Today, I am happy to share the process and steps for one of my contributions to the Dungeons & Dragons supplement, Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants. This is the last of four contributions to the book. Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants focuses on all things giants, including misshapen and horrible giants. Here is the final painting for the Fomorian Deep Crawler, a twisted and evil monster that dwells below the ground.
Fomorian Deep Crawler
Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants
11 x 14 - Digital
Art Director - Emi Tamji
© 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC
I was asked to design and illustrate the Fomorian Deep Crawler after discovering that the original image created for the book was not entirely created by a human and needed to be replaced. I had an EXTREMELY tight turnaround for this one and threw everything I had at it. The Fomorian Deep Crawler was described as:
This illustration depicts a MALE FOMORIAN DEEP CRAWLER. The fomorian has spent his life crawling and has become very adept at moving that way. His limbs are stretched out and sinuous, and he is as flexible as a contortionist. His movement looks unnatural and disturbing. He could have one of his legs swinging over his head and kicking himself forward. There could be curves to his movement mimicking a centipede or serpent.
The fomorian is in a charging pose, rushing towards something or someone offscreen. There is an urgency to his movement, and he has a depraved look in his eyes.
This all sounds like a fun thing to work on - but it would be nice to not have to remake it in a few hours. I knew the body posistion and composistion for this one would be tricky, so I made sure I could provide a few variations to see what would work best. We shot some reference of me doing my best Fomorian Deep Crawler impression and started scribbling. Here are the thumbnails that I submitted.
Fomorian Deep Crawler - Thumbnails
© 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC
These were well recieved and they chose to move forward with a horizontal composistion, which I was happy with. They wanted to see some of the elements from 'A' and 'B' combined and given a little more twist, which I was more than happy to do. Here is the updated thumbnail that I submitted.
Fomorian Deep Crawler - Revised thumbnail
© 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC
The updated thumbnail was approved without additional notes and revisions. I was now approved to take it to the next process phase. I always create a final traditional drawing for every project to work out the details and to give myself a tangible product from the assignment. Here is the Fomorian Deep Crawler drawing.
Fomorian Deep Crawler
Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants
11 x 14 -Colored pencil on paper
Original - SOLD
Art Director - Emi Tamji
© 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC
The drawing was approved without comment, and it was time to start on the final painting. Here is the painting of the Fomorian Deep Crawler taking shape.
Fomorian Deep Crawler - Process
© 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC
As I mentioned, I had a VERY short deadline on this one. Basically - get it done as fast as you can. So, when it came to the painting, that is what I did. I think in the end, the painting took less than five hours to complete. I sat down, and I painted it. There was no time to do anything else. In there end there was one revision request, and that was to desatuate the giant a little bit. This was an easy change and with that it was completed. Not bad for less that a days work. Here, again, is the final painting of the Fomorian Deep Crawler.
Fomorian Deep Crawler
Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants
© 2023 Wizards of the Coast LLC
That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...
Seems like they took much of the concept from Patrick Stuart’s Deep Carbon Observatory
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