Creep

June 2003

 

This one really took on a life of its own.

When I started off, I had this whole plan revolving around the idea of this vaguely ape-like fellow with all these leather strips tied all over him, mummy-like. It really didn't turn out that way. Obviously.

I just found that I liked the outline enough on its own that mucking around with a bunch of extraneous doo-dads would only diminish the design. Still, this resulted in it lacking character in a way. So I gave it some thought. I figured on tweaking the concept to make it an amphibious creature, which gave it its sleek form and slightly frog-like posture. I reasoned that a large creature which spends most of its time in the water would have some difficulty on land,, so I gave it this hunched-over posture. Figuring that it would, like a frog, give birth to dozens of young at once, I gave it countless little nipples for suckling (deciding at once that this race was hermaphroditic), and that nictitating membranes, tiny, slit-like nostrils and gills was appropriate.

Again, kind of crude and sketchy by comparison, but to this day, I have enough people tell me that they like this particular design that I feel it warrants inclusion in this list. My only real gripe is that I’ve discovered it is very difficult to give any sense of intelligence to the face of a creature whose mouth is filled with dozens of tiny, needle-like teeth. It just spoils the effect, somehow.