Wahey I've been up to some things

started my grad project concepting out Dune this year, managed to sketch out heads for most of the major characters and some props:

Great Houses Iconography

Baron Harkonnen

Chani

Princess Irulan

Jessica Atreides

Pardot Kynes

Duke Leto

Liet Kynes

Piter de Vries

Emperor Shaddam IV

Dr. Yueh

Chrysknife

Liet's hare pin

Ended up looking back at it and while I like some elements I was most unhappy with the style--I'd like to lean away from a cartoony style and have something a bit more realistic. Gonna try chipping away at that next, as well as start on some of the creature, environment and vehicle design.

Harpy Concept and A Heck of a lot of Bird Anatomy

All the bird anatomy stuff has led up to this!

Final Harpy Concept

Head Detail

Initial Head Sketch & Inspiration

Front of Wing Details

Back of Wing Details

Skin Pass

Skeleton & Muscle Anatomy

I'm really stoked on the result, and learned so much in the process! It was a bit of a compromise attaching a human head to a bird body--since birds don't have sternocleidomastoids or a trapezius, which are fairly defining for human necks, I agonized a bit over adding them. Ultimately I felt it was important to blend the human head with the bird body (keeled sternum, rigid shoulder blades) so I needed just a bit of human anatomy to make that organic.

I feel like I've come away a lot more comfortable approaching bird and bird-hybrid anatomy :3