Feudal Japan Gabara Design

Now for his redesign, a typical approach would make him like a gorilla or very lanky since that’s most of the interpretations I’ve seen so far. So as always looking at the original, I decided make Gabara more of a brawler and fighter than animalistic with a stylistic approach. I did my best to incorporate Oni mask elements into the face making him more fierce and intimidating. I wanted him to be more ancient looking since he is a Japanese monster and wanted to stay in that territory. I also did use some baboons and apes for reference around the face. Then definitely added a tail but not a long one.
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This was a complete makeover for Gabara haha. I think he’d be a great opponent for King Caesar so I did made sure that the design was different and not too similar.