38 Count Halphas

[ken]

Malthus (also Halphas, Malthas, or Malthous) is an Earl of Hell, commanding 26 legions of demons, who is said to have a rough voice when speaking. He is often depicted in the shape of a stork.
Malthus builds towers and fills them with ammunition and weapons, an armorer of sorts. He is a prince of Hell. He is also said to send his legions into battle, or to places designated by higher commanding demons.

stork or man-stork?

-Ken

[not hamsun ma]

The atmospheric type sketches with a stork shape in the fog are really cool but I think the chess idea is fantastic, especially with the brooding figure you have on the bottom left there and the sort of symbolism of the rook both with the tower idea and his role as a subordinate.

[iiiil0liiii]

I dig the man-stork!

[akida]

I like the one on the chessboard and the man-stork. The one with the towers is interesting, but to me it's a bit problematic, I keep erasing from my view the left tower, it just gets lost (i think it's because the tower border and the man's spear create a border on their own and are too close to the actual border.)

[tek!]

yes towerbuilder on chessboard is neat. i also love the triangle pattern on the very last drawing

[nozendo]

The use of the stork makes it really alienating, it's a good choice for this. A lot of bird species have that unnerving dead eyed stare going on.

[Jintro]

I'd go with a more demonized stork, not just a stork-stork. I don't mean to say "go for horns!", more like Hieronymus Bosch, with his fantastic unnerving demon-birds.

pic

[ken]

not hamsun ma / tek: i like the chess idea, but it's not epic enough!

akida: ah those towers are far from final. just getting the idea down. i know exactly what you mean though.

jintro: you have a point. i've tried to demonize my bird a bit more in the following sketches.

[geckzilla]

I really like the one of him sitting on one of his towers (bottom sketch) but it looks so awkward! And it seems odd that he would only have the head of a stork rather than the whole body. Well, I guess it's always up to interpretation.

[akida]

I'm loving the tower on the right! It's pointy and adorable like a baby echidna

And I agree with Geck, the last thumb, the one at the bottom, works better than the other two. The one on the top right has a potential of nice silhouette but the bottom one has him more involved, rather than admiring the view of work already done..... but he sort of looks impaled (ouch!), was it intentional? It does looks rather creepy, sort of like in the medieval lithos about devils, witches, torture etc.

[ken]

thanks for the comments. i still really like the idea of him being all sentinel/beksinski like in the distance, but i agree having him more 'involved' works well. maybe he can be standing/enchanting at the same time?

yeah i know he looks awkward/impaled, if i go that direction i'll come up with a less painful perch. or... y'know... maybe it actually could impale him?

-Ken

[fell]

Impaled by his own tower, yes.

[cimax]

Yah, that sounds cool. I think you could go really threatening with him being impaled by his tower.
Like he is also the building, a symbiotic thing and stuff. Nobody escapes his gaze.
Maybe one of his ammunition towers exploding while he screams in agony, to make the symbiosis more clear.


Awesome sketches, Ken.

[Novacaptain]

maybe he craps out long towers filled with little corn-demons :) I like the flabby skin on his neck. Just a nice touch that I wanted to point out. I like how the man-bird mix isnt without some "flaws"

[ken]

felt compelled to post my wip in the hope of guilting myself into finishing this picture. c&c welcome!

[garg]

Very nice :D I have a stork too. which reminds me...

[geckzilla]

Ooo, I like your WIP. You took all the best parts of your concepts and melded them together. I envy your ability to do so. I can't think of anything to say that would make it better. ...Maybe.. his left hand is too big?

[darkreaver]

lovely progress. I like the diffuse ghostly glow you have in the picture, and especially like how you decided on fusing the beak into a spongy point.

the towers right now look a little too regular for my taste...don't know if this is the direction you're going, but maybe add more knobs and indentations, and maybe even some statues and figures, a la gaudi's sagrada familia cathedral?

[ken]

thanks guys.

geck: aw, thanks! *blush*. his left hand is indeed too big.

dark reaver: hahaha, statues and figures, are you trying to kill me!? hopefully once i add all the little lit windows they'll look less regular, or at least regular in a creepy way.

-Ken

[darkreaver]

are you trying to kill me!?

my plan has been foiled!

[ken]

FINALLY DONE. I'M SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG.

[Olli]

Wowsers! Turned out really nice. Some hint of the scale might add epicness though, the classic flock of birds in the foreground maybe? :)

[akida]

very cool!

[Five]

I love the old photograph treatment and colors of the final picture!

[pixelkitten]

Uhhh I LOVE him and he is freaky too!