the WARBEAST

My realistic redesign take of the chimera Warbeast creature from the early 90s game, 'Moonstone - A Hard Day's Knight'
The warbeast from this game looked simply like a lion with a large horn, but I wanted to make it even more fantastical and ferocious.

For the face, I absolutely love Japanese Oni + komainu masks with their impossible overlapping giant teeth and frighteningly round eyes, along with the tusks from the Babirusa, and felt this would fit really well for this creature.
The paws were mainly inspired by the hands of the Koala! With seemingly dual opposable thumbs and super sharp claws.
And the mouth was inspired by a mix of a few things- the lion with its rough tongue and the inside of the penguin + leatherback turtle’s mouth.
I wanted the tongue to look like a grapple + viper, so it can shoot forward and grip onto prey and then bring it back.
He needs to look like he just stepped out of your worst nightmare, with two sets of deadly paws to rip his opponent to shreds.

To produce this piece, I went through extensive research into the animal kingdom and cultures, rooting from my own personal interests.
I then digitally sketched and painted the creature, using photobashing and overpainting techniques to achieve the realism look i was aiming for.