July MOTM: fearsome bat demon - concept sketch + design commentary // sfw

thanks again to xan farley for suggesting a bat monster design!

when i first started drawing concept sketches of this lady, i was really torn about which direction i wanted to take. nearly two years ago i drew a camazotz for the august 2018 MOTM. i was happy with the design, but admitted to feeling that it was a bit ... basic. he looked like a pretty regular were-bat wearing some jewellery -- which is a great look, don't get me wrong. i just concluded that i could have come up with something more unique. this month i got another chance to design a bat monster and this time i was determined to try something new.

in other words, i wouldn't be drawing another "regular" were-bat. the design needed some kind of unexpected twist, in terms of anatomy and/or aesthetic. since the prompt specifies that the character is a bat *demon* i felt like i didn't have to restrict myself to bat-like features only: i could also mix in details that read as broadly demonic, so that expanded my possibilities quite a bit. that said she still needed to be largely bat-like, and i decided that for my present purposes, the most characteristic features of a bat is the wings and the face. therefore i wanted to do something relatively unconventional with both the wing and head design, but i wasn't sure what exactly.

my first mental image was of a big, brawny bat lady, with patches of scruffy fur and leathery skin. she'd be tall and beefy, with a somewhat hunched posture and the vibe of a hungry predator. instead of having a regular bat face (like my camazotz) i would blend in some more humanoid features, and make her mouth especially demonic, with many large fangs. she would have tons of scars and her wings would have been so damaged by a life of fighting that only stumps would remain, jutting out from her back. i liked the idea of wrapping the ends of these wing stumps with unbleached linen strips, with patchwork clothing to match. i figured jewellery of bone and claws and teeth would go well with this aesthetic, too, and that the colour scheme should borrow from rough, natural materials like leather and tree bark. ... but then i realised this mental image looked a lot like the sabertoothed monster i designed back in march. i didn't want to draw anything so similar so soon, so i decided to start over.

i still liked the idea of a demonic face that mixed humanoid features with those of a bat, specifically a bat's nose and a short, wrinkly snout. i definitely wanted to give her a different body type, though; she should make a formidable and commanding impression, without relying on size or brawn.

the point of reducing her wings to stumps would have been to subvert expectations. we generally take for granted that any monster that's inspired by a bat should have bat wings, so i thought it would be fun to unexpectedly remove that characteristic feature and portray her bat nature in different ways. i was open to sticking with this idea, but i also liked the notion of drawing wings that looked weirdly drapey and cloak-like, rather than anatomically correct. i wouldn't care about how the bones and joints of bat wings actually work, instead i could treat the wing more as fabric dangling from a metal framework, creating a cool visual effect.

i made some doodles of different bodies striking different poses, with either stumpy or cloak-like wings. i eventually fell for the outline of a seemingly elegant, glamorous person, standing in a classic contra-post, her shoulders, hips, and chest forming sharp angles. she has long, sinewy limbs, an elegant neck, and at first her face was relatively flat and human-like, as seen above. her wings drape across the floor, strangely tattered at the edges, in a curious contrast to the polished glamour of her outfit. i decided to give her goat horns and a tail, like a classic demon, because sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel. at first i gave her a bat's neck fluff, but as i refined the sketch it morphed into long hair, which ultimately looked more unique and in line with the rest of the design. she has no fur, and i imagine her hide is tough, leathery, and cold to the touch.

i really loved how she was turning out, but i was a bit concerned that she didn't look *fearsome* enough. after all, that word was also part of the design prompt. i decided to re-draw her face and make it look a little less humanoid, which immediately made her look a bit more dangerous. i also asked some friends, who all agreed that her appearance seemed appropriate for the design prompt. i'm still mildly concerned that she looks a bit more like a glamorous, evil queen than looking fearsome, but then again -- "fearsome" can mean so many things and be interpreted in a variety of ways. i'll admit that when i think "fearsome" the first thing that pops into my head is a beefy, brawny, war-like monster, much like the first concept i described earlier. but i wanted to challenge myself and explore another approach to the prompt. i don't want to be too predictable, you know? and i think a good way to widen your own design horizons is to occasionally "kill your darlings" and try a different interpretation of a prompt than what you might normally default to. 

once i felt confident about the design concept, i set about refining the details. i had lots of fun designing her outfit, which looks a lot like an evening gown or red carpet look. the dress itself is simple but well tailored, so clearly she's got style. the neck piece is best described as a necklace combined with epaulettes, serving both as elegant jewellery and adding a martial hint. 

as for the colour palette, it would have been so easy to go for the classic horror combination of pale skin, black clothes, and red details. i toyed with the idea because again, it's a good look, but ultimately opted for something different. if nothing else it might have made her look too much like a fancy vampire rather than a bat demon.

the base hue of her skin is pale, yes, but with an unnatural, eggshell undertone. her hands, feet, and tail fade to black, with the "drippy" transition from one colour to the other making it look like her limbs have been partially coated with a layer of oil. (at first i considered having her hands and jaw drip with blood, but it also felt a bit too ... on the nose?) her dress is gold coloured, and i used the same accent colour for her horns, long claws, and teeth. the neck piece, however, repeats the darker hues of her limbs, and her hair is white like her skin. her wings are pale on the outside and a bit darker on the inside; at first i used solely white, black, gold, and yellow, but then experimented my way to adding the purple gradient. 

the visual of oil is repeated in a few of her features. her pitch black halo is literally dripping, in a way that makes it look corrupted -- i love giving demons halos that are somehow twisted or wrong. i also added a darker colour to the edges of her wings, again looking like they've been dipped in some dark substance. the semi-transparent membrane between her fingers mimic bat-wings, and this feature appears again at the end of her tail. 

while working on the painting, i added a few more details. the stylised, sharply angular shoulders of her wings looked a bit bare, so i gave them a feathered appearance repeating the texture of the epaulettes. thanks to the colouring the "feathers" look metallic, which makes one think of scale armour. i also added another decorative "fin" detail to her elbows, and made her hair super long.

as i was drawing this monster, her backstory started to take shape. her way of dressing is glamorous and refined and she carries herself like a person of high rank, but her fangs are not just for show and her wings weren't always tattered and torn. i feel like she's fought her way from the bottom to the top, on the battlefield and in direct combat against her rivals. she's a martial demon who has earned her rank as infernal duchess by shedding blood and taking lives; political intrigue and scheming is *not* her thing. her wings were torn in battle and i'm sure her skin is also covered with scars, if you take a closer look. the armour-like scaling and epaulettes (a regular feature of western dress uniforms) likewise function as subtle indications of her military-minded nature.

and as for the oily visual it's supposed to symbolise corruption, in the sense of demons corrupting human minds. but the more i think about it, the more i feel like it also represents her own corruption and fall from grace -- i think she was an angel, once. perhaps she joined lucifer's rebellion and as she fell with him, her face and body twisted into something more monstrous.

if there's anything else you want to know about this design, just comment below :>

 // art + character © me.