Hybrid Animals

This assignment was to create two hybrid animal by using two or more animal pictures, each, from google images. We also had to cite sources and create their habitat as a background behind them. I have to say when I first started this project; the first thing that popped into my mind was the monsters and mythical creatures from well myths and fiction stories that contained myth (ex: Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, How to Train Your Dragon [Vikings -> drove me to look up Norse Mythology], etc). When I brainstormed, I realized how many monsters I knew. There was a lot and there were even more that I didn't mention because they were just huge versions of real animals like the Acromantula and Basilisk from Harry Potter were just giant spiders and snakes and then there were cyclops who weren't really animals but rather human (close enough) giants who were strong and had one eye. What really drew my eye was the Cerberus drawings and pictures that I had found online. Usually myths and fiction books just mention him being a giant dog with three heads but in these drawings there were different animal heads and he had snake tails and there were a variety of deadly animals mixed in him. Also going on this I found the Chimera, a fire-breathing Greek Monster who has many animals mixed in it but is often depicted with a lion with a head of a goat rising from it's back and has a snake for a tail. I found this very interesting and deadly so I decided to do something very similar to these two mythical creatures.

I used a white tiger's body, a white lion's head and a snake tail with the background being a volcano close up picture. At first I tried the three heads of Cerberus or even just two heads but I had too much trouble with the neck so I kept it simple with just one head. And I had also tried a white wolf head but the tones weren't matching and it was much more of a hustle and the head also looked to small. So I went with a simplistic design and whenever I think of Cerberus, I usually think of him lying on his paws just watching. So I chose to portray this lion-snake-tiger hybrid in that pose. Also I used a one-horned animal to better display the majestic disposition of the lion. I named it Nemean Chimera in respect to the Nemean Lion and the Chimera in Greek Mythology. For the texting, I used the wind filter and I colored the font gray so it sort of looks like ashes but is more clear.

My second hybrid animal is a horse with swan's wings, goat (kid) legs, cat paws and black antlers of a stag (I presume). I got inspiration from BlackJack, a pegasus from Percy Jackson and I noticed that the cat paws didn't really go along with the legs so I decided to find an animal that had similar legs but slightly more furry; eventually I found a goat and later I had to crop and rotate the legs to fit the legs of the horse and it was easy enough to add the antlers and the cat paws. I also had a lot of fun doing the fonting for the name (Pegan's Kitty Bambi); I used a lot of filters and light and shadows to make the font more water-y and add the sunlight form the side. I also used perspective to make it seem like it was leaning towards the pegasus though I had to move the Pegan's Kitty Bambi backwards into the scene so that the water (the most appropriate location for the text) would be free.