Fiend-Ohs

Hand drawn, original creeps, fiends and friends by the creator of Cousins, Mildewds and Krypto Kids.

The making of March

 

Degenerative Art

Fiend-Ohs started out as a design sketchbook for a future procedural collection. As I created more and more concepts, I realized that my imagination is still way ahead of my generative methods.

Since then I’ve completed Fiend-Ohs Series One. It consists of seven original characters and a lot of runners up.

When I make these sketches I rarely have a vision in advance. They come from a semi-conscious feedback loop. The hand makes a mark, the eye reports it’s impact on the surrounding area and the brain decides what, if anything it could be. The brain nudges the hand and we’re off.

It reminds me of the way Deep Dream uses an over-active signal detector to create "digital hallucinations” by taking whatever the manic detector sees as a dog (for example) and then finding the change that makes the detector see it as just a little more dog like.

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How It’s Made

  • Mining

    I like to think of making cool characters as a mining process. Many tons of raw, ore-bearing rubble must be extracted and refined.

    Experiments in generating mixes and matches of shapes sometimes get the ball rolling but the vast majority come from ordinary sketching and doodling.

    I also keep a list of prompts handy and add to it often.

  • Refining

    Dozens upon dozens of sketches are evaluated and from them a handful are escalated for further design. Sometimes they get a few more iterations but often just minor tweaks made while inking.

    The inking stage is the most satisfying for me. Once the lines can stand on their own (without the blue sketch layer) I get to see if I pulled it off. Is it ready to consider for color?

  • Polish

    With inking complete and wayward designs cast back into the pit, I turn to color. This is the most difficult part for me and maybe the stage at which I lose the most subjects.

    Nevertheless, a worthy few find themselves colored, posed, printed or minted and listed.

    Do you want to know their stories? Ask me on twitter @VoidStrummer.