Ok, so there’s a lot of stuff I need to address in order to explain this creature to you guys, so let me break this down bit-by-bit. First off, as any long-time viewers of my art may remember, all of the dragons I created for the Metal element are based on dinosaurs- because the idea randomly popped into my head one day and I thought it was cool so I ran with it. So keeping with that theme, I decided to base the enemy creatures for the element off of other prehistoric creatures as well as more modern animals that had ties to Metal. And while it was pretty tough to come up with any real animals that have connections to Metal, I was able to find a set of 5 that I think work pretty well, starting off with this guy who is based off of the Golden Eagle. Apart from being named after a precious metal, the real reason I chose an eagle was due to them being commonly depicted in metalworks across the globe and being very powerful and intelligent creatures, both of which are traits that I personally associate with this element. And of course, what better prehistoric beast to combine it with that the largest eagle in history that once ruled the skies of New Zealand; the Haast’s Eagle. All of that came together to create this majestic creature you see here, which while relatively simple I think gets the job pretty well so I still like it. So with all that said, I hope you guys enjoy this guy as much as I do and I’ll be back tomorrow for the next creature of Metal!