Halo 4 concept art by Paul Richards featuring Space Whales

HBO pointed out that Paul Richards, an artist for 343 Studios has posted some concept artwork he created for Halo 4. And I've got two words for you. Space. Whales.

Here's some more, less whale like, space whales:



How the heck did Space Whales not make it into Halo 4?

Richards also did some design work for Forerunner artifacts, including an apparent Mega Didact:

Seeing these pictures make me wonder how many actual individual drawings were made for Halo 4 - 10K? Who really knows....