Boll Deevil

This week I decided to try my hand at the weekly concept sketch challenge put on by Wizards of the Coast art director Jon Schindehette's blog ArtOrder. Here's the challenge:

Challenge #1
Concept Name: Boll Deevil
Due Date: May 3, 2009, Noon PST
Concept Description: Sometimes the best source material for a new critter is right under our own noses. In this case, I want to take the innocent little Boll Weevil as a concept base for our next critter. The "Boll Deevil" should bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife a large and imposing critter - at least 15 feet in length. The attacks it can have I will leave up to you, but I want to see them. In other words, if it has a claw attack, I want to see claws that look like they can do real damage. If it has a breath weapon - show it's effect. This is pretty straight forward. So have fun with it.

And the prize for the winner of this round is mind blowing!

Prizes!!
Whoa!! Here's a big one! Win a commission from either Dungeon or Dragon magazine! I will pick one person that I feel excelled at this weeks challenge, and give them a commission from an upcoming issue of either Dungeon or Dragon magazine. Please note - I reserve the right to declare "no winner" if there are no concepts that I feel hit the quality standards for the magazines. I do not expect that to be a problem - since the caliber of entries has been stellar..but I've got to cover myself. All you have to do to enter is - make a kick-ass piece, and really impress me.

So anyways, here's my sketch that I did. I was a bit upset because I really wanted to do some digital color and detailing, but since most of my stuff is still far away in storage, I cannot find my Wacom tablet for the life of me. Anyhow, everyone loves some good pencil work, right?

I had a lot of fun doing this drawing. I was trying to think of how this creature would be used in a battle or what it's specialty would be. So I came to the conclusion that his long snout would be like a giant wrecking ball mace with the two side antennae becoming blades for side to side clearing of anything that stands in its way. The Boll Deevil would be like the smash and destroy tank of the attacking horde. It's thick articulated armour shell is nearly impenetrable, yet flexible enough to allow for the violent flailing of his head and body. There is little that can stand a chance...