Classic Monsters Case Study #4: The Devil

“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.” 

― John Milton, Paradise Lost

The last of the 'Classic Monsters' is one we are all familiar with. Originating from the texts of Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam and their respective derivatives), the Devil is the personification of evil, the ruler of Hell and the mortal enemy of God. He is known by several names, including Lucifer, Sammael and Iblis, but he is commonly referred to as Satan (a Hebrew word  meaning 'adversary' or 'accuser').

He is widely believed to have once been the highest and most beautiful of God's angels. However, he grew vain and prideful and began to believe he was better than his creator, causing him to lead a rebellion to usurp God. Ultimately, he was defeated and cast out of Heaven and imprisoned in Hell, where he plots to subvert and corrupt God's creation in revenge. There are some different versions of this tale: some versions state the reason he rebelled was that he refused to bow down to humanity, who he saw as flawed and unworthy, while Islam portrays him as a Jinn rather than an angel. 

Surprisingly, the idea of the Devil as the embodiment of evil didn't actually originate from the Hebrew Bible; though the name 'Satan' does turn up a few times in the Old and New Testaments, it is never stated to be the same being, with the name being used more as a title than an individual, and the character is depicted more as a trickster than an antagonist. The closest the Bible comes to depicting the archetypal Devil is through the dragon or serpent who appears in the Book of Revelation, but again the original text never outright identifies this beast as Satan. More recent interpretations, such as the King James Bible, retcon this by claiming these and other events are all really the Devil himself, but these versions all come about after the archetypal Devil had been established.

The Devil as we know him actually came into being during the Middle Ages, perhaps as an attempt to vilify the deities of pre-existing pagan religions as Christianity spread throughout Europe. This was done by portraying these pagan gods as alter-egos or familiars of Satan, which likely influenced the classic image of the Devil. It was also this period that the moniker of 'Lucifer' is supposed to have first appeared; a romanisation of the Hebrew word 'heylel', it means 'shining one' or 'morning star'.

The Devil has made several appearances in popular culture, and as a result he has been given a wide variety of design. Some give him a human disguise with some clue that gives away his true identity (usually the colour of his clothes or eyes), while others base his appearance on his status as a fallen angel. For the most part, however, he is classically depicted as a horned demon, usually with a trident, wings and goat legs. As mentioned before, this design seems to have originated from old pagan deities, many of whom were horned and had goat-like features. His trademark colours seem to be either red or black.

Engraving of Satan trapped in Hell by Gustave Dore, inspired by Dante's Inferno

One notable exception is the Satan that appears in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy; imprisoned in the lowest circle of Hell, this version of the Devil is described as a colossal, feral beast with three faces and six wings, trapped waist-deep in his own frozen tears. In an interesting subversion, this Satan is not depicted as the ruler of Hell, but instead as it's first prisoner. He is also presented as mindless, stripped of his former beauty and completely impotent, unable to do anything but beat his wings in a vain attempt to escape, which is a complete contrast with how he usually appears.

For my design, I'm going to try to stick close to the 'classic' Devil, as he is the more instantly recognisable of Satan's various incarnations and his design fits my 'iconic character' criteria better than the others. I may, however, add elements of the other versions. Aside from that, who knows what I'll come up with?

Classic Monsters Design #3: Medusa

Just about finished Medusa. This was certainly one of the more interesting ones, as least regarding some of the initial designs, and I'm personally quite proud of how the final concept turned out.

 Design sketches for Medusa

As you can see, I experimented with quite a few ideas here. The first few (seen around the top-left) focussed on different variants of the classic 'ogre'-like Gorgon, but later designs started to explore the snake aspect more. One or two designs saw her as literally a mass of serpents. I also explored some interesting variants of how her face and head could appear.

The final design, as you can see, is still largely based on the naga-esque design made popular by Clash of the Titans. However, unlike a traditional naga, which has a woman's upper body and a serpent's tail, my Medusa's anatomy is more akin to a massive snake with arms, with her serpentine hair reimagined as a 'mane' of snakes. She also wears a mask to hide her hideous appearance, perhaps as a vain attempt to retain what little humanity she has left...

As I said before, I'm proud of how this one turned out. In particular, I'm happy with the scale texture, especially considering that, unlike with Cthulhu, I actually painted it as opposed to overlaying and existing texture. Her colour scheme is also based on the colour of real-life venomous snakes (contrary to popular belief, they are not all green; most are various shades of brown).

Next up is the final monster for this project, the Devil himself...

Classic Monsters Case Study #3: Medusa

"Medusa was beautiful once, so beautiful as to tempt Poseidon. When he came for her, she ran to Athena's temple thinking that the goddess would protect her. She didn't. Poseidon took her on the cold floor. She prayed to Athena for comfort but the goddess found nothing but disgust. She made sure no one would ever want Medusa again, one look at the creature she has become would turn any living thing to stone." - Io, Clash of the Titans (2010)

Anyone who knows even a little bit about Greek mythology has heard of Medusa. A hideous monster with snakes for hair and whose gaze can turn living things to stone, she and her sisters Euryale and Stheno are collectively known as the Gorgons, which derives from the Ancient Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful" (fitting, considering how ugly they supposedly were).

Medusa's tale is actually something of a tragic one. She was originally just an ordinary human woman, who had the misfortune of being noticed by a god; the sea god, Poseidon, took a fancy to her, and in his lust he raped her in the Temple of Athena. Ever the sympathetic goddess (sarcasm), Athena decided to punish Medusa for having the audacity to be violated within her temple, and so she transformed the poor woman into the monster she is known as today. To add insult and injury to this considerable trauma, she was later hunted down and killed by the hero Perseus, who, using a mirror to look at her reflection instead of facing her directly, choped off her head to present to a pompous king. All in all, Medusa had it pretty rough...

A carving of a classic depiction of a Gorgon

Medusa, as she appears in Clash of the Titans (2010)

Despite how well known she is, Medusa has something of an identity crisis regarding her appearance. Classical depictions of the Gorgon depict her as an ogre-like creature, with scaly skin, bronze claws, tusks and wings in addition to the snake hair. More recent depictions, such as the film Clash of the Titans and the God of War franchise, show her with the lower body of a snake, similar to a naga or a lamia, and make her features more serpentine. There are also a lot of versions where her facial features remain human and even vaguely beautiful, which completely contradicts her 'hideous' description. Between these various designs, there are only two constants: the snakes-for-hair and the petrifying gaze.

Not a hundred percent sure where I'm going to go with this one. On the one hand, I'd like to try something closer to the original ogre-like depiction, as I think it'll stick out more from the other designs currently out there, but at the same time I feel the naga-like design that most people associate her with fits more. i do know that I want to push the 'tragic' side a bit. I dunno, time will tell what I come up...

Classic Monsters Design #2: Cthulhu

Took awhile to nail down a design, but I've now finished the redesign of Cthulhu.

The main goal with this redesign was to try and make this eldritch god-thing look more alien; most depictions of him tend to go for the typical 'green humanoid with a squid-head' look and I wanted as far a departure from this stereotype as possible.

 I started with basic sketches on paper, as always. Just simple outlines to base the design on, each based on some variation of the vague descriptions provided by the source material. I also took some inspiration from the appearances of various cephalopods (octopi, cuttlefish, squid, etc.) and the creature designs featured in the films of Guillermo del Toro

Once I had enough basic designs, I found there were two that I particularly liked, so I decided to develop them both (as you can see from the sketches above). This left me with finalised designs from a quadraped and a more squid-like Cthulhu; feeling that it reflected the Great Old One's nature more, I opted for the latter design.

And here we have the final design. Not really much to say about this one; after all, the design kind of speaks for itself. One thing to note, however is the wings; here, they are more like massive fish fins, which kind of fits Cthulhu's aquatic nature. I also used a few texture overlays with this one. Personally, I'm happy with the results.

Next up, Medusa the Gorgon