a curious thing happened when I was watching Blood on Satan's Claw the other day... I'd always intended to do the demon to join Angel and had long identified a suitable figure in a Fishman from the Strange Aeons range... I'd always assumed I'd just be adding the hood to the figure as that is how it's seen for most of the film, but I figured I rewatch the end and really have a good look at it's face... as the finale rolled, I got sketching what I was seeing and was very bemused... this is one of my favourite films, I've seen it hundreds of times and continue to enjoy it, but had never noticed before that the demon is a horseshoe bat... now I've seen it, it's blindingly obvious, I had always assumed it was a mis-shapen face based on early demonic images... especially as they show a great example in the film and the glimpses you get throughout the film just add to that twisted face image...
but, a horseshoe bat it is... believe it or not... anyway, back to the figure... the Strange Aeons fishman was perfect, wrapped up in a tattered cloak, with a single hand visible, even if it is a hand rather than a claw, but you can't have everything... it was even the correct hand (oddly you do see one of the coven has given up their left hand to the demon, but you never see it's left hand, nor a right hand missing within the cult)... I decided to skip the hood and try for the full head, the wide head of the fishman was not a million miles away from what I wanted - I closed the mouth slightly, added the nose and ears with g/s and then added some fur to the head, neck and hand... it's not an exact match for the demon or a horseshoe bat, but I like it and it has the strange mis-shapen human nose in profile that is quite visible in a lot of the promotional material...
colours, of course, had to be black and black... and now Angel Blake has her demon...
and before anyone says it, it's not a vampire - there is no vampire folklore in England from that time as far as I'm aware and none will be appearing in my little world - but the fact that it is a horseshoe bat just adds to the feeling of darkness and corruption in bright sunlight that gives the film it's atmosphere...
