Amphisbaena

Amphisbaena is a really interesting creature. It is a two headed, ant-eating snake with feathered wings. One head is at the front and the other acts as its tail. It is said that its eyes glow like candle light. 

It is believed that the Amphisbaena was born from the blood drops of Medusa's decapitated head. This drew my attention not only because it is an unusual method of birth but also because I have already sculpted Medusa and I like the idea of doing a sculpture that links to a previous sculpture.

Another interesting point about the Amphisbaena is its method of traveling. It grasps its one head in the other head's mouth and rolls around like a wheel.

(more coming soon, first sculpting Hylonome) 

Psychai

Psychai is a Butterfly winged nymph. In Greek mythology a nymph is represented as a beautiful young maiden spirit that represents nature.

Thought process

I have begun thinking about Psychai and decided that I want her to be covered in tiny butterflies. Not completely covered of course I want some of her body to be showing through. Another Idea I had was to make her wearing a dress that is turning into butterflies.

I am going to do this with her hair. Her hair will start off as normal hair and then float off into butterflies. I'm going to have to build an insane armature for this to work the way I imagine.

I also want Psychai to have wings of her own.

Satyresses

Satyresses has the head and torso of a woman and the body of a goat. The reason I want to sculpt her is because of the cute goat hooves. I like the idea of mixing this with a beautiful woman.

(more coming soon, sculpting Hylonome first)

Chimera

One of the sculptures I want to do is Chimera. Chimera has the head and body of a Lion, a second head of a goat and the tail of a snake's head. Chimera is the omen of natural disasters, storms and shipwrecks. I'm pretty excited about it. 

(More coming soon, sculpting Hylonome first)

Teumessian fox and Laelaps

Background story


The Teumessian fox (or Cadmean vixen) is said to be a tremendously huge fox destined to be uncatchable. Laelaps is a dog that is destined to catch everything that he is hunting.

The Gods sent the Teumessian fox as a curse upon Thebes, a City of Greece, to eat their children. The beast had to be destroyed so Amphitryon, the Regent of Thebes, fetched Laelaps to destroy the fox. However due to their contradicting fates, Zeus turned them both to stone and tossed them both to the stars.

The thought process

Hylonome

I came across the next sculpture I want to do. She is a member of the Kentaurides (or Centaurides). This is a female Centaur. her name is Hylonome. 

Thought process

Campe

I have started thinking about my next sculpture. Her name is Campe (or Kampê). I would give an explanation about why I chose her however I don't feel that it is necessary after I give the description of what she is. Campe is a dragon that has the head and torso of a woman, and the tail of a scorpion! Need I say more? This is pure awesomeness I cannot wait to get started.

When I was reading up on her, in my excitement I exclaimed "Oh this is awesome, who invented this stuff?" As I gazed upon my mother's concerned face I could see that she was wondering where I inherited my lack of common sense from as she pointed out that it was in fact the Greeks.

The thought process

Oreus

Oreus (or Oreios) is one of my favourite creatures from Greek mythology purely because of his background story.

Oreus's background story

Oreus’s mother was a Goddess by the name of Polyphonte. She scorned Aphrodite so as punishment, Aphrodite put a curse on her making her fall in love with a bear. She then had two children with the bear, Agrius and Oreus.

Both brothers were powerful, ferocious, half man, half bear giants who killed anything that crossed their path. This upset Zeus and so he ordered a curse to be placed upon them. The curse turned them into birds. Agrius became a vulture and Oreus became the Eagle Owl.

The thought Process

Introduction to Figurine Sculpting: Medusa

Intro

I knew that I wanted to be a high detail figurine sculptor and the first step was to decide on a theme. I decided on Greek mythology because when researching it they give you a whole list of the creatures and Gods and their descriptions, however it also allows for a lot of your own creative leeway. For example my first figurine sculpture, Medusa.

Medusa

In Greek mythology Medusa is described as a woman with a head full of snakes. Most describe her as a monster however I decided to capture her as a dangerous beauty in my sculpture.

I took the idea of her having a head of snakes and interpreted it in a different way to most versions of Medusa by making the snakes long and large that reach all the way down to her feet, rather than the traditional many small snakes that just hover around her head. This is where Greek mythology allows for creative leeway, they tell you that she has a head of snakes however they don’t specify the size or breed of the snakes. Therefore I chose to make my snakes Cobras.

I also decided that I wanted the snakes to look as if they are growing out of her hair rather than straight out of the head. I did this because I didn’t like the way the snakes straight from her head looked kind of like sausages. It takes away from her beauty. I also considered when I paint it how the blending would look if it just went straight from skin to snakes and this didn’t work for me. This is why I decided to give her hair that turns into snakes. I thought that this would also add an interesting texture in the sculpting as the flowing hair starts to become scales.

Research for Medusa