Designing Demons
In my last post (HERE) I shared the color versions of the Evil Generals from Defenders of the Realm. Today I wanted to talk about my process for designing the Demon General. The only direction I had from Eagle Games was to base him off of a head shot from a Larry Elmore painting they had been using, but otherwise go nuts. Whenever I’m given that type of free range on a project I feel like it’s a personal challenge, so my goal was to make the design as weird as possible.
For reference here is the Larry Elmore painting I based the head off of:
Looking at Elmore’s work I checked off the few things I had to keep. First off the head design was like a dragon/demon mix. Next up both a cape AND wings, kind of a goofy design, but hey it works. Giant bling necklace and bracelet. You can see one hand and he’s using to hold a staff.
With all that in mind I did my first sketch, and sent it off for review:
As you can see they head design is pretty much the same as Elmore’s design. He’s got wings AND a cape, held together by bling necklace. He’s got the bracelet and is holding a staff. From that point I just went with my gut adding the things I thought would be fun. Crab claw, check! Gorilla feet, check! Extra hand and an eyeball belly, check and check!
I expected to get some changes, or have them say I’d gone to far. Nope. They loved it!
So I did a more refined drawing:
Then because it was a miniature design I drew the back as well:
With both of those approved I moved onto color.
At this point the miniature was already in the hands of the sculptor, and they were having a hard time with a model that had both wings and a cape. Go figure!
So I was asked to remove the cape.
Ygzell the Corrupt by Sam Flegal
That brings my demon design to an end. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to share some of the miniatures!
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To see more of my work or to contact me for availability to help with your project please visit: www.samflegal.com
STAY STRANGE!
An Artist's Journey 