Gryphon prompt: Lets share our inspiration and WIPs

[Fey Realme]

Hey y'all! Animals aren't my strong suit, but i started looking at inspiration for the prompt and I might participate (especially since next months prompt builds on this months design prompt).
I wanted to share the cool stuff i found on Pinterest with y'all. Once i get going on roughs ill share them here too.

I would love it if you all posted the inspiration you find and your WIPs here! If you want feedback on a WIP, make a note on your post and I will reply. Im excited to see everyone’s imagination go wild, and Im especially excited about how the gryphon design can strengthen and support the story that we do next month, so start thinking about that story now!

*edit 2/9 11:58: the poll in response to a comment by @skeletortoise . This is my first poll, im interested to see how it works.
*edit 2/9 11:59: it cut off the ends of the longer answers and you cannot edit it once you post it. complete answer text originally read "Far out, I wanted to do an octopus-bird-dog, it only matters if its cool right?" and "Loosely, any combination of a bird and an quadruped could be a griffin-type animal"
*edit 2/16: I don't know where the poll went--oh wait there it is. 8% (1) are sticklers, 92% (11) say loosely any combination of a bird and a quadruped could be a griffin

[Fey Realme]

Here are the cool gryphon images i found on pinterest
The og gryphon design

A more traditional design rendering

Other animal combinations

These designs remind me of original gryphon setup, but i think they look silly while being very cool because it looks like the back half of some animal glued onto a bird lol

I personally like versions like these where it feels a bit more integrated

[Sarah VanDam]

Cool! Here are some paintings by Greg Manchess to add to that:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.muddycolors.com%2F2014%2F10%2Fflight-line%2F&psig=AOvVaw2gfZ6pGWCanSnzrorObQTZ&ust=1707384007180000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBMQjRxqFwoTCJiS25vzmIQDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smarterartschool.com%2Fgreg-manchess-composition-as-story.html&psig=AOvVaw2gfZ6pGWCanSnzrorObQTZ&ust=1707384007180000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBMQjRxqFwoTCJiS25vzmIQDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAM

[skeletortoise]

@R-Fey-Realme I love this post! I am looking forward to sharing my ideas. I am not used to designing creatures - only done it a couple of times. I feel like a "griffin" is such a specific thing: eagle + lion, but I like how the designs above are showcasing other bird combinations.

Do you all feel that a griffin is really just a mash-up of two creatures or is it specifically a winged thing? Specifically eagle + lion? Something else?

[skeletortoise]

I like the shape language of this one:

And this one is so interesting!

[Tash]

My closet association with Gryphons is from my favorite childhood movie Quest for Camelot, so I would like to pay homage to that! Was playing with a couple different bird animal combos and landed on toucan and Jaguar with a snake tail that has a seperate personality. (A nod to the two headed dragon)

I've been toying with the idea of making the gryphon really sweet and friendly, and making the snake aggressive and unruly.

I really haven't ever done any character design and I feel a little over my head so I'd love anyone's input!

[MarcRobinson]

These resources are great, thanks! They opened my eyes to the possibilities, and there really is no limit to the variations. I was originally going to do a combination of a chicken and a kitten, but reluctantly went with a kingfisher and a kitten. All my chicken sketches looked derpy lol. I've managed to sketch out my composition in photoshop, and I'll be doing my traditional pencil drawing next, which is my favourite step in the process! Can't wait to see other peoples WIPs.

[Julia Hegetusch]

@MarcRobinson I love this sketch, the gryphon especially!

[MarcRobinson]

@Julia-Hegetusch thank you Julia, I'm pleased with how it's going so far.

[Fey Realme]

@Tash that is fun! I'm glad you're making this prompt an opportunity to riff off of something you love. I think you are off to a great start, especially in the sketch where the gryphon is holding its snake tail and waving.

I have some tips for you as you go forward

if you look at the design of the Gryphon you referenced from the Quest for Camelot the repeated triangle shape (in the ears, the green eyes, the general chest shape, and even in legs and wings and beak) make it look really menacing and even evil. another element that makes it work is the variation in size within the design. small head, big chest, bigger wings, small legs. like they guys said (a few times ago when they were critiquing the rock fortress of Jeremy ross) you want to follow the small, medium, really big rule to avoid sizes that are too similar.

I like the really big beak and the small wings you have on your design right now, you could reduce the body size a bit so it is sort of medium to finish out the rule.

also, if you want to make your gryphon sweet you should use a lot of circles and ovals (so a toucan is a great choice, they already have lots of ovals and a happy face). Jaguars are kinda scary, but in the movie zootopia, they made a cuddly jaguar (officer clawhauser) by making him round and soft, so you could do something similar.

see how many circles and ovals you can work into the gryphon, and make the snake as full straight lines and triangles as you can.

I would also recommend doing a few draw-overs of pictures of cats to get the anatomy bits in the right places. Ill add an image of what I mean here later. there is no shame in getting a little help from photo reference! In fact it is a best practice.

@MarcRobinson this is your submission for march? wow I hadnt thought of putting the gryphon into a story, I suppose next month both the boy and they gryphon will show up? that's exciting!
I'm just going to do a few poses on a white background

[skeletortoise]

@R-Fey-Realme They actually did request an illustration with story I believe. If you go to the page for the prompt, it says to put the griffin into a story.

[MarcRobinson]

@R-Fey-Realme yeah I'm settled on the design and composition, just need to do my convoluted process of pencils, scanning and painting ha! Yeah I prefer to do stories/scenes for my designs so I can use the illustration in my portfolio.

[MarcRobinson]

@skeletortoise I hadn't noticed that, but you're right!

[Joshua Chennault]

Figured I would toss this in here as well. Working on the character design and hopefully next week will have a scene ready to go.

[skeletortoise]

My favorite bird is probably the crow, so I looked up crow griffins and LOOK

[Tash]

@R-Fey-Realme Thank you so so much for your feedback and advice! I definitely feel out of my element when it comes to character design and your advice really helps to de-mystify the path forward!

[Haley Browning]

I am a bit late to the party, but I LOVE creature design and never did much story with my drawings. I questioned whether the bird half of the griffin would dominate the lion half or vice versa. These are ideas on mostly cat behaviors with a griffin. I am stumped with which thumbnail direction I want to go into more exploration. I personally love number 3 with a baby griffin pushing a glowing goblet off the desk, but my husband loves number 5 after the griffin pushed off the cup. Number 8 was an idea on what if the cup had a potion in it and a normally small creature drank it and grew.

I would love some feedback on your picks and what could be done to improve them. Thank you all!

[MarcRobinson]

@Haley-Browning love the idea of the gryphon acting like a kitten! I like number 3 because of the composition and sense of depth created by the foreground elements. Although it might be hard to see a lot of the design of the gryphon due to the pose hiding some of the body.

[stayhomejoe]

I have been drawing griffins in different ways, but I haven’t landed on one yet. I could spend all year on this one. I’m a big fan of fantasy.Untitled_Artwork.pdf Untitled_Artwork 2.pdf

[stayhomejoe]

More griffins Untitled_Artwork.pdf