actually named as Tailypo, it is looking for it's tailypo. The creature has no name). I liked the Cheshire Cat grin on the black and white one, by SelfRightousSuiside and the blank eyes. I also loved the designs by TurtleShelltered, as they deviate from the usual portrayals of the Tailypo creature, and have large, round glowing eyes. They are the only designs I have come across that don't look roughly the same as every other design (like the first image here, by Michael Wandelmaier.)

I would prefer to be original in my designs of the creature, like TurtleShelltered, rather than offer up a version of the over-used design. Including a Cheshire Cat-style grin could potentially look amazing.
 

 

Above: The Cheshire Cat from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and a sketch by Joshua Kenfield. I love the blue glowing eyes of the cat, and the really wide grin. It is quite subtly creepy. What I love about the sketch is the side-view, showing how far back the grin pulls the face. It is creepier than the front view.

 Style-wise, I love this piece by Viktor Miller-Gausa. The hatching is an effective method of shading the fur, leaving areas white for the highlights. The ears of the hares fit in well with designs for the Tailypo creature, and I love the way he has drawn the limbs.

As for my design of the creature, I will look back on my observation drawings from the Natural History Museum in Oxford. I will take pieces of various animals and 'stitch them together' to create one.

 

 I have picked out these particular pages for the elements of animals I will potentially use. I like the armadillo's body - I think it would be really interesting to draw as part of an unusual creature, and would offer an amazing pattern and texture for the scenes in which the creature appears. I like the ears of the hare, the hyena and the aardvark. The alligator's jaws would make a menacing mouth, and I like that a few teeth poke through or hang over the jaws. I like the body and markings of the hyena, with the high back, and the general face shape, and I like the paws and head of the fox.

I have tried copy-pasting various elements in Photoshop to inspire my creature designs.

Just a little bit... STRANGE.

I actually quite like the combination of the hyena and alligator! The ears are cute, though if I were to keep them I would have to change the proportions. The creature is often described and drawn as having very long ears, and I really like the effect in Viktor Miller-Gausa'a work above.