1 Experimentation

First I experiment with various animal body shapes, either from the past or present day. Influences include wild boar, rhino, prehistoric mammals, stag, dogs and big cats. Using Photoshop, I work in black and white, in a loose sketchy-paint style. The key is to turn out a lot of ideas, spend an hour or two on each, enough to present a cohesive idea, without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail. I use custom oil-paint style brushes and the Smudge tool to sketch form in a simple way. A human figure with a horse – elements to be included in the final sequence – is added to give scale.