And to round this out, design notes! I don’t believe I’ve done a proper design explanati

And to round this out, design notes! I don’t believe I’ve done a proper design explanation for a dragon before. Since the oillipheist has a rather nebulous description in Irish literature, it’s as good an example as any. This is a page from my sketchbook all neatly showing how I went about it. Digitally added are a few numbers to show which drawings came in which order and a previous design for the oillipheist from back in the Daily D&D Monster days. That was back when I was too afraid to commit to either the fully mythological or fully spec-evo direction. Now that I’ve leaned into full-mytho, I feel like it allows for much more weird and novel directions than a stretched out mosasaur.The first part, regardless of whatever it is I’m working with, is getting the facts down and looking at any details that could give a hint at its appearance. The Oillipheist has two main stories to draw from in this regard. The first involves the Fianna, who, after killing a hag, split open a bone to find a hairy worm. This worm slithers into a lake and becomes the dreadful Caoránach. Though aquatic, it was able to move on land and eat cattle. The other is the more famous story of Saint Patrick: when he banished the snakes from Ireland an oillipheist from the River Shannon headed towards the sea at speed. As it swam it swallowed a drunken piper named Ó Ruairc. He was so drunk he just kept playing in the beast’s stomach, which annoyed it to no end. Eventually it spat him out unharmed. From these stories we have three details: the oillipheist looks like a hairy worm (at least when small), it is aquatic but can move on land, and it can eat a large quantity of stuff without even noticing. Now we get to drawing.The first basis for the oillipheist’s design, aside from a snake, is a mudskipper. Both are aquatic creatures that are also no slouches on land, so it seemed natural. The second and third drawings tried to work in a more crocodile-like mouth. Drawing 2, uh, well… you can see for yourself. The third brought in a new question: what’s its eyesight like? If its mouth is so huge it could swallow a piper whole, how do the eyes work? I made this choice to position its eyes like that of a mudskipper’s in this and the final drawing. Number 7 tried a configuration where its eyes were on either side of its mouth. However, it didn’t look as good to me. More like a grumpy turtle.The final piece came in the fifth drawing, where the mouth of a gulper eel was added in. This solved the mouth question and made it look like it had a goofy grin. All of these stuck around for six and eight, which were the final designs I stuck with. Added was a small amount of hair, relics of its younger years. -- source link

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