The Oceanic Roc (Original Cryptid/ Creature Concept)

The Oceanic Roc is a giant sea bird spotted in remote coastal areas across North America. The folklore surrounding the creature states that it will appear and attack unsuspecting fisherman who encroach on the bird's food supply.

This project was my submission to an art challenge hosted by Concept Artist RJ Palmer. The brief was to design an original cryptid (Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster etc.), keeping in mind that the creature will not be able to be proven to science but is still something that people will have claimed to have encountered. I had the image in mind of a giant bird, sitting on the surface of the ocean, being seen from the distance so I based all of my sketches around this idea. I used photobashing in my idea generation in order to make the illustrations feel somewhat believable as well as reminiscent of famous cryptid photographs.