Far-off worlds often come with inhabitants, and those inhabitants, by virtue of being something completely outside our realm of experience, offer a huge opportunity for unique designs. Let’s be real—a lot of the aliens that influence science fiction are humanoid just because it’s cheaper to put some face prosthetics and makeup onto human actors. With art, you have a lot more freedom, and designing alien creatures is one area that lets you really flex your creative muscles.
If you’re going to draw a humanoid alien, start with the human face as a guideline.
Once your guideline is in place, tweak the features ...