The Caravan's Mule

As well as concepts for the two brothers, I also agreed with Josh early on that I would produce concepts for a mule-type fantasy creature that the caravan would use to transport everything when moving camp every few days. I also considered that the brothers might take the creature with them on expeditions to carry back their finds, having it wait outside sunken ruins for them to come back out for example. I eventually decided against this second idea because I wanted expeditions to be a space for interaction between just the two of them. I also thought that depending on the design I went with, it might limit their ability to move quickly or perhaps keep a low profile on the off-chance that a raiding party has ventured into the harsher lands the caravan sticks to.

I started by sketching various forms for the creature, as at this point I didn't have anything particularly concrete in mind:

As you can see, I played with both quadrupedal and bipedal forms, as I really didn't have a definite starting point in mind. As a base I used the form of a camel for quadrupeds, branching designs off from that starting point by modifying the body shapes and features. On the bipedal front, I used an ostrich base for some bird designs, while also coming up with some bipedal mammal forms which were initially inspired by various marsupials, but also incorporate various ideas from groups such as birds or lizards, and even dinosaurs. On the second sheet, I continued with quadrupedal forms until I landed on the idea of some kind of Ox/cattle with giant horns, which I liked. I had initially planned to explore other potential starting points such as lizards, snakes and bugs, but the Ox idea clicked immediately, so I decided to continue pursuing it. With a simple google search for cattle with large horns, I discovered the Ankole cattle, a family of breeds originating from Africa with almost comically large horns - I had no idea these existed and was convinced that some of the images must have been photoshopped! After finding these I knew for sure I wanted to use them as a base, and after a quick bit of research I found that they were initially domesticated in the Middle East, which fit perfectly in terms of real-world inspiration. I did various sketches involving these large horns as a primary feature (bottom half of the second sheet above), and eventually landed on three primary characteristics for my mule. It needed a sturdy frame to bear heavy loads, and I wanted the horns to be able to have bits and pieces of cargo hanging from them. Lastly, I wanted to have a large hump that stores fat, like a camel, as this would be a good adaptation for the environment, and allow it to cover long distances without needing to stop, as camels do.

Above are the concept sheets I produced for the mule creature. As you can see, the vital markings are incorporated on its horns rather than its entire body as with humans, and this choice was mainly an aesthetic one. It also draws more attention to the most prominent feature of the creature in its enormous horns, I think. Its camel hump is also huge, which makes it ideal as a mule because of the amount of area to hang stuff from. When researching camels, I also discovered that they have thick, longer fur on top to provide cover from the sun, while the fur on the lower areas is thin to allow for more effective heat loss. I've incorporated this feature of camel biology into the creature's design alongside its giant hump.

Above is a rough sheet I made to give myself a good idea of the sorts of layers involved in its cargo layout. I used this to create the more fleshed out sheet below.

When drawing this, I made sure to keep everything in separate layers so that once i finished with the final, I could produce the set of versions with only some layers visible, to provide as much clarity as possible.

I had a lot of fun coming up with this animal, particularly in incorporating real world adaptations within its design to add to its believability. Feedback from my peers has also reassured me that I've managed to retain a cute/loveable look despite its imposing stature. This was important because I really wanted the creature to be a likeable animal companion of the caravan, not an intimidating fantasy monster.

Thanks for reading!