This, of course, is the ever-popular catoblepas, with its impossibly spindly neck and lethal breath. Many of the creatures featured in medieval bestiaries were based on garbled accounts of actual animals, and it's been proposed that the catoblepas is based on the gnu or water buffalo. With its heavy head and downward gaze, it can be considered an avatar of sloth, but like all venomous monsters I imagine it's mostly just pining for company.
2 comments:
Cool studies Mark! Although the second one is really dark, a bit hard to read the features on the face.
Thanks! The dark face is kind of intentional, in that the face of the catoblepas is never meant to be clearly seen, but I may have erred a bit too far in the direction of laying on lots of dark values. :-)
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