Human-Alien Hybrid Tips 1

Requested by , first part of two on tips for drawing human alien hybrids.

There are really two ways you can go with drawing hybrids:

1. You can make an "attractive hybrid". These are hybrids that keep the most important parts of human anatomy, making them more familiar to us humans. The most important part of this is keeping to human facial and body proportions.
2. You can make a "creepy hybrid". For these, you break all the rules of human anatomy you were trying to follow with an attractive hybrid, making something that looks more monstrous, more alien, and a whole lot less human.

I'm guessing you can tell which is which. >w>

Anyway, here's the thought process that went into each of them.

The one on the left is the attractive hybrid. I started out by drawing a basic human, with all the correct proportions and everything. Then I took a look at Eye Guy and looked at what I could add- I replaced the ears (which are one of the body parts you can edit as much as you like) with Opticoid frills, the base of which is obscured by the hair. It's important to keep all transitions from alien part to human part either smooth or obscured by something. I also turned the fingers into claws, which is not too shocking to see since they're similar to nails. Finally, I added some eyeballs on the body. I kept it symmetrical and minimal. I placed them strategically; the one on the chest is rather symbolic of Eye Guy, as well as the source of his biggest powers, so I had to put it there. The ones on the shoulders resemble shoulder pads, so it's not too odd.


The one on the right is the creepy hybrid. With this one, I played a lot with the anatomy to try and find a balance point between human and Opticoid, rather than gluing Opticoid parts on a human frame. I gave him an Opticoid's broad shoulders, lanky arms, strange knees, and massive oversized obliques. On the other hand, I toned all of this down to bring him closer to a human, so he didn't just look like an Opticoid. If you turn your attention to the head, you'll notice that the face shape is more like an Opticoid, but with human hair and nose. (If I had colored this, there would have been an indent to indicate where human eyes should be but aren't. A good method of making something creepy looking is to mix the shapes of the human and alien halfs; for example, the frills turning into human ears, or human fingered with the same numbers and lengths as an Opticoid hand. Also note that with the eyes I made no effort to keep it symmetrical.



Brief Overview (with some extra points I couldn't find room to cover)

Proportions are the most important element of familiarity. If you want a non-creepy character, keep the proportions mostly human, if not completely.
Symmetry is also important. It is usually okay to give the character one alien arm and/or leg since this could be interpreted by the brain as a glove of sorts, but the face and torso should for the most part be symmetrical. Of course, if you're going for creepy, asymmetry is a powerful thing.
For attractive characters, keep alien parts alien colored and human parts human colored. The exception to this is if you decide to change the base skin color, in which case nothing on the person should be fleshy colored as it can make the character look ill. Transitions from alien parts/color to human parts/color should be either smooth, sudden, or concealed by hair or clothing. Rough and uneven transitions can make it look cancerous and gross, which is good if that's what you're aiming for.
Fusing a human body part with an alien body part to make one strange feature that's on neither species is great for creepy hybrids.
For attractive hybrids, try to keep the facial features in the correct places for a human on the head, even if the features themselves are modified a bit. Make sure to keep the eyes and mouth expressive, meaning that they are able to move in all the ways a human eye can. Also, aim for a human head shape.
Parts that you can modify on an attractive hybrid and still have it be acceptable are the ears and the hair. The nose and the hands can be warped quite a bit too, within reason.


Anyway, I hope this helps! I'm going to do a female one too, with an Arachnachimp ^w^

Ben 10 (c) MoA