Visual Arts and Animation - Lava Monster Assignment

Our homework assignment was following from the lava tutorial session, to make a lava monster! Underneath is my reference and research images guiding me with where I wanted to go after choosing my final concept from my experimental designs. Previously, I had found quite a few images through DeviantArt gallery which aided me in deciding the monsters visuals.

Below are my three ideas of a lava monster. The first design is a massive crawling mountain of molten rock. The second is based mostly off of a shrimp and seahorse where the legs have been replaced with liquid lava helping it move along similar to a snails slime trail. Lastly is the monster I choose for my final piece which is a colossal three miles high; similar to the titan Krono's from the film Wrath of the Titans.

For the final concept, I made a full body profile and alterations to features such as the face. To the left I have included a small diagram comparison for the sheer size of the monster. For the composition to represent the overwhelming scale of the creature, I had to think quite a bit on the placement of a camera angle called 'worms eye view' (a really low head-raising shot). To achieve this, I placed my iPads camera close to my feet while standing, walking and stomping, setting various timers, to get a realistic angle.

After finding my favourite image I took, I imported the photograph into Photoshop and worked over it with basic colours; adding a dim overcast sky to bring out the silhouette. Here is my progress in four segments of my final piece concept. I called the lava monster Godono's The Goliath (as though a big brother of the titan Krono's like from the film Wrath of the Titans). 

Below is my finished piece taking around nine hours. I needed an element of lava to stand out in the image as the dark rock colours blended together too much. To support this, I made it look as though the monsters wrists were cut; seeping lava down the hands and dripping to the ground below. To make the lava look as though it was actually falling towards the point of view, I used image references (I took for an art project back at college) where I placed my camera under falling paint which has a similar density to it. Furthermore, I really enjoyed using only a Photoshop brush pack made by concept artist Jonas De Ro with a wide range of components and shapes.