Ox-sized giant flightless bats (Patreon)

Perhaps inspired by the Pegasoferae hypothesis, which groups odd-toed ungulates, carnivorans, and bats in a single clade, generous patron M. D. commissioned me to draw giant flightless bats used as beasts of burden in his speculative universe.

We began our efforts with a series of sketches for goat, donkey, or packhorse-sized flightless bats.

I think each creature in this series could have been rendered as a great concept in its own right, but we went ahead one more turn, trying to create a larger beast of burden that was more akin to a water buffalo.

We picked bits and pieces from different iterations, and I built up my final composite.

I drew my fully-rendered line art over this composite illustration.

I also couldn't resist rendering one of the earlier pack-horse bats - that one with the uncanny forward-facing eyes. I imagined that these evolutionary offshoots could have also been domesticated, and used for guard duty in farms.

The scanning, compositing, screen-toning, and colouring of both drawings went forward as usual.

Finally, a composite brought both giant flightless bats together.

Building these concepts bit by bit, is so much fun!

Thank you all for your love, and support on Patreon!