Looking for inspiration and ideas? Maybe you want to try something new?
Aliens are always fun to draw. There is no shortage of crazy stuff out there. But, sometimes it’s always fun to play with something a little more ‘human.’
So, grab your pencil. Pull out a fresh piece of paper.
Let’s explore how can we take the human form and transform it in a way to make it look believable yet completely alien to us.
And that’s what some of these humanoid alien concept artists have created with these works. Each artwork has it’s own character and flavor. Many are cool, fun and some are downright creepy.
(Personally, I love the alien characters that could pass as everyday ‘people’ from a completely different alien race.)
Check out each awesome humanoid alien concept art below.
Awesome Humanoid Alien Designs And Concept Art
By Jose Garcia
By Rattledmachine (DeviantArt)
By April Prime
By Jeremiah Lee
By LimKuk
By Dan Mitchell
By Daniel Edery
By GCRev (DeviantArt)
By GCRev (DeviantArt)
By GCRev (DeviantArt)
By Mark Akopov
By Matt Rhodes
By Jack Griffin
By Tom
By Toni Jacobs
By Nikolas Pascal (Feature Image)
By Oscar Romer
By Salim Ljabli
By AestheticMachine (DeviantArt)
By Michael (DeviantArt)
By Oscar Trejo
By Nils Meyer
By Zunnu (DeviantArt)
By Ivan Sevic
By Hue Teo
By Ross Tran
By Brahim Azizi
By Busy Matches (Tumblr)
By Lala Fuchs
How Do Artists Create These Humanoid Alien Races?
As I was looking through these images, I asked myself “how do these artists do it? Where to they get their inspiration from?”
Obviously, you can get inspiration from other artists, however, what each artist has shown is a great understanding of the fundamentals of figure drawing.
Understand Human Anatomy
A common pattern with many of these alien concepts is the artist has taken bits and pieces of the human anatomy and distorted it in some way.
They may have elongated the torso, stretched out the limbs, exaggerated certain parts of the body, however, all of them are based on the human form.
From their understanding of human anatomy, they can create something that is believable as well as foreign.
As observers, we look at their character design and understand that it could work because the artists have a solid grasp of anatomy and movement.
They understand what looks natural and believable and what just looks out of place.
Many times they may have changed the length of a limb; however, they have kept the anatomical structure, to make it believable.
Study Other Lifeforms
These artists have been inspired by other lifeforms and incorporated them into their art.
Many artists have mixed traits of other animals and even plants, with the human form to create something new.
Many of the alien concepts above are inspired by mammals, reptiles, and even jellyfish!
They have gone to the weirdest animals on earth and asked themselves “how can I create and mix it with my understanding of the human form and create something alien yet believable?”
What Can You Do To Develop Your Alien Character Design Skills?
How can you develop your skills and draw believable human-like aliens?
Practice the human form. Understand the anatomy and how it works.
Then play with it. Stretch those arms. Give those finger length. By understanding the human body, you can change it yet still make it believable.
Also, combine your understanding of the human body, with traits of different animals. You can find some weird and inspiring creatures just by searching on the web.
Study each artwork. What did they change? What did they keep? What did they add? What proportions are different? Once you have looked at it, try it for yourself.
My favorite is the designs by Nikolas Pascal. He has used photos from a clothing catalog and put alien heads on the human bodies. It looks awesome!
And it works. These aliens look like teens from an alien race, just doing their everyday thing. It’s fun, and it’s exciting. It comes from understanding how everything works and playing with it.
So what did you love above about these humanoid aliens? What have you discovered playing with these ideas? Leave a comment below.
