A Fantastic Beast Week 1

This week I narrowed down my creature design to two main descriptions - the Antipodean Opaleye and the Porlock. I managed to do this by using the method we had used at the beginning of the year with the chance project, pick a name/object out of a hat/box. I had a friend do this with me so that I wouldn't feel like I was cheating. I found this method to be quite quick and useful to me as I would otherwise have struggled to narrow down my list.

The original list was created by using the A-Z of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling). I had gone through the book and used a ... to label and single out all the ones that had been in the movies from the ones that were potential candidates (using different coloured labels).

For the rest of the week I began sketching out concepts for what the two could look like. Drawing out the Porlock faces on Monday and the Antipodean the rest of the week. I have realised that I am heavily biased towards the Opaleye as I have always been fascinated with and wanted to make a dragon and now is my chance to not only design one (based on a given description) but actually produce it as well.

By doing these sketches I have, however, also taken a liking to the Porlock but probably will not take it any further as I feel I would not be as inspired by the project if I were to do so.

Doing the research has also led me to question what it would look like based on it's native country and the folklore thereof. Making me question wether it should be more like a wester dragon or an Asian dragon. I even looked into Oceanians dragons as well as animals native to New Zealand to get a better feel of what it would most likely resemble had it existed.

Although, even if the description says it is native to New Zealand I have come across stories from Australia describing a Rainbow dragon, similar to that of the Antipodean Opaleye. Albeit it they are fairly close and it does migrate to Australia when the land is scarce.