The Beast
by Thaddeus Maharaj

About the image:

This initially came from a concept I had drawn up a while ago about a parasitic beast. The idea was that the creature's victims would still show through as they were being assimilated, trying to escape their demise. I took inspiration from a variety of sources, a lot of various animals and creatures like amphibians and reptiles.

How was the image made:

I drew up a couple of concept sketches to work out the idea on paper. Then started modeling the base meshes in XSI. Once I was happy with the general feel - i moved to zbrush to begin refining the forms and adding detail. I got a lot of helpful critiques from instructors and colleagues. For the textures I used alot of reference and hand painted a large majority of it - using photos for adding random variance and texture.