Algonquin College; Grotto, The Anxious Cave-Dwelling Creature Design

This digital painting showcases the character design of Grotto, a small and anxious monster created for a fictional project while studying at Algonquin College. Grotto belongs to a species of cave-dwelling creatures that complete their entire life cycle in a cave but can only survive in above-ground habitats.

These creatures suffer from blindness and lack of pigmentation, but through evolution, they developed a self-illuminating external organ. Grottoes are exposed to minimal amounts of food, and their slow metabolisms permit them to conserve nutrition for long periods of time. This artwork is a combination of pencil and pixel techniques, using a physical pen and Photoshop tools to bring Grotto's unique features and emotions to life.