August MOTM: Camazotz/Bat monster concept sketch + design commentary // sfw-ish

once again, this month's monster of the month entailed doing some research, because i wanted to learn more about camazotz before attempting to design a monster inspired by them. "camazotz" seems to  refer both to a specific mayan god and a type of bat monster; as with my quetzalcoatl-inspired piece i didn't want my character to be the Camazotz; rather he's a camazotz, an anthropomorphised bat creature.

camazotz seem to draw on vampire bats and false vampire bats, so i looked to those species for inspiration. camazotz are described as having noses like flint knives, presumably in reference to leaf-nosed bats, a detail which i decided to include in my design. the ears are mostly inspired by the sharp-tipped ears of vampire bats, and the pale grey/pink colour scheme of his torso and wings are also based on this species. his colours are ... more or less natural-looking. i originally intended to add some kind of twist to it (some odd touch of colour, weird markings, etc) but then i thought that the warm greys and pink hues looked so nice with the jade/turquoise jewellery that i didn't really need to spice it up. only odd detail is his solid jade eyes. in a way, i think his muted colours make a nice contrast to last month's colourful feathered snake boy.

camazotz is often portrayed with wing-arms rather than arms and wings, but i decided to go with the latter, simply out of personal preference. he's got an impressive wingspan when his wings are all stretched out, and the muscles where his wings attach to his back are particularly powerful.  he's got five fingers on his hands and five toes on his feet; his toes are almost as dexterous as his fingers, and they're all tipped by curved claws that aid in climbing and clinging to things. there's sharp claws at the ends of his wings, too... but yes, i realise that i forgot the second wing finger. OOPS. 

for the sake of flight, his overall physique is relatively slender (that is, compared to many of my other character designs. i am Weak for monsters who are just mountains of muscle, alright?). his musculature is sleek and sinewy and i imagine that his bones are rather light, too; he's certainly stronger than most humans, but he's not a brute strength kind of guy, especially not compared to other monsters. in a fight he'd rely on speed, agility, and flight, as well as using his ability to move freely in darkness and shadows to his advantage. his eyesight is fine, but he also uses echolocation, allowing him to stalk and surprise his foe or prey before they even know he's there.

for his clothing and jewelry, i looked at artwork depicting camazotz, especially statues. once again mayan jewellery seems to have been regulated by social status; not just anyone could wear any type of jewellery or any material. but once again, i figured that nobody would try to tell a living bat beast what he can or can not wear, so i decked him out in jade. the statues and reliefs don't reveal a whole lot of detail and finding archaeologically preserved examples wasn't all that easy, so i kept the jewellery kind of simple and stylized, and improvised some of it.

camazotz (and bats in general) were associated with darkness and night, and with death and sacrifice. in one story, a bat monster gives fire to humanity in exchange for human sacrifice, and camazotz is sometimes depicted holding a knife and a human heart/human victim. i thought about incorporating these associations into the artwork, somehow--not in the form of actual sacrifices, of course, but y'know... some consensual neck biting and blood licking, that kind of batty thing. but at the end of the day i felt like drawing rather more tender, sweet, and cuddly images.

lastly, i have to confess that i feel like i missed the opportunity to ... make this design look more unique, eye-catching, and more obviously inspired by the mythology and symbolism associated with mayan camazotz. as it is, he looks like a rather ordinary, generic were-bat with some jade jewelry. in hindsight i wish i would have been more daring with his anatomy and colour scheme, the details of his design, that i had thought outside the box a bit more. i don't consider the design a failure, by any means--but i feel like i played it a bit too safe, that it's not very imaginative. and that's perfectly alright, it happens, life goes on, some designs are more striking than others. i just wanted to share how not all my designs are thought-out in crystal clear detail, they don't come to me as lightning from a clear blue sky, and sometimes i feel like they're underwhelming. BUT i'm probably my own worst critic anyway--perhaps this is your favourite MOTM design yet?

ANYHOW, hope you like, comment below if you have any questions, all that jazz! <3

// art + character © me.