Winged Lion - Beasts of Yore

This Winged Lion was originally designed for The Beasts of Yore Portfolio, a collection of artwork by 12 different artists depicting many strange, unique and mythical creatures from tales of yore. Each image was accompanied by an original story! Though the book is now out of print, if you would like to see more of the art, please go here: Beasts of Yore.



I know I had posted a preview of this, but I had not posted the final piece. I've posted the final pencil drawing, as well as the finished color piece, so you can see a little bit of my process. When I work like this, with a pencil original and then digital color, often much more of my time is spent working on the pencil art than on the digital color (and I still use a mouse; I need to get out my tablet and practice). I love to draw in pencil, and it's one of my favorite things to do, but it is a very time-consuming process.

The winged lion is a very, very old symbol; as you may know, many ancient cultures have their own beautiful versions and stories behind them (and I love them all! I collect lions and lion imagery, among other things). For my piece, I narrowed it down and finally chose to do one as was often featured in heraldry, as I love working with the stylizations, though I love winged lions of all kinds. Years ago I had done one for a Typography project but was pressed for time and wasn't happy with the outcome, so I was glad for the opportunity to do a nicer one.

This was done in mechanical pencil on Bristol, then colored in Photoshop CS3. I scanned in some papyrus and used it for the background.

Should you be interested, Limited Edition Prints are available here, at my Storenvy Store. Thanks for looking!