Naga (Indian Hydra)
Hydrus gangus, 30' (9m) The Indian naga is regarded as a sign of fertility and prosperity throughout much of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. This is probably because a healthy river with plentiful food attracts hydra.
BEHAVIOR
Hunted wiThextreme prejudice since ancient times to protect people and livestock, the hydra has disappeared from its classical habitats such as the Nile River Delta, and the Mediterranean islands. Larger specimens are known to attack livestock, but usually the hydra is an angler, hunting easy prey that comes within the grasp of its tentacle-like necks. The large, bulky body is armored to protect against other predators such as crocodiles, but this makes the hydra a ponderous animal that may not move from its lair for weeks.
The hydra is notoriously unintelligent, with the individual brains of each head being minuscule in caparison to their body size. The heads are capable of autonomous actions, allowing some heads to rest while others continue feeding, allowing the hydra to sustain itself. The hydra will attack anything that moves within the path of its heads as it lays in wait along riverbanks and inland seas. It has been observed that hydra heads will often fight one another, resulting in injury, or the death of one of the heads.
In the winter months the Northern bull hydra will burrow underground and hibernate, while the subtropical and tropical Lernaen hydra, naga and Japanese hydra remain active year round.
Hydra Habitat
Most commonly found making its dens near large rivers around the world, the hydra has become an endangered creature as much of its habitat has been destroyed by development of human settlements, and the construction of dams.
Hydra in the Process of Eating
With multiple heads all striking with lightning speed, the hydra is able to consume the necessary food to sustain its large body.
Swimming Hydra
Despite being ungainly on land, hydra are excellent swimmers. Moving around their territory requires frequent river crossings. The hollow bones common to all dragons make them extremely buoyant.
HISTORY
The hydra is one of the most commonly depicted dragons in art history and is ubiquitous in almost all cultures. The hydra has been depicted thousands of times in Grecian urns, classical mosaics, Islamic scrolls and sculpture, Buddhist murals, and medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings and engravings.
The Lernaen hydra is most famous for its classical battle against Hercules, but there are other accounts of multiheaded dragons. In Japanese mythology, the sea god Susanoo battles an eight-headed hydra by getting it drunk on sake. In India, the god Vishnu dances on the head of a naga. In the Christian faith, the famous seven-headed beast of the apocalypse is assumed to be inspired by the European bull hydra.
Depictions of Winged Hyrdas Are Common
This woodblock engraving by Albrecht Dürer shows the seven-headed beast of the apocalypse depicted as a winged hydra.
DEMONSTRATION
EUROPEAN BULL HYDRA
Painting a hydra is a complicated undertaking. The intertwining heads and necks all need to behave as a unit, as well as individually. The more heads you create, the more complicated the design becomes.
Once you have done all of the preliminary concept design work on your hydra, create a finished painting that communicates all of the ideas you have developed. In this example, create a short list of hydra qualities you need to include:
• Multiple heads
• River habitat
• Armored body
1 Create Thumbnail Sketches
Complete rough thumbnail designs of the painting to experiment with the layout of the painting. Figure out the arrangement of the many heads and necks and how they’re attached to the body.
2 Draw the Composition
Using an HB pencil, complete a detailed rendering that includes all of the necessary details for the painting. Scan the drawing.
3 Establish the Underpainting
Create a new layer in Multiply mode for the underpainting. Using transparent brushes and different values of green, block in the lights and darks to establish shape and form.
4 Complete the Underpainting
Continue the underpainting stage, using smaller brushes and deeper contrasts until you’ve established most of the details and lighting.
5 Add Color
Using semiopaque brushes and broad strokes, block in the colors of all of the objects in the painting. Don’t worry about neatness at this stage; just focus on establishing the local color of the objects. Most of this information will be worked over in later stages in new layers.
Artist’s Note
Local color is the actual color of an object before it’s affected by atmospheric conditions such as haze. For instance, the local color of a lemon is yellow; however, when seen at a distance or when seen at evening, the lemon will appear less vividly yellow. Once you’ve established the local color of a painting, you can then alter the colors and details from there.
6 Refine the Background and Details
Working on the background first, use opaque paint in more detail, refining the image carefully with smaller brushes. Allow the previous work to show through where you can because the areas in more detail will appear to come forward. The areas of the composition that are less defined will seem to recede.
7 Add Detail to the Lower Hydra Head
Even though this head of the hydra is lower than the others, it’s important to refine the details with small brushes and opaque color since it’s in the foreground.
8 Refine the Other Hydra Heads
The lighter colors used on these heads draw the viewer’s attention. The red color of the flesh the two heads are fighting over also helps draw the viewer’s eye to this area since red is a complementary color of green.
9 Refine the Hydra Background
Keep the textures and edges of the background soft to contrast against the crisp edges and strong contrast of the hydra.
10 Add the Finishing Touches
Using the smallest brushes and opaque color, refine any areas of the painting that need touching up.
SEA ORC
Draco orcadraciforme
SPECIFICATIONS
Size: 10' to 300' (3m to 91m)
Wingspan: None
Recognition: Serpentine body with finlike appendages. Wide range of species and forms
Habitat: Deep seas and lakes of the world
Families: Cetusidae, Dracanguillidae
Species: Scottish sea orc, sea serpent, Yangtze orc, striped sea dragon, faeroe sea orc, hammerhead sea dragon, sea tiger, sea leopard, frilled sea orc, sea lion, electric sea orc
Also known as: Leviathan, sea serpent, sea dragon
Faeroe Seaorc
Pencil and digital
14" × 22" (36cm × 56cm)
BIOLOGY
Evolving from the land species of dragons millions of years ago, the sea orc exists in two family groups: The Dracanguillidae (dragon eel), a snakelike species that have been reputed to grow to titanic lengths in excess of 300' (91m), and the Cetusidae (sea lion), a smaller, more terrestrial family, growing to 50' (15m).
Since seventy-five percent of the surface of the earThis water, sea orcs are the most varied and numerous of the draconia class of animals. Dozens of species have been documented, others are nearly extinct and still today rare species have never been seen. Primarily feeding on fish, seals, shellfish and other sea creatures, all sea orcs must return to the surface to breathe. Once a year, the female sea orc crawls to shore, or into the shallows, to lay her eggs. This vulnerable time is responsible the majority of fatalities to both adults and young. Orclings are tiny when born, but quickly grow to adulthood.
Faeroe Sea Orc
Dracanguillidus faeroeus, 200' (61m) This is the largest and rarest of all the sea dragons.
Scottish Sea Orc
Cetusidus orcadius, 35' (11m) Semiterrestrial, the Scottish sea orc spends much of its life on land.
&
nbsp; Sea Lion
Cetusidus leodracus, 15' (5m) The sea lion (and its cousins the sea tiger and sea leopard) travel in packs, hunting seals and small cetaceans.
Sea Orcs Have Webbed Claws
Similar to marine mammals, marine dragons have evolved limbs specialized for swimming.
Striped Sea Dragon
Dracanguillidus marivenatorus, 25' (8m) Fast and predatory, this sea orc is popular among those who fish for sport.
BEHAVIOR
The habitat of the Atlantic faeroe sea orc ranges in the northern waters, stretching from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to the Irish Sea and Fjords of Norway. In the winter, the sea orc migrates south to take up its hunting grounds in the Bahamas. The saltwater variety of sea orcs has been reported to have attacked ships, plying the northern sea lanes since the fifteenth century. Some accounts of sea orc attacks in the southern Atlantic have been accredited to the mystical disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle. Today the Atlantic faeroe sea orc is a rare find, having been hunted to near extinction throughout the ninteenth and twentieth centuries. It is now protected as an endangered species. Able to dive to tremendous depths, sea orcs are the natural enemies of the giant squid, sperm whales and large sharks.
Orcling
Although there are no species of sea orc alive in captivity, marine biologists have studied them for centuries. This faeroe sea orc orcling is 36" (91cm) and was caught off the Canary Islands in 1927.
Courtesy of Vanderhaute Oceanographic Institute, Center harbor, New York
Sea Orc Nesting Grounds
The sandy beaches of the oceans are the common nesting grounds of the sea orc.
Carved Sea Orc Teeth Were Common Among Whalers
Whalers often encountered sea orcs while in pursuit of sperm whales. This 16"(41cm) sea orc tooth was intricately carved by an American seaman in the late nineteenth century.
Courtesy of Oyster Cove Athenaeum, Oyster Cove, Massachusetts
Artist’s Note
Imagining different species of sea dragons allows for a wide array of creatures to be designed. With over forty different species of whales, more than three hundred species of sharks and no less than twenty-eight thousand species of fishes, add to this number the extinct species of marine dinosaurs and plated fish and you can begin to try to imagine how many kinds of sea dragons might exist.
HISTORY
In this illustration by Gustave Dore, done in 1880, the hero Orlando saves Olympia from being sacrificed to a sea orc.
The word orc comes from the Latin orcus, which means both whale and underworld. This is where the killer whale gets its name orca. It is not in fact a goblin-like monster. The most famous sea orc is, of course, the Loch Ness monster which is a Scottish sea orc. A similar account of the Scottish sea orc is in the epic poem Orlando Furioso, by Ariosto, where maidens Angelica and Olympia were to be sacrificed to a sea orc in the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The creature was stopped by the hero Orlando when he wedged a ship’s anchor into the creature’s mouth. Although some marine biologists suggest that the famous kraken of ancient mythology was a sea orc, it is believed that the kraken was, in fact, a giant squid. Leviathan is also often mistaken to be a sea orc, but it is believed that that titanic animal is actually a cetacean.
The largest specimen of a saltwater sea orc is at the British Maritime Institute in Bangor, Wales. This 225' (69m) specimen was killed in the Irish Sea by the frigate HMS Pertinacious in 1787.
Faeroe Sea Orc Egg, 6" (15cm)
A sea orc clutch usually consists of twenty eggs. Once born, the tiny orclings will race to the sea for safety.
Powerful Jaws Allow Sea Orcs to Consume Massive Prey
This skull shows how this powerful animal can easily feed on even the largest whales and squids in the oceans. The long interlocking teeth allow for snatching at fish.
DEMONSTRATION
FAEROE SEA ORC
When approaching a painting of a creature as powerful and fearsome as a sea orc, there are several elements of the design that will need to be illustrated. In the case of the massive faeroe sea orc, the following qualities are important, and need to be included in the illustration:
• Underwater habitat
• Swift, eellike movement
• Large mouth for catching prey
• Iridescent coloration
In this illustration, I am drawing inspiration from a host of large predatory fish, such as sharks, eels, barracuda and sailfish. All of these animals attack their prey with lightning speed in the deep water.
1 Thumbnail Design
Using the reference of other animals such as eels, begin your illustration with a thumbnail sketch. Try to incorporate all of the elements listed into this one illustration.
2 Complete the Finished Drawing
Using an HB pencil, complete a detailed rendering that includes all of the necessary details for the painting. Scan the drawing.
Artist’s Note
When trying to depict movement, always show the shapes looping back on themselves. Whether this is cloth, rope, or a serpent, a looping shape is far moore suggestive of undulation than a stiff, straight line.
3 Establish the Underpainting
In a new layer in Multiply mode, begin the underpainting by roughly blocking in the shapes to quickly establish the silhouette of the composition. Also establish the lights and shadows at this point. Here, the light is coming from above and will strike the shiny scales towards the top.
4 Complete the Underpainting
Using transparent brushes, complete the underpainting, outlining all of the details of the creature. Add more details to the areas you want to appear to come forward and keep the background details less defined. With smaller brushes, add patterns to the scales and refine the facial features.
5 Add Color
Using broad strokes and general shapes, rough in the color scheme on a new semitransparent layer over the underpainting. Touch up the swordfish the sea orc is chasing. Bring in some greens and light browns for the scales in the front and middle sections of the sea orc. These colors will contrast against the light blue underbelly and make it appear shimmery. With small brushes, color the eyes and teeth using yellows and reds.
6 Refine the Background
To enhance the large size and sense of movement, recede the tail of the sea orc into the murky water so the sharp detail of the head is in stark contrast to the the softness of the tail. This optical illusion is an effective way of foreshortening such a long creature without losing the impact of its size.
Bring in some of the sea orc’s color from step 4 into the waves using semiopaque color. Lengthen the trail of bubbles escaping from the orc’s mouth to enhance the appearance of quick movement.
7 Add Details
Starting in the background and slowly working forward, carefully add the highlights of the sea orc. Take your time at this stage; the details are what will make the image convincing. Pay special attention to the middle section of the sea orc’s body. Punch up the contrast between the blue and gray color in this area and use small semiopaque brushes to refine each of the scales.
8 Refine the Head and Mouth
With your smallest brushes and opaque color, refine the sea orc’s face and mouth. Carefully add shadows and highlights to the scales surrounding the face. Then sharpen color and detail of the eyes, mouth and teeth.
9 Refine the Front Scales
Add a brighter blue and a light highlight along the front of the sea orc’s body. This highlight will make the scales appear to shimmer and will help definte the orc’s form.
10 Adjust the Middle Scales
Lighten the scales toward the middle and back of the orc’s body. This will help the front section of the body stand out even more.
11 Alter the Background Fish and Add the Final Touches
Using the smallest brushes and opaque color, refine any areas of the painting that need touching up. I didn’t like the look of the swordfish, so I created a new layer in Norm
al mode with an opacity setting of 100%. I then created the new fish design directly over the earlier version.
WYRM
Draco ouroboridae
SPECIFICATIONS
Size: 50' (15m)
Wingspan: None
Recognition: Scaled snakelike body. Camouflage patterning varies by species
Habitat: Temperate to tropical climates, especially lowlands and wetlands
Species: African striped wyrm, American banyan wyrm, Asian marsh wyrm, European lindwyrm, Indian drakon
Also known as: Worm, serpent, lindwyrm, lyndwyrm, lindworm, wurm, worm king, ouroborus, drakon, drakonne
American Banyan Wyrm
Pencil and digital
14" × 22" (36cm × 56cm)
BIOLOGY
One of the most infamous families in the dragon class, the wyrm has been perhaps the most feared creature throughout all human cultures. The wyrm is distinguished by both its lack of wings and legs, although the lindwyrm species do have small vestigial legs. Looking much like an armored snake, wyrms can reach tremendous sizes of more than 50' (15m), although the average wyrm only reaches 25' (8m) due to harsh hunting practices that have cut down their populations drastically. Natural enemies of alligators, crocodiles and hydra, wyrms live along swampy riverbanks and saltwater tidal basins, hunting large animals such as boar and deer. Although not able to breathe fire, the wyrm is able to spray a cloud of misted poison that can paralyze and blind its prey, allowing the animal to swallow its quarry whole.
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