Phobias in Environments

Fear of Gaiety/Happiness/Joy

Fear of Swallowing

I made some more skeletal plans for different phobias.

fear of eyes

fear of hair

fear of hands

fear of swallowing

For now I have decided to veer away from the fearful/feared object duo.  I have compiled a list of phobias I want to include in my final:

Swallowing

Hands

Eyes

Gaiety

Chins

Being bound

Pain

Failure

Decisions

Hair

Other possibilities I am considering:

Insanity

Sitting

Being alone

I saw this image in a National Geographic issue a while back.  The article was discussing if fear is primarily a learned or instinctual behavior.  I can't find the article, but I'll keep looking.

EDIT: Here is the article.  The section in question is page 9, titled "Afraid of What?" http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/mind-brain/#page=9

Fear of anger (or of expressing one's anger): This is a creature who has the potential to be dangerous (claws, teeth, quills), but is intentionally restraining itself (claws are scratched dull, wears a muzzle, etc.)

Fear of making decisions: choices lead to action, so the main part of this creature (containing all the vital organs) has become a static, almost plant-like shape.  Its multiple appendages serve as proxies that allow it to experience the result of different choices without the dread of missing out by "choosing wrong."

Fear of insanity:  This creature's fixation on the state of its mind has become such an obsession that it focuses on nothing else.  Its gaze is turned inward so outward senses are diminished: eyes have developed cataracts, muscles have atrophied (I want to redesign this and make its legs more spindly).  It has placed its brain in a place where it feels it can be protected.

In the spirit of delving into the the biological classification of these creatures, I am interested in the possibility of showing some of their skeletal structures.  This is "fear of chins":

I've also created a clay mockup of "fear of failure."  Unfortunately I discovered too late that my camera has disappeared, but I will bring the object to class.

Here is an initial attempt at setting creatures in an environment (it's just a rough sketch).  The fearful/feared creatures for "fear of pain" seemed like they would live in an arid climate, so I painted a hunting scene in a giant plain.  I also tried to make the feared object spikier and more painful looking.

In an attempt to break away from just doing phobias of the senses, here is a design for "fear of failure."  On one hand, it has somewhat adapted to its sedentary lifestyle: coloring helps it camouflage with the foliage it lives in, forward-facing eyes allow it to see upwards when it lies in wait for food.  On the other hand, I wanted to show that this lifestyle isn't completely natural for it: it has the ears, nose, and legs of a creature meant for motion.  Ultimately this is a creature that is so paralyzed by the thought of messing up, that it can only lie there and wait for food to come to it and exerts no effort of its own.