Ian Taylor

Now, we come to the next stage of designing a character: applying observations and notes into sketches.

Given Eurynome being a detritivore, - a creature that eats decomposed remains - I chose to give her an avian, vulture-like face composed of sharp, triangular features as observed earlier.

I also decide to dress Eurynome in a body bag, rather than fox skin, as it better symbolizes the themes of death that run through her character.

I continue to take notes as I figure out elements to keep, change, or discard.

In the final draft, I choose to preserve and alter previous design choices.

For example, I decide to render ripped threads and tears in the body bag to increase the intensity of its presence with sharper shapes.

Additionally, to even further reinforce the themes of death in the character, I append a ribcage onto her, modeled after fish bones, alongside sinewy fins protruding out from her shoulders. She... swims, through the air.

Eurynome embodies fear and anxiety of death. As well as how, sometimes, one can rob the joy from their life when they only focus on its end.

Agares is the second demon in De Plancy's work, and is a duke of Hell. He appears as a "fair old man riding a crocodile" and carries a "pigeon on his fist." He "teaches languages," and can even "cause earthquakes."

In my Agares redesign, I aim to combine him with the rest of his pets, and compose his shape language from mainly large squares and rectangles. The lower half of his crocodile body is designed after a royal palanquin, with extra legs carrying him instead of servants.

Agares towers over the landscape as the duke he is. But he's drunk from power. He is a ravenous, mad beast. The green lines stretching across his body represent his chaotic nature. The red eye-spike motif represents his insanity, and blindness to his earthquake-causing stampedes.

In my notes for Haboraym, I play with combining the different heads he possesses, alongside turning the cat's head into a child's one, as it makes more sense in symbolizing innocence. I also firmly decide upon his color scheme:

Gold for his human face, as gold is highly valued in society. Blue for his child face, as blue is often associated with boyhood. And red for the viper, which is pretty obvious as to why.

For Andras's design, I consider telling a story, and taking the character in a much more bizarre direction.

In my interpretation of Andras, he was born a diseased, flightless bird. He is innocent and well-meaning, but tragically fated to never walk or fly.

Only through a pact with this dog-like being, wherein if Andras agrees to become an assassin for him, will he will gain a new body.

The doggo - named Kaim - symbiotically merges with Andras below the neck, forming an exoskeleton for Andras to finally walk.

In this final iteration of Andras, he is depicted as an assassin - a bird of prey. He is no longer the chick he used to be.

For this design, the patterning across both the head and body would be extremely important. I choose to differentiate the colors and patterning between them, especially through dotting the body with green diamonds. I want to communicate that these are two separate entities cooperating in tandem.

A lot of the time, backgrounds can also communicate traits about a character. Particularly, in this case, I chose to make it a tangled, chaotic web to communicate Andras's conflicted mind, as he is now entangled in a new, deadly career.

Pheynix is the thirty-seventh demon in De Plancy's work, and is described as a "great marquis" who takes the form of a "phoenix" and, strangely, possesses the "voice of a child." He also speaks "marvelously of all wonderful sciences," and is "a poet, good and excellent."

From this information, we can gather than Pheynix is a gentle soul. He must have quite the big brain to know of all sciences. He must also be quite creative, sensitive, and perhaps wise, to be a poet as well.

But more than that, the significance of the mythological phoenix must not be ignored. Phoenixes symbolize the cyclic nature of life, as embodied in their immortality generated through constant death and rebirth. Therefor, this design attempts at representing both life and death, with lively colors juxtaposing skeletal, deathly symbology.

And, as an evolution of the previous Pheynix design, this one here depicts the demon undergoing his reincarnation.

During this process, Pheynix rapidly ages and falls apart, as the wing-like cloak he wears begins to unravel.

Pheynix is entering into a new era of his life, welcoming the death of his current self so that it may usher in a better future for him as a changed being, no longer burdened by his previous bad habits. This is a victory.

Beyond surface-level physical characteristics, more abstract, emotional depictions of characters work even better in expressing their personalities and beliefs.

Here, we see Amon's physical, and psychological, evolution.

Similarly to Lamia's metamorphosis, we see Amon growing to resemble the monstrous wolf-snake he was originally depicted as.

But what's more, here, Amon snaps. Consumed by his resentment, he devours Amy, attempting to repress his hatred with grief.

However, it is unsuccessful. He can't keep his anger down. That is why he now vomits flames.

Volac is depicted as a child. So, he must be youthful. He takes the form of an angel. I choose to give him three eyes, as I feel that associates him with having higher knowledge and wisdom as an Angel would.

Additionally, Volac's link with the angels permits him wings. However, these wings should be small, dark and corrupted-looking in order to visually signify his demonic nature.

And considering Volac's apparent knowledge of snake whereabouts, it can be inferred that he is cunning - a hunter. He should be mysterious, and wear a sly expression.

In Volac's final design, I choose to highlight his prestige as a President of Hell by making him quite top-heavy.

His sharp, triangular face signals a dangerous personality, juxtaposed by more a more circular, rounded torso that expresses his agreeableness as a leader. He is not beyond sense.

The two tendrils flowing off his wings are visual callbacks to the twin-headed dragon he traditionally rides. I also integrate the dragons green color scheme into Volac's own form.

Volac's body is largely modeled after Japanese kimono dresses, and lends some simplicity and gracefulness to his design. As a President, he has an image to uphold, after all.

Volac is a hunter of snakes, spies and assassins who threaten his people.