Since 2021 each January I participate in the creaturedesign
challenge “Creatuanary” – A Creaturedesign a Day
2023 one of the Prompts was the Demon Bael.
I liked the Prompt and combination of Animals so much, that I
decided to make a proper Concept Art Project out of it:
He is a demon described in the demonological grimoires.
He is a king with the power to make men invisible and rules over
66 legions of demons.
He is appearing in the form of a:
Cat
Toad
Man
a Combination
or the three Heads of these creatures.
I studied my “Ingriedients” so the Animals the Creature Design will be made up of.
Toads
Whats the deal with Toads and Frogs?
In scientific taxonomy there is no distinction between frogs and toads. So Toad is just a common name for certain frogs. In pop culture or folk taxonomy however, there is a distinction.
Toads are associated with dryer rougher skin (warty-looking), more terrestrial habits, bulkier bodyshape and shorter legs.
Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands (this is a gland on the bachneck and shoulders).
The warts of toads cover glands, these glands secret poison. The poison is a milky fluid. It doesn’t harm you when you touch them. It makes them taste bad to predators and it’s harmful to them when they swallow it or get it in their eyes.
Some of their main predators are snakes and some snakes are immune to the poison of the toads. So they have a few other tricks: They will urinate on themselfes to be less appetizing or inflate their bodies, so they are harder to swallow.
Cats:
Cats are believed to be the only mammals who don’t taste sweetness.
Cats can jump up to six times their length.
This is due to their hind legs. Cats are able to use their limb length and spinal column to maximize their jumping height.
Cats’ collarbones don’t connect to their other bones, as these bones are buried in their shoulder muscles.
Cats have 230 bones, while humans only have 206.
I also studied some big cats and Humans.
After knowing my Ingredients, I moved on to some Ideations.
To shake things up, I took some photos and morphed them a bit for new creature ideas:
I also tried the approach of collages. I made some photocollages for creature ideas and turned them into drawings after:
It is time to commit, I decided to work out one of my designs and explore it more:
I did some colour explorations:
And i made a final illustration, putting my creature in a dark cave.
