.black.fire.upon.us.

90+ Hours [I should mention that the first 40 hours were mostly lost to a computer crash lol]

Drawn and colored in Sai
Aftereffects in PS

LOL finally a description.

To be honest, despite how epic this song is, when the album first came out, it wasn't even in my top 5 favorites. It wasn't like I didn't like it; it was a kick ass season closer song, but I liked so many more THAT much better.

BUT then I saw the music video at the concert and it was <3. I relied pretty heavily on the original theme of griffins vs dragons, instead coming up with ways to apply it to the characters. I fucking love griffins, but didn't feel like taking the standard lion/eagle. I wanted to try fusing skeletal structures of a lot of different animals together in neat ways. And coming up with animals that I thought suited them was fun lol.

So yah. Murderface's gotta bull/vulture..or something. Realistically, it could never fly, but I think I abandoned realism awhile ago. At least vultures have a massive wingspan. I really like the bridle on this one too.

Pickles has a hyena/falcon thing. I couldn't decide how to put tack on it so Pickles could control it, so settled on him just doing it with his mind lol. He also doesn't need a weapon considering he's riding a killing machine, so just covered him in spikes and blades. I like the raptor claws on the front feet and how covered it is in blood <3. I also didn't add a beak to this one, instead giving it a giant mass of feathers and probably a falcon's eye lol

Nathan woulda sucked if MJ hadn't given me awesome ideas. The wings were just going to be individual feathers of fire, but the wings ending in flame was hers, and a way better idea. I wish I'd made Nathan's armor a little more interesting, but I kinda like his helmet? I also enjoy the fire around his weapon. I like drawing roaring flames <3 FIRE IS METAL. I love pheonix hippogriffs.

I saved Skwisgaar til last cause he looked so bad all the way through. Considering that, he looks..ok now. And I like his wolf/eagle. You can't really see the second pair of wings, but they're attached to an extra set of legs. I made an Odin reference, even though it's 6 legs and not 8 lol.
And I really like this one's bridle. I used to ride horses and shit, so I like thinking about how pressure was applied to control their heads XD I'm such a geek I know.

I like Toki's lack of bridle too. I think only way to control/steer a cat is by the back of it's head x_o I realized how small it would be compared to Toki, and gave it more of a bear like body...so it's like a lynx/hawk with elements of a bear and details like birds of paradise or a peacock. I also wanted to give Toki magic the way I did with Nathan and Pickles and Skwisgaar, but I didn't want to make it his weapon. I used that to reference only them as the driving creative force of the band, and Toki'd probably be irresponsible with a weapon anyway. So I liked the idea of Toki's animal being more magical like a pheonix. And my friend had made unicorn/virgin reference jokes and I guess it was stuck in my head.

The dragon taking the spear through the chest is my favorite detail <3

Metalocalypse [c] Brendon Small/Tommy Blancha

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