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February MOTM: Peacock gryphon - concept sketch + design commentary // sfw
🕑 Added 2021-02-28 22:59:22 +0000 UTCthanks again to ciyu for suggesting a flamboyant monster and to lostmisfits for requesting more gryphons! i combined their suggestions into a fancy peacock gryphon, since peacocks are inherently glamorous and flashy, with their brilliant colours and magnificent display of feathers.
the blue kind -- indian peafowl -- came to mind first, but after doing some reading i learned there's also green peafowl with more emerald feathers. i really liked the colour palette of the latter, and their plumage has an almost scaly look that i was tempted to stylise. that said i never intended to precisely and correctly mimic the colouration and patterning of green peafowl -- they're a source of inspiration and point of departure, but ultimately my gryphon is a fantasy peacock.
gryphons are, of course, part bird and part cat. for the feline half i immediately imagined a spotted coat that would go well with the eye-like pattern of a peacock tail. much as with the avian half i didn't feel the need to accurately portray a certain feline species, but i looked up small cats that live in the same area of southeast asia as green peafowl, and ended up using leopard cats as inspiration.
when i thought about how to approach the design, i considered re-interpreting the peacock tail in an unconventional way. i was tempted to turn it into a garment instead of an integral part of the monster's body, like a robe with peacock-feather sleeves. after all, i like pushing designs in unexpected directions, and perhaps the peacock robe could function like a selkie skin, allowing the gryphon to shift between a humanoid and a monstrous form? i also thought about giving them a stylised, humanoid mask with a painted bird face, as can be seen in the doodles above.
ultimately, however, i decided that a peacock robe and stylised mask might make the character look less like a gryphon and more like a different kind of bird monster. as fun as it is to take unexpected turns, perhaps now was not the right time. it would have felt sort of like fixing something that's not broke, so i backpedaled a bit and went with a more conventional gryphon design.
that said, i still wanted to add some kind of unique flair, but i wasn't sure how. in search of ideas i did some research on the mythology and folklore associated with peacocks, and made note of anything that caught my attention. for example, i didn't know that the early christians of rome associated the peacock with death and resurrection. it was believed that peacock meat didn't rot and that plucked feathers stayed brilliant. in ancient greece, hera honoured the fallen giant argos panoptes by placing his hundred eyes on the peacock's tail.
because of their beauty and strutting, the western church used peacocks as symbols of pride and vanity; they were featured in cautionary metaphors against superficiality and self-importance. peacocks were kept for decoration but their calls were described as ghastly (and potentially foreboding the death of its owner) and their personalities as mean. some tales held that the peacock helped the devil gain entrance into eden, while others claim it refused to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. when depicted next to the tree of life, the bird symbolises immortality. many interpretations of phoenixes and similar mythical birds resemble peacocks, again tying it to resurrection.
in persia, babylonia, and india, the peacock had an association with royalty. peacocks are associated with several hindu gods, sometimes by serving as their mounts. as a delicacy eaten by wealthy romans, with feathers worn by european knights and aristocrats of later centuries, and as a part of heraldic shields, the peacock is a symbol of luxury and power. the eye-like markings of its plumage have also led to an association with watchfulness, and i learned that they fearlessly kill and eat snakes. but on a less flattering note i also found mention of how the devil watered grapes with peacock blood, accounting for when drunkenness make people prance like such birds.
in sum, some of the themes are 1) death, resurrection, immortality, 2) watchfulness, 3) pride and vanity, and 4) royalty and luxury. with that in mind, i started honing in on which direction i wanted to take the design.
i thought about taking the eye imagery to an eldritch degree, with the spots of his tail staring into the viewer's soul and eyes appearing on different parts of his body. but when i made the experimental sketch of a tail feather seen above, i wasn't too fond of how it turned out. i've also done the multitude-of-eyes thing in the past and as much as i love it, surely i could come up with something else?
pride, vanity, royalty, and wealth go hand in hand, especially since the design would have a flamboyant element. i figured that as i was working on the painting i would be able to enhance the luxurious impression through the character's pose, various background elements, and the colour palette. but i also decided to give him a headdress that resembles a crown, since it's a classic symbol of special status. furthermore, i wanted to draw him with a glass of wine, partly because of the tidbit mentioned above (about how drunk people strut like peacocks ) and partly because it's a classy -- and occasionally very expensive -- type of beverage.
but most of all i was intrigued by the peacock's connection to death, resurrection, and immortality. as a symbol of this theme, i made his head resemble a bird skull, and his eyes are fogged over with death. i scrapped the idea of giving him the green face of the revived osiris, but included another ancient egyptian symbol of resurrection -- the lotus flowers of his crown. i WAS going to give him an ourobouros necklace, since it signifies the neverending, interdependent cycle of life and death. but here's the embarrassing truth -- i frankly just forgot to add it to the painting and/or sketch. that's just how it be sometimes.
if you have any questions about this design, feel free to comment below :>
// art + character © me.
