The Wurm - Concept Art

Taking a break from the character modelling I decided to do some concept work and designs for the Worm/Wurm creature in our game.

Initially the Wurm was a concept for a boss in one of the earlier pitches for our game:

The player was to navigate a dark tunnel, whilst slowly being pursued by him. The player would have to use their lantern to illuminate the area, and to shine the light to stun the boss as well.

However as we began game development this was one of the first ideas we had to scrap, due to time constraints.

Instead we decided to include the Wurm as almost a environment piece - he would appear now and then throughout the game, to either destroy something in his path like a bridge, or act as an obstacle for the player - rather than a fully coded boss or enemy.

I began by doing producing a small moodboard with sketches and images of worm-like creatures:

I ended up taking an interest in the different forms of the worms' mouths. I wanted to make this the focal point of the monster to represent treachery and danger to the player.

I began with a rough gesture sketch to get a general shape and idea for the monster:

I used a piece of artwork of a giant worm I found as a reference to the general shape and stance of the model.

As I continued gesture sketching I decided to start bringing out the shapes further. I wanted the Wurm to have a rocky shell/carapace on its head and back to mimic the desert and mountainous environment he was in.

As I continued to refine the creature I wanted to more focus on his mouth, opting for spiky and jagged edges - almost like a crocodile, I felt this design was a strong way to reflect danger to the player.

When I was finished gesture sketching, I went over the sketch again on a seperate layer, this time focusing only on the linework.

I did this so I could prepare it for painting and adding value.

Once the line work was finished, I painted inside it and used it as a guide to create my silhouette of the creature.

The silhouette was to act as my darkest shadow, as well as to provide the form for the creature and give me a base to work from.

I then decided to establish a background, using cloudy brushes and choosing colours to represent a desert environment.

I picked my values from 90% black to about 20% black and placed them as a value chart on a separate layer.

I used the 90% black value to begin adding my value, concentrating on the parts that would be illuminated by the light source.

I then moved onto 80% black:

Here I started using it a bit more sparingly, only on the areas that I thought would be hit by the light.

I used the 70% black even more sparingly:

Once again only using it to begin establishing my highlights.

Once I was content with the values I decided to add colour.

I worked on only blocking in the base colours, on the different parts of the Wurm.

I used a selection of different brushes to add colour variation to the Wurm, so that the colours did not appear too flat.

After I was happy with the colour variation, I used a white brush on a overlay layer to add some additional highlights:

I carried on using a white brush to add finishing details and touches to the concept art:

I was quite pleased with this small project of designing the Wurm. I do enjoy drawing despite it not being my strongest skill. And I feel I have found a workflow I am more comfortable with. I think with more practice and carrying on with this workflow, I could really improve my overall drawing and presentation skills for concepting characters and monsters.

I think my area of improvements should definitely be on focusing on blending my values more, and being braver when it comes to adding highlights. I should practice drawing silhouettes more to convey more interesting designs.