This bat illustration was a commission work. The bat is a familiaris for my commissioner’s character. On the sketch you can see him attacking, while the painting shows his hanging bat pose.
I’ve made one full body and two headshot drawings of the same bat (the second headshot drawing was not needed, you can only see that in the speedpaint video below). This bat is an imaginary bat that has red eyes, big and fluffy collar and he attacks with nightmares.
How I made the bat illustration
I started this commission work by making a few sketches of the bat, two for the main pose and a few others to show his head from closer. My commissioner choose the second sketch of the hanging bat pose and she also asked a few modifications that I have made for her. I have also cleaned up the lines in this step. You can see in the drawing process video how I redraw his wing so its whole length is visible, and its tail to make it wrap around the pipes.
Once the sketch was done I have made three color versions for the full body painting of the bat and my commissioner choose the lighter brown color scheme for him, so that is what I went with. Usually the real painting work starts after you have layed down the main colors for your artwork. That is the time to make the character – here the bat – look 3D.
It was fun working on this commission. I enjoy drawing wild animals and drawing bats was a new challenge for me.