Nian: The Invasive Predator

This concept art was a lot of fun to make mainly due to how fondly I read about the mythology of the Lunar Beast (年獸).

Paying attention to the idea that Lunar Beast does not have the same appearance as the Chinese Lions you see in lion dances, I leaned into the aesthetics of malevolent yaoguais with their dark colours to make Nian as intimidating as them while creating a appropriate physique that can be thought of as a realistic animal