Minor/Major Project: The Manticore - Initial Sketches and Studies

Influence with various artistic renditions of manticores.

Something I found when looking at images of manticores, is that older artworks often have too far too literal human faces, while more recent versions often forget the human face altogether, and sometimes give them wings. I want the manticore Adelaide encounters to have a recognisably human face with lion-like qualities (something akin to the middle and bottom right images above).

Initial sketches.

In these sketches I feel number 5 may lean to close towards lion than man, whilst 1 may be a little too human.

Studies of lion legs and paws.

I wanted the front part of the manticore to still possess some human qualities, so I looked at images of arm muscles in humans and leg muscles in lions to try and mix them together in a way that would still make sense. I also did some small studies of lion paws, as I may give them a more human twist too.

For the tail, I'm unsure if a mostly lion tail with a scorpion's sting on the end would be better, or a lion tail that gradually becomes a scorpion tail as it reaches the end. In these sketches I like both, but lean towards the more scorpion based tail.