The Maternal Ghraggal

The Maternal Ghraggal

My response to this week’s BestiaryPosting challenge, from @maniculum

Pencil sketch, then lines in Sailor fude nib fountain pen, using Diamine Sepia ink.

Thought process under the cut…

"The Ghraggal is named for its swiftness [redacted]. It is a beast distinguished by its varied markings, its courage and its extraordinary speed. Hircania is their main home."

So, this is basically all the physical description we get about this creature. It's fast, so I figured I'd give it quite long limbs. We know it's a beast, but not a lot else. If in doubt, by default beast is something somewhat dog or wolf-like, so we have a vaguelly canine-looking creature with long legs and a variety of markings, ranging from almost like stripes on the legs, to finer spots on its underside and larger, more irregular shapes on its back and sides. Hopefully it all gels together as something coherent; I took a lot of influence from the patterns on girafffes, particularly the Rothschild's, Masai and Southern sub-species.

As an aside, Hyrcania seems to be part of modern day Turkmenistan and Iran, which doesn't actually help. However, Hyrcania roughly translates as 'wolf land', which would be a reall cool reason for me to lean 'slightly canine' except I found out about it after I'd done the drawing... ;)

"The female Ghraggal, when she finds her lair empty by the theft of a child, follows the tracks of the thief at once. When the thief sees that, even though he rides a swift horse, he is outrun by her speed, and that there is no means of escape at hand, he devises the following deception. When he sees the female Ghraggal drawing close, he throws down a glass sphere. The female Ghraggal is deceived by her own image in the glass and thinks it is her stolen child. She abandons the chase, eager to gather up her young. Delayed by the illusion, she tries once again with all her might to overtake the rider and, urged on by her anger, quickly threatens the fleeing man. Again he holds up her pursuit by throwing down a sphere. The memory of the trick does not banish the mother's devotion. She turns over the empty likeness and settles down as if she were about to suckle her child. And thus, trapped by the intensity of her sense of duty, she loses both her revenge and her child."

What. A. Jerk. Amirite?

Again, very fast creature, faster than a swift horse. Also, if we're being charitable, not the smartest creature either...

We also know that this is a creature that is valuable enough for someone to raise one from a baby, that hunters have developed increasingly expensive and elaborate methods to achieve this theft!

This did take me down a bit of a rabbit hole of 'crystal ball photography', which I tried to recreate as best possible. :)

Friends with Benefits

places i should be allowed to poke around in because i am curious by nature

container ships in the middle of the ocean

the large hadron collider

any salt mine

museum storage rooms

svalbard seed vault

the painter Rodney Matthews has done a lot of extremely badass bug art over his career, but i really want to highlight these album covers he did as especially incredible depictions of little bug dudes rocking out

and in particular i'd really like to focus your attention of the greatest keyboardist of all time

THE BADASS BUG BRACKET

ROUND 1, BRACKET 6

Dragon Mantis (stenophylla lobivertex) vs Giant Desert Centipede (scolopendra heros)

Dragon Mantis propaganda: it's called a dragon mantis and it sure lives up to its name!! look at that elegant scaly tail and those fearsome eyes

Giant Desert Centipede propaganda: I mean, look at it!!! Not only is it the biggest centipede in all of North America, but it can inject venom THOURGH. ITS. FEET. HOW IS THAT NOT COOL???