The Hippocampus, thought by ancient Greeks to be the adult form of the seahorse.
They pulled Poseidon's chariot through the seas.
On a side note, a lucrative freelance gig helped me to save a nice sum of money.
At an art fair, I saw a fantastic carving of a Hippocampus, like you would find on a carousel. Tempted to buy it, the Voice of Reason told me to use the money instead as a down payment on my first house.
True story.
Today's Greek mythological beastie is Scylla. You may know her from the Police song "Wrapped Around Your Finger".
She was on one side of a narrow strait of water, and Charybdis, a creature that would suck down whole ships in a whirlpool in order to eat the crew, was on the other side.
So, just like being caught between a rock and a hard place, sailors would have to choose whether to lose six of their crew, Scylla had six dog heads that would snatch the men from the deck of the ship, or risk losing everything to the whirlpool.
The stories vary about how this beautiful woman came to be transformed into this monster, but it is safe to say that it was tough to be good looking back then.
Goddesses and other magical beings were very jealous in those days, and often put the smack down on those blessed with straight teeth and clear skin.
Things must have loosened up quite a bit in our times, otherwise Hollywood would be full of monsters.
Today's sketch is one of the most unusual beasts in Greek mythology, the Chimera.
Body and head of a lion, the head of a goat in the middle of her back, with a deadly serpent for a tail.
Fire breathing with poisonous breath and venom, a real beauty of an obstacle for any intrepid hero.
Sketch of my favorite Gorgon sister, Medusa.
Growing up, I always loved reading the Greek and Roman myths. To a kid who loved science fiction, the creatures in these stories really appealed to me.
So, here I present Cerberus, the guard dog of Hades.
Feeling like I am in a "mythological zone", so today I did a sketch of the Cyclops.
Nobody ever mentions it, but his sheep were monsters. too. They were big enough
for Odysseus and his men to hide under their bellies.
I bid on a job on the oDesk board, and lost out to another designer.
The job was to use an existing character and turn him into a centaur.
The more I got to thinking about it, I realized that I wasn't bummed about losing the project, I was miffed about not drawing a centaur.
Then I thought, why not draw your own?
So, here he is, with sword and shield,(even though they were expert at the bow).
