Medusa Gorgon Sketch

So... the ever-productive Meredith has inspired what's been a cathartic and mildly productive evening of sketching. Here's the result!

Not a terrible amount of thought went into this one as I'm reverting slightly to a more traditional portrayal of the creature. I guess I was most inspired by stories suggesting Medusa was formerly a lover of Poseidon -- thus the water-like characteristics.

I'm not sure I'm married to this style, so I'll likely explore something different next round. Cheers!

Medusa Gorgon Concept

Without a direct reference, my figure sketches are typically challenged; but I'm genuinely pleased with the results using tips from previous tutorials.
I'm playing with concepts related to Gorgons. I want to continue to tie in more details surrounding the legends. For now, however, it was a fun excuse to start sketching.




Admittedly, the character's tail feels a bit odd to me, but I definitely wanted to include some beastly attributes and wasn't keen on making the bottom half that of a snake, as so often portrayed. Perhaps, I'll explore that option later.

For future concepts, I may wish to play with more monster-ly attributes. In this version, I was imagining her as a confident, powerful and dangerous being and looked a bit to the Batman character Poison Ivy for a reference. Unlike popular lore, I imagine this Medusa character would only turn those to stone when direct eye contact would be made and she would otherwise be venomous. Perhaps more distinct and bright, snake-like markings would've made this more evident.

Inspiration: The Anatomical Work of Masao Kinoshita

Meredith's most recent Harpy post left me asking, "how might one design a convincingly anatomically-correct human-animal hybrid?"

While some legendary creatures -- the unicorn, for example -- have real-world "cousins" to reference, many mythical beings don't even follow what we know as the rules of nature (though I would be interested in seeing a mammal with six functioning and naturally-formed appendages).

For those of similar curiosity, my most recent internet searches produced the fantastical work of Masao Kinoshita, a Japanese sculptor. Kinoshita masterfully gives a somewhat exaggerated yet believable form to both mythical creatures and deities.

I suppose that finding solutions to these questions is part of the fun for any artist, but hats off to artists like Masao Kinoshita who render these forms so beautifully.