Dungeon & Dragons Monster Manual - Beholder Death Tyrant - Redesign

With Illuxcon over it is now time to get this blog back focused on the monsters...  namely the monsters of the 5th Edition Monster Manual. RAWR! With the pieces that I illustrated for the MM covered already it is time to look at the monsters I redesigned for 5E. Figured I should just do this alphabetically, so starting things off is the wily Beholder: Death Tyrant! Here is how the final concept turned out...

Beholder Death Tyrant - Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual - Redesign

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

They wanted a fresh take on the undead Beholder... Beholder Lich... Total Party Killer Beholder... and it was up to me to figure out what that new look and feel for the the Death Tyrant. I got to work on some concepts and thumbnails. My first and favorite idea was bound to get rejected, but I included it anyway as the first concept. I then took that concept and dialed it back a little more and more with the other variations, making it a little safer and more inline with what had already been done with the undead Beholder. Here is how those concept / thumbnails turned out...

Beholder Death Tyrant - Thumbnails

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

Needless to say I was more then pleased that my favorite and preferred concept was enthusiastically approved by production. I think this was one of the easiest and quickest redesigns of all my work on the 5E MM. Now that I had an approved concept it was time to get started on the drawing...

Beholder Death Tyrant - Drawing

9 x 12

Pencil on Paper

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

Original Drawing - SOLD

The design was pretty much completely fleshed out in thumbnails and the drawing just built off the thumbnail. This resulted in the drawing being approved right away and the go ahead was given to work up a quick color comp...

Beholder Death Tyrant - Final Redsign

© 2014 Wizards of the Coast

The final color concept was approved and it was time to move onto the next monster. Like I said, the redesign the Beholder Death Tyrant was quick and painless... something all the helpless adventures will not experience when they encounter it. RAWR!

A HUGE THANKS to Jon Schindehette for all the monsters and direction during the design phase of 5th Edition!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday for another new monster! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com