Crimson COW #12 - "Biblically Accurate" Creature

[Pubic Enemy]

This week's theme and brief by previous winner, JosephCow

Creature of the Week #11

»"Biblically Accurate" Creature«

"'I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel. As they moved, they went in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.'

Angels are usually depicted as beautiful people with wings. But the Bible also describes wheels with eyes, chimeras with three heads and many wings and other sights more terrifying than pretty. "biblically accurate" in pop culture usually means strange and terrible with lots of eyes. Interpret the source material as you wish and design an awesome boss/angel/creature that matches the aesthetic."

The best of the COWs will be picked by an anonymous poll in the Finals thread and the winner is given the opportunity to pick the theme of the next COW's design, as well as becoming the title banner for that week! So go hard, design something interesting and unique!


Guidelines:

• No photograph paint overs, must be 100% original work. (See next rule for exception)
  
• 3D is permitted and renders MAY be used as whole or in part of a painting, as long as YOU created the work. Pre-made and/or purchased online assets are forbidden.
  
• AI may be used in the ideation process, but the final image must be 100% hand-drawn.
  
• Studies are recommended, but not required.
  
• There is no restriction on image formats (horizontal, vertical, square).
  
• Environment backgrounds are optional.
  
• Keep in mind you are not required to stick to what is in the passage. It is more of a guide in terms of mood.
  
  

Rules:

• You must post at least one WIP in the WIP thread to be accepted into the final poll.
  
• Finals must be posted in the finals thread before the deadline.
  
• This has to be a creature, but humans can be with the creature. Humanoid creatures are allowed.
  
• At least 3/4 of the creature must be visible.
  
• Only ONE submission per person in the finals thread.
  
• No fanart. We want to see your original, unique interpretations!
  
• Voting will be held for 5 days after the deadline.
  
• In an event of a tiebreaker, a winner will be chosen through a randomized name picker.
  
  

Deadline is Thursday, September 21st @ UTC: 23:59

-+|| WIP THREAD ||+-

[RottenPocket]

Awwwe yeah

[JosephCow]

Zebra awesome work already those sketches are really cool

[RottenPocket]

Here’s a quick creature concept. Kinda generic, but it’s a start. And a sketch.

I don't think it's generic at all, you're utilising elements from the source material in your own way. 


Had a look around and a lot of non judai-christian figures are too humanoid or worldly so I stuck to variations of the classics with these thumbnails. I would have made more, and while I'm drawn to the copius amount of feathers, I think I'm going to torture myself with arms and hands.... 

[RottenPocket]

@ RottenPocket - Thanks. I think your hands and arms sketch combined with a figure in the middle like with the wheels could look really interesting. Like with that central eye fixated on a floating figure.

More quick sketch, just exploring things. Thinking maybe going more abstract. Not sure.

That's an idea, I will try it out! 

I think I'm just diving into this one. Gotts fix the symmetry in the iris. I roughed out the limb and hand placement, but I felt off about them being so human. It's not like they have right or left arms, so, now I'm giving them symmetrical hands, three fingers, two thumbs... 

[darktiste]

Just wanna share this if it can inspire something.I think this old grimoire style would fit well for this theme with all the crosshatching.

[Lege1]

Really great topic @josephcow! Really great concepts being developed! Been really sick here the past few days, just got myself together enough to sit at the computer and put some ideas together. 

[RottenPocket]

@ Lege1 - That first composition could work with the lines of the wings leading to the central figure. There may be too many different elements though - with all the animal heads. Try playing with just one of those animals and using it as a basis for your shape designs on the main character. Like the lion; using a mane around an eyeball could look cool, using a lion’s hind leg anatomy and tale mixed with a somewhat human upper body. I think it’s very difficult to combine too many different things at once because it can make for a busy looking piece that doesn’t have a cohesive design motif. Just a suggestion, nice work on coming through even when you’re sick by the way!


Tried a little hatching as per darktiste’s suggestion. Kinda wanna make a character that looks like it’s from an old Nintendo game manual.

To be fair, the animal heads are biblically accurate. 

I like the wormy guy but for a Boss figure I prefer your initial designs. 

-

Lines pretty much done, Making a start painting this puffball. 

[darktiste]

Lege1-

I would not worry so much about the design being busy biblical angel are often describe more then the usual number of hear or leg wing or arm.Just make sure you atleast make a visual hierachy meaning you pick one head that is slightly bigger one medium and one smaller the issue here is that you are presenting your character in a frontale pose but i read that there a requirement that you present atleast 3/4 view of the character it would be perfect as it would create a visual hierachy for those head one of the head from the outside would be the ''focus'' instead of them all being the same size which is what cause ''busy'' design that do not flow well.

Zebra-
+1 for exploring my suggestion

[Lege1]

@ZEBRA Thanks so much and yes, finally feeling a bit better after days in bed literally, getting sick is humbling. Thanks for the suggestions as well, and know I'm weighing out what you said also combining with some of the other input of those like @DARKTISTE I also concur with what @ROTTENPOCKET mentioned about your concepts.

@ROTTENPOCKET Super strong entry there and lots of work with all those hands, I dig the double thumb concept; very cool and other worldly.

@DARKTISTE Thank you so much and yes I definitely did some research on this (benefit of have been sick and laid up in bed for days,lol.) Great advice on what you mention regarding the 3/4 view and size hiearchy aspect of things. +1 for great advice! lol

[darktiste]

You got an eye for creature i didn't see you draw alot of them but they look pretty convincing.Did you use reference heavily if you did you certainly did a good job translating it into the page keep it up.

Nothing is worst then a day in bed away from the thing we love waiting for it to pass.

[Lege1]

@DARKTISTE Thank you very much and I enjoy drawing creatures very much. I had reference for the previous post that was real rough for this concept; I just looked at that and re-designed everything from that base information and the rest is imagination.

Yes, being sick sucks, but it's humbling. I'm finally starting to get back to normal, just waiting for the chest congestion to go away so I can get back to exercising.

ON ANOTHER NOTE:@ROTTENPOCKET just smashed the final thread with a really awesome entry. You all should definitely check it out if you haven't!

[JosephCow]

Some of my rambling ideas regarding this...

This one is tricky for me (even though it was my idea LOL) because there's so many different directions I feel like it could go. Lots of wings, lots of eyes, but also it's like, is it humanoid, is it animal chimera, is it geometric forms...

I know going into it that my goal is to design like a boss that could fit in a game like Elden Ring or the Witcher games, so a monster with many legs/wings/eyes, not actually an angel from the Bible. Could also be a good opportunity to actually figure out how to draw bird wings. 




Also nice work to everyone else, glad you guys are enjoying this theme.
@Zebra Love your drawing style, the little wormy zelda angel is very cute!

[darktiste]

Some of my rambling ideas regarding this...

This one is tricky for me (even though it was my idea LOL) because there's so many different directions I feel like it could go. Lots of wings, lots of eyes, but also it's like, is it humanoid, is it animal chimera, is it geometric forms...

I know going into it that my goal is to design like a boss that could fit in a game like Elden Ring or the Witcher games, so a monster with many legs/wings/eyes, not actually an angel from the Bible. Could also be a good opportunity to actually figure out how to draw bird wings. 



Also nice work to everyone else, glad you guys are enjoying this theme.
@Zebra Love your drawing style, the little wormy zelda angel is very cute!

Welcome to the concept art dilemma.

Personally i think i have seen enough of those eye centric design.Winged angel are over use.But i think what i would suggest you to do is put wing where you would not expected them to be like in the place of leg for example if you choose a more humanoid route.

I think also making the angel facial feature alien looking would be something refreshing but certainly risky at the same time risky.So maybe instead of going completely rogue and try to take from real life reference to create that alien look taking inspiration form insect rather then only animal if you think you can pull it off.You could do a insect animal mix but that would be more risky then something that look humanoid with insect quality.

[Lege1]

@Zebra Really cool concepts! Just pick one and have fun, and go crazy with it! You might surprise yourself =)

[Lege1]

@zebra That's looking very cool and yeah, clean it up and post up no doubt. This definitely has potential 100

[lvlingArtist]

Hey guys,
Very interesting Topic!

I would like to make an entry, not expecting much, just for fun.

I am from another country, so I can't really see, when the deadline will end exactly. How many hourse are left right now?
Where I am it should be 30 minutes plus a full day of 24 hours. But what Timezone are u using?


Do I understand it right, that I have to make a rough sketch and post it here (thats called WIP then) and then make a better version and post that into another thread?

So here is my very rough idea. It looks like absolutely nothing, but I have an Idea for the real picture in the end!
I just have to make it, and I have to go digital. Until now I did not use digital very much.

[JosephCow]

Hey nice to have you! And yeah just post a final in the Finals thread. It's on UTC, so universal time. So the deadline would technically be 23 hours from right now I think?

[Lege1]

@IvlingArtist Welcome and nice sketch. Sometimes working under pressure can create great things, good luck =)

[JosephCow]

This is an update on my hideous, Lovecraftian chimera. This is going to end up being like a speed concept for me because I ended up not really having a ton of time to put into it. No think, just do. I will probably spend a little time tomorrow polishing this idea and we'll see how it turns out!