Crafting realistic creatures for an authentic representation

 

In terms of style when it comes to creating this project's concept art, the more realistic looking the better in my opinion, to present the creatures as a very real being thus representing how real these cognitive disorders are and how powerful the symptoms can be when affecting the sufferers. I feel that a more cartoony or stylised form of the creatures would be duplicitous in relating to none sufferers how severe and life-altering some of the symptoms can be. It also allows me to look more into the sort of ecological and evolutionary traits that have come to form different species of existing creatures and how that could be implemented into my designs such as the predator/prey adaptations I have already looked at.

Topics to be looking at when differentiating between different categories of cognitive disorder creatures are as follows; Features, Coloration and patterns, Height and Weight, Natural variations - this ties more into the different categories of cognitive disorders having separate designs whilst disorders in the same category appear as natural variations, environmental influences, diet, reproduction, advantages, weaknesses, communication, and culture.

FEATURES

I have to be mindful when deciding what features to include within the creature designs. Real creatures do not evolve randomly, and each feature they have evolved to serve a purpose. Every feature I add should fall into one of three categories: an evolutionary benefit, a vestigial remnant from the species' ancestors, or the result of a weakness we see in those who suffer from the disorder.

1. An evolutionary benefit is something that is important for a creature's survival. It can be a large feature like the wings that allow birds to fly, or it can be a smaller feature like the shape of a dog's ears. Tails on a monkey allow them to climb more easily and keep their balance while in a tree. The long tongue of an anteater allows it to get food that doesn't have much competition - these are the traits that allow an animal to survive within a niche.

2. A vestigial remnant is an evolutionary leftover that is no longer useful. For example, humans have vestigial teeth as a result of our diet changing over time. Depending on how the understanding of the cognitive disorder has evolved, they could have many features that used to serve a purpose, but now no longer do. 

3. Although less applicable in some of the disorders a species or set of features could be representative of the weaknesses a person sees in themselves when understanding the cognitive disorder they have, such as a deformation of the mouth in a creature representing selective mutism, it would not make sense to remove the mouth completely as they wouldn't be able to intake nutrients or communicate effectively enough to be a surviving species but some form of deformation would imply the mutism and it's selectiveness almost similar to how some existing creatures have abilities that only reveal themselves in certain situations that initiate a fight/flight response e.g rattlesnakes tail or skunks scent expulsion.

some examples of features are; Wings, Gills, Fins, Hooved feet, Horns, Tails, Extra limbs, Strange eyes, Extra eyes, Claws, Large ears, Antennae, Feathers, Scales, Fur, Exoskeletons, Additional or backwards joints, Long tongues.

COLOURATION AND PATTERNS

Colouration and pattern can be seen as features but can also play a huge part of the identity of the creature with the most obvious being camouflage as an advantage to either hunt for prey or hide from those who would prey on them but not all designs make that much sense. For example, many birds have evolved to be brightly coloured as a result of natural selection - the brightest males were able to mate and pass on their genes. This does not give birds a distinct advantage, and in fact, can make them more visible to things that would want to eat them. However, creatures like sea slugs use bright colours to communicate that they are poisonous and therefore inedible. A creature may also get. different colour depending on their diet. Flamingos are not naturally pink, and get their colour as a result of the pink shrimp they eat.

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT

Another important facto I should consider are the proportions and overall size of the creatures. How tall are they? How wide are they? How is their weight distributed through their bodies leading to decisions of whether they are bipedal or quadrupedal? importantly what would they look like beside a human since they are representative of disorders within humans - for instance, the weight on their shoulders people talk about when experiencing depression should be indicated by the enormous size in the creature displaying how cumbersome and difficult removing the creature/disorder can be to an individual. What is the reasonable margin of size variation for the creatures since not all humans are the same size, if the margin is exceptionally large what reason present within the disorder has produced this design choice. If the creature is gigantic how do they get the sustenance to justify this size and weight? Large herbivores would require enormous plants to eat, while huge omnivores or carnivores would suggest the presence of gigantic prey though this can be worked around if there is an abundance of smaller creatures, like how whales eat plankton.

NATURAL VARIATIONS

In the natural world different species have different variations due to the impacts of many other topics within this list and how they vary can be small or large depending on how impactful the cause of the variation is, there are many different subspecies of tigers but all look very similar however mantises look extremely different between species, for this project variation allows me to keep some similarities between types of cognitive disorders that all fit under one type and so share basic symptoms whilst have variations due to the more unique and niche symptoms the disorder may have. Some fields of cognitive disorders have a vast array of sub-types with very different symptoms whereas others hold very similar symptoms so would display mild variation across the designs for example sleep/wake disorders could be interpreted as nocturnal creatures so would all share dark colouration and large eyes and very little variation from each other, opposed to this is the field of depression that I have already suggested would have a large size and weight however every other design feature would be unique due to how different each cognitive disorder in this field can be.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES

A creature's design can tell you a lot about where they live, and the type of environment that they will thrive in. In fact, because the features of their design exist to serve a purpose they will reflect the environment I envision when imagining the cognitive disorder due to societal conventions - depression/water-based environment, etc.

Understanding how these environments lead to creature design will impact the choices I make when designing the creatures. Cold environments lead to fur-coated creatures for example.

DIET, REPRODUCTION, ADVANTAGES, AND WEAKNESSES

These four topics all relate to the biology of a creature and whilst not the first thing to think about when depicting cognitive disorders as creatures since disorders cannot reproduce it is worth understanding if any of the known forms of reproduction can be representative of any disorders etc. I have already discussed the features that differ between creatures of prey or predator which would be impacted by diet and how the characteristics of anxiety don't fit with a creature that would be predatory and therefore they should display more features in line with herbivores and prey-like creatures but asking questions of whether they give birth to live fetuses or lay eggs and what changes in the design process the answers to these questions can deliver. As well as understanding possible advantages and weaknesses of cognitive disorders and how they could be represented in the design such as anxiety can be a way of uncovering foresight since you can often overthink a scenario and understand the outcome before it occurs whilst also offering a lot of fear and trepidation if the most likely outcome to occur is one you do not wish to happen. Could this be represented by extra eyes - certainly a possibility with paranoia disorder.

I have already started to produce sketches and observational drawings of features that already exist to get used to reproducing the sort of features that may be present in the creatures in a realistic form to allow myself to understand how to develop these into concept art pieces I wish to produce.

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders characterised by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal functions are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physical and cognitive symptoms, such as restlessness, irritability, easy fatigue, difficulty concentrating, increased heart rate, chest pain, abdominal pain, and a variety of other symptoms that may vary based on the individual.

In casual discourse, the words anxiety and fear are often used interchangeably. In clinical usage, they have distinct meanings; anxiety is clinically defined as an unpleasant emotional state for which the cause is either not readily identified or perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable, whereas fear is clinically defined as an emotional and physiological response to a recognised external threat. The umbrella term 'anxiety disorder' refers to a number of specific disorders that include fears (phobias) and/or anxiety symptoms.

There are several types of anxiety disorders, including generalised anxiety disorder, hypochondriasis, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, panic disorder, and selective mutism. Individual disorders can be diagnosed using the specific and unique symptoms, triggering events, and timing. A medical professional must evaluate a person before diagnosing them with an anxiety disorder to ensure that their anxiety cannot be attributed to another medical illness or mental disorder. It is possible for an individual to have more than one anxiety disorder during their life or to have more than one anxiety disorder at the same time. Comorbid mental disorders or substance use disorders are common in those with anxiety. Comorbid depression (lifetime prevalence) is seen in 20-70% of those with social anxiety disorder, 50% of those with panic disorder and 43% of those with general anxiety disorder. The 12-month prevalence of alcohol or substance use disorders in those with anxiety disorders is 16.5%.

Worldwide, anxiety disorders are the second most common type of mental disorders after depressive disorders. Anxiety disorders affect nearly 30% of adults at some point in their lives, with an estimated 4% of the global population currently experiencing an anxiety disorder. However, anxiety disorders are treatable, and a number of effective treatments are available. Most people are able to lead normal, productive lives with some form of treatment.

If we look at the base-level common symptoms or emotions present within all of the anxiety disorders that can make way for an artistic decision on a form that they can all share like I mentioned in a previous post about designating each type of cognitive disorder with a type or evolutionary species of monster like pokemon types or how each monster in monster hunter has evolutionary advantages in their appearance based on the land type they come from. The more unique symptoms can then be used to push the design in its own unique direction to promote the idea of how unique each cognitive disorder can be and why its so important to understand the differences when diagnosing.

For instance, general symptoms of anxiety disorders may include: feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge; worrying excessively; difficulty concentrating; restlessness; and irritability.

With selective mutism having further unique symptoms a person who is normally capable of speech does not speak in specific situations or to specific people. Selective mutism usually co-exists with shyness or social anxiety. People with selective mutism stay silent even when the consequences of their silence include shame, social ostracism, or even punishment. 

Looking at the general symptoms and the commonality of these types of cognitive disorders I think of smaller creatures often seen as prey, constantly scurrying around avoiding predators, by small I don't wish to condescend sufferers into believing their disorder is less significant than others but if the conditions were monsters/creatures and highly common they would take up more space in the world, perhaps their abundance would lead to them creating colonies or like the goldfish theory of fish growing to the size of their environment - if there is a singular fish in a large aquarium it gets all of the available resources and can grow to a larger maximum size compared to if it shared the environment with others or was placed in a smaller tank. Noting that these creatures would most likely be prey rather than predators through the symptoms of nervousness and worrying excessively, I can infer certain design choices such as the anatomy of the creature.

And this is just the eyes, we can think about the size and placement of the ears, what teeth they may have depending on diet, skin patterns for camouflage, how their limbs may look depending on how they may have to react to predators and environment and speed and reaction times they have evolved to encompass into their anatomy.

This can be evidenced in design choices with something as simple as Pokemon.

Even after changing from a prey-like form to a more predatory one, some design choices are kept to retain a sense of evolution with one form coming from the other. Same lip style and three-pronged fins as well as two elongated whiskers.

Mental health monsters - whats come before

I'm not going to pretend that the idea of using mental health conditions as a theme for creative practice is revolutionary and new, often being used by artists to promote awareness of the symptoms that those diagnosed as such suffer from. However, it is more common to be illustrative rather than conceptual for games or film design - and after looking at some of the following artists and ideas to get me thinking of what could be done differently to show off my own specialist skills it got me thinking back to how to tie it into a possible game if at all. Eventually, I came to think of hunting these mental health monsters, since nobody wants anyone to be suffering in this way - leading to the sort of work from the Monster Hunter franchise and how the designs of the monsters in those games are pushed forward into the designs of the armor and weapons that can be crafted from components looted from the bodies of the monsters slain. This direction would allow me to demonstrate my skills as a concept artist and illustrator with not only creature design but also attire, weapons, and props and allow observers to see how my skills can be adapted for any project in developing a game's concept art.

Here are some of the contextual research I have come across so far and my thoughts on them and how it has influenced my own processes with this project.

Shawn Coss

Shawn Coss has done multiple series' of these designs illustrating how he believes a person suffering from a particular cognitive disorder may feel in a bold black-and-white style. However this choice of style and aesthetic ties them all together a little too closely for my particular needs of representation not allowing for the uniqueness of each condition to stand out on its own, plus with being overtly human-esque in shape and form it doesn't fit with my idea of cognitive disorders being monsters we must battle - wouldn't resonate well with sufferers if I were to suggest that they were the monster all along. Incorporating more animalistic qualities and features of monsters from both myths and legends as well as fantasy would separate the cognitive disorder from humanity giving audiences a better view of the antagonistic characters these conditions should be depicted as.

Toby Allen

Toby Allen's work is definitely more in line with some of my ideas after having looked at Shawn Coss' work having the disorders illustrated as creatures, with a more fantasy element attached to them - even the choice of font used in the descriptors lends to this theme. The aesthetic of these illustrations in comparison to the previous ones does seem to be aimed at a younger audience through its use of curved forms and saturated colours, even going as far as making some of these conditions look like cute pets one would keep - this may be perfect for the audience Allen had in mind similar to Pokemon however if I am using games like the monster hunter franchise as a format for where my project could sit then having a cute monster that you intend to hunt and defeat for parts to build weapons and armour cuteness should be replaced with a more beastly aesthetic. This isn't to say there aren't components of these designs that can't be utilised, I'm unsure whether it was intentional or not but a lot of the conditions present that fit in the category of anxiety seem to have skull-like masks and I feel it would be good to have the beasts have elements like this shared across the categories, just how pokemon have fire type and water types with design elements to show this in the forms of colour, anatomy, and texture, etc. It would show the categories as a sort of evolutionary family which represents how they all affect a particular part of the brain. 

Sillvi

Including Silvi's work here even though a criticism of Coss' work was the humanisation of these disorders - it's simply the theme and audience they were going for, I believe in the hope of creating empathy for sufferers by showing what the human body is subjected to through the symptoms. The use of desaturated colours in Silvi's work adds a new dimension to the work not present in Coss' making them feel almost like curses or hexes placed upon the person. There certainly seems to be a lot more energy in these illustrations through the combined usage of the desaturated colours, linework and effects from digital editing especially in the ADHD creation. Linework will be a key artistic choice to think about when illustrating my own creatures as it clearly is one of the things that links the art to its intended target audience, with the contrast from Allen's work aimed at a younger audience with curved softer lines and Silvi's sharper more erratic linework adding a more antagonistic and crueler feel to the pieces.

Xallwinz

Diseases as Demons series

Mental Illness as Demons series

Xallwinz is a YouTuber who creates shorts using AI with prompts to make a series of images around one theme illustrated as another, in this case, both diseases and mental illnesses are depicted as demons. These came up during research simply from a Google search of mental illnesses as monsters and I thought it would be interesting to see the contrast between AI art and illustrated pieces. I disagree with AI art being art but more of a tool for collating ideas such as images for a mood board and so looking at these subjectively there are ideas and aesthetics that look interesting such as the jigsaw skin for Autism and how horrifying some of them appear to be through artistic choices that come straight from horror movies like glowing eyes, exaggerated human features like extended limbs and jaws, however with it being computer generated a lot of them are too on the nose with the depictions such as a skeletal figure for anorexia which lacks empathy for sufferers whilst in contrast, Silvi depicts how a sufferer may view themselves when they have the condition. The realism of the pieces is quite effective and the tones of colour definitely help sell these as real creatures that would be haunting to come across I feel this would be effective when depicting tangible beasts that you could hunt allowing audiences to fight back against something they are often judged for it all being in their head.

Below is some Monster Hunter World concept art just so I can have a feel of what I would like to produce.