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Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Printable Version

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Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Lege1 - 09-11-2025

Barbaric Elephant King
*Create a character that is humanoid that represents what you believe a Barbaric Elephant King to be. 

Character Design References Challenge Rules
  • 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.
  • At least 3/4 of the character must be visible (minimum from the knees up).
  • 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.
-=WIP THREAD=-

Deadline is Saturday, March 1st, 2026 @ UTC: 23:59


RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Navaali - 09-11-2025

Thank you for your feedback on the previous challenge! I agree, it was more of a colored sketch and not a polished piece.
I'm trying to keep that momentum so I'll try participating in this one as well.
I actually created an elephant anthro character a few years ago that is not too far away from this prompt, so I'm already familiar with some of the problems...
I'll go in a different direction. To be honest I didn't go with the most obvious answer in the last prompt and ended up losing a lot of time so here I'm just following the basic idea...
Here are my first sketches.



The difficult thing with elephants is that they have a big head compared to their body so you have to change that proportion to make the character look bulkier...
I'll try contrasting some big shapes with smaller ones like skulls. 

The example in your prompt has three legs... Ō.O

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Lege1 - 09-12-2025

Navaali

Great to see you taking interest in the forum and looks like you are off to a great start. All good on the previous challenge and I'm glad you understand. Keep in mind there is never anything wasted because everything you do makes you that much better, so the miles you put in the closer you'll get to where you want to be as an artist. It's great that you have already explored drawing elephants in the past and this should make things a bit easier and ultimately more enjoyable for this challenge.

Your first sketches are looking good. Exploring different poses should definitely be first thing on the agenda, and making sure that the characters silhouette reads well visually. From there the sky is the limit with how you want to further design and adorn your character. Very good observation on the elephant head being exceptionally larger, but also keep in mind a big part of that illusion is the over sized ears. If you look past the elephants ears and focus on just the head and body, you'll see the head is actually in relative proportion with the body. Typically, making a characters head smaller can make their body and overall figure look bulkier and menacing; Marvel Comics did this with their Kingpin and Hulk characters throughout the years. Definitely dare to experiment to see what deems you the best result and every king needs a third leg, lol. (Was a random image from online that is most likely AI.)

The front pose in your sketches is looking very nice. That might be something to push further.

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Navaali - 09-28-2025

Thank you for your support! I am looking for experimentation and progress with those challenges, so even if I don't complete it, I'm glad that I drew for it.

Because you mentionned poses, I tried to experiment with a few different poses to give a more dynamic and barbaric look to the character, as suggested in the prompt. 
In the first (green one) I kept a more human-like, straight body, but I arched it more, like a beast, in the following ones.
In the first one I had more focus on the costume, to make the figure Hindu-like, with huge skulls around the head, like a halo almost. It's less movable and more god-like. 
I might be lazy and go with the beast versions though, I have taken my Frazetta artbook to admire some reference that seem pretty appropriate this time ^^ 
However the thing I imagine contrast the elephant triumph/wrath with foes and as a result it's looking quite violent; I'm not sure how far I will push this. 

I am late so I don't know if I'll manage to finish properly this time again :( but I'll give it a try anyway. 




RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Lege1 - 09-28-2025

NAVAALI These are really cool and the ones that stand out most to me are the orange and the blue. I'd run with either of those. Don't stress about the deadline if we need to stretch it another week we absolutely can. I'm definitely going to put something together for this as well.

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Lege1 - 09-30-2025

***Gonna push this deadline out to October 18th, 2025. ***

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Navaali - 10-01-2025

Thank you for the delay!
I'm in :3

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Jaye23 - 01-25-2026

Can we keep the challenges rolling? Would love to participate in those.

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - TrashPanda - 01-29-2026

Lege kept the flame a live when it came to the CHOW's.

General speaking I would be down to participate again, however I usually end up with some 
designs that I couldn't push/evolve forward to a finished painting which was the usual requirement.
I guess some type of slim down version could work where there is less time investment needed.
People general speaking are busy AF these days with work or just trying to survive.

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Jaye23 - 01-29-2026

(01-29-2026, 04:10 AM)TrashPanda Wrote: Lege kept the flame a live when it came to the CHOW's.

General speaking I would be down to participate again, however I usually end up with some 
designs that I couldn't push/evolve forward to a finished painting which was the usual requirement.
I guess some type of slim down version could work where there is less time investment needed.
People general speaking are busy AF these days with work or just trying to survive.

I was just thinking about finishing this one off on the off-chance that someone might jump in. ¿Prob will take two or three days?
It would be sweet if you could join me.
I agree completely, I think some type of slimming down is necessary (!at the moment!), to keep things moving here.
¿Maybe when we're finished with this one - we can come up with some kind of CHOW-light?

Edit: btw, not finishing shit and having just a shit ton of sketches that I'm not particularly fond of is a huge problem of mine that I'm trying to get over atm.

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - JosephCow - 01-30-2026

I would do another one. Honestly sometimes it seems like it's hard for people, me included to get to the finish line. I feel like maybe the challenge needs to be smaller somehow

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - RottenPocket - 01-30-2026

[Image: tenor.gif]
I have, coincidentally, taken a few days off work so gimmee de brief. 


RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Lege1 - 02-04-2026

Rotten Pocket your an amazing artist! Let's rock! I took a hiatus after getting discouraged cause participation here tanked. Good to see your post!

RE: Crimson CHOW #67 Barbaric Elephant King - Lege1 - 02-04-2026

Jaye23 absolutely, thanks for the PM also as that was a good wake up call. If people still want to do this then lets all rock and do this.

TrashPanda much love and thanks for the credit and acknowledgement; I've tried my best to keep things going here but def went on a hiatus to see if it was over or not. If a few of us still wanna jam, then lets jam. Winner chooses the next topic no doubt, and I don't mind setting it all up if people don't know how, don't have time, or don't want to. All anyone has to do is just produce, post some some wips, post their final in the finals, and get enough votes to take the win. If it's a tie between myself and anyone else I'm willing to either do a random draw, or just let the runner up take the win and choose the next topic. Whatever it takes to keep things going cause we really got something nice here. Its terrible that AI and life in general has discouraged and retired so many, or just not allowed anyone to be able to get anything done.

JosephCow Great to see you again here, and I'm down to do whatever the majority would like to make things better. If you mean by making the topics smaller we can absolutely size things down to just the name of the character and that be it if that makes it easier for everyone, and if a couple weeks is not enough time to produce we can make is a CHOM and have it be Character of the Month instead of the week. By whatever means to keep the fun and development going.