Basilisk

A basilisk is a dreadful mythological animal, known as the king of snakes.
It is often depicted as a rooster with a snake tail and bird wings, however different versions of the myth report a mixute of almost any animal, so I felt free to imagine my own version. I simply tried to express the main characteristics, such as the terrific appearance, the deadly gaze and the poisonous breath.

Krivopeta

A weird creature today.
A krivopeta (or krivapeta) is a mythological figure coming from the border between Italy and Slovenia. As many other figures from myth, her description varies greatly, from a benevolent friend of people (sometimes she even marries a man) to a evil-minded witch. One thing however is distinctive of a krivopeta: her feet point backward.
Drawing such a strange woman is a challenge: the anatomy clearly doesn't work, and she look unbalanced... although after drawing a few, she now looks quite natural to me...  :)
Another question arises: is she an ugly witch, or a beautiful girl cursed with a deformity?

Tortoise and rooster

The tortoise is a nightly, earthly creature, the rooster is the messenger of light, breaking the spell of dark powers... well, at least according to some ancient legends dating back probably more than two thousands years, and still present in modern popular tales.
I used the same technique explained here, which once more proved very flexible and reworkable - I changed my mind about the tortoise, it started with regular legs but then I decided to let it emerge from the rocks.
Unfortunately the scanner has turned the nice paper texture into a boring, cloudy one.

Massariol

A massariol is like a jester elf or a goblin, he likes to make jokes and he can easily trasform and disguise, but he's basically good-hearted. He usually dresses in red or green. Someone says he has a pig muzzle.



Massariols are very fond of women. Sometimes a massariol changes into a small child, hoping that a woman will be moved and press him to her breast.

Gnome or dwarf

A new character, a little creature, possibly a dwarf or a gnome.
It was inspired by the incredible aye-aye, a nocturnal lemur from Madagascar with a "witchy" look and long thin middle fingers, which he uses for pulling caterpillars out of holes.

Ogre/1

According to some popular tales, an ogre sometimes disguises himself as a little cute goat, so that a girl takes him on her knees or hugs him tenderly. But then the goat starts to grow and becomes heavier and heavier, until the cheat is uncovered.

Unfortunately in this drawing I haven't shown the girl, maybe I will do some time.

Ogre

Ogres don't need an explanation, they are well known everywhere. There are some local variants for ogres that I will probably show in future drawings, but this a tipical one.

The drawing was made with an effective technique, which I learned from my teacher in a life drawing class I attended three years ago.
First, the paper is prepared by smearing and rubbing some graphite powder with an old rag o something similar, until it gets a middle gray value and a textured appearence (my drawing has little texture, however).
After removing the graphite in excess (be careful, this could have some consequences on your room), you draw and make darker areas with pencils, while "lifting" lighter areas with a kneaded eraser. Graphite is quite reworkable, and the process can be repeated indefinitely (provided that the paper is good enough), as you would do with forgiving media such as oil, acrylic or digital.
The process is actually more similar to painting than drawing, I think, obviously much more tone- than line-oriented, although lines can be beautifully integrated in the image.

Anguane/2

Two more studies on the same subject of the previous post, I hope I'm getting a bit closer to my idea.

The frog-like eyes don't work, they look fake. I have to find better ways to express their amphibian nature.

Anguane

It's not a very productive period, anyway I have something left to show. She's a new creature from popular myth, taken from Dino Coltro's book Gnomi, anguane e basilischi, she's called anguana, and she's quite like a nymph mixed with a snake or an amphibian.
Anguanas live in the wood's waters, but sometimes marry men and have babies. They are good wives, but they will leave their families if their husbands make some sharp remark on their bodies; however, they will secretly keep on taking care of their babies.
Also, anguanas are known to do the washing perfectly in the rivers.

Here are some preliminary studies, and a more focused attempt.

I'm not really happy with these trials, I hope to make something more appealing sooner or later.

Incubo - Nightmare

A new character from Dino Coltro's book Gnomi, anguane e basilischi.

Nowadays, an incubo (nightmare) is a dream full of anguish and fear, but the meaning has changed during the centuries. The italian word, incubo, comes from latin incubare, which means "to sit, to lie on top of someone or something"; a incubo was originally a kind of dwarfish evil creature sitting on the breast of sleepers, making breathing difficult. In english too, the same "shift" has occurred. According to the online etymology dictionary, a nightmare was "an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation".

Anyway, the original meaning of incubo has been retained in popular culture, and the little creature is the subject of a couple of drawings:

 and a watercolor (alas, the scanner has butchered a bit the colors):

Incidentally, you may want to look at a painting by Johann Heinrich Füssli on the same subject.

Snow maiden

Dino Coltro, who sadly passed away last year, was a writer, poet and scholar of traditions of north-eastern Italy (link here in italian). Incidentally, his love for local traditions dated back to many decades ago, and was completely devoid of any discriminatory or racist attitude, which is (sadly) worth noting nowadays in northern Italy.

Anyway, I've recently read a book of his about some creatures in popular myth, and I decided to imagine and draw some of these strange and funny characters (in case you ask, the title is Gnomi, anguane e basilischi).
The first character I propose, la fanciulla delle nevi (snow maiden), is actually not so strange, but quite poetic. Snow maidens are fairies living in the mountains, guarding and protecting the glaciers and the snow summits. Sometimes they come down and help men to move their flock or herd:

here is a kind of character study (I hope they don't look too much like "models"):

You may have noticed that snow is almost missing in my drawings... yes, that's right, but these are simple preliminary sketches... :)