Meet Enhwyrial. He is a massive dragon over 250 meters long with unmatched powers of destruction. He is one of the major points of conflict in the chronicles of Desilon, a series of fantasy novels a friend of mine is writing. Desilon, like all good fantasy worlds, has a rich history and culture, shaped by a mythos of gods and magical law, complex political relationships between different species and races, and familial journeys spanning generations.
Worldbuilding is one of my favourite creative activities, so I was excited to help my friend illustrate some of the fantastic creatures of the realm. This portrait of Enhwyrial is my most detailed artwork to date.
This piece is part of a series of illustrations depicting some of the major characters and races of Desilon. The first two I completed were of the Caurhyl, intelligent avian creatures which play an important role in the story. The sexes of this species look vastly different: the males are gryphon-like quadrupeds, whereas the females are humanoid in shape. These were completed in 2016.
Enhwryrial was one of several other sketches that I did, which were all developed to varying degrees.
The second character belongs to a race of little cat people called the Peth. I was influenced by the fascinating works of Charles LeBrun during the conceptual stages of this character’s design.
Then there are the mighty Raagua, tribal human-lion hybrids with scales on their backs and sharp spines extending from their elbows. There’s also the Pyrhyl, a sub-species of the Caurhyl that live in volcanic areas and boast a brilliant red and gold plumage.
Below are some preliminary sketches I did while coming up with the designs. I also included some bird-people I drew in my uni life drawing class during an exercise in which we imposed animal features onto the models – they ended up being great reference materials for the female Caurhyl.
You can find some of the other inspiration for the character designs on my Pintrest board for this project.
My friend loved them and ended up printing them out to put on the wall at his desk, to help inspire him while writing the novels!!