We have always been in awe of the mysteries of the deep. Sea creatures in the vast oceans, or as in the case of today’s creature, in the depths of a mysterious lake. Welcome to week 27 of mythical creatures.

Today’s creature became popular worldwide in the 1930s, and today, it has not only captured the imagination of thousands, but has also been used in many stories of the paranormal and even conspiracies. Yup, I’m talking about Nessie.

A myth that has even managed to put technology in search of clarifying what the people who swear to have found a mythical beast saw, perhaps a cousin of the dinosaurs hehe.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and don’t forget to come back next week.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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Sometimes life is all about having fun. You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you enjoy your work, you’ll never have to work.” Now, think of a job… the coolest you can think… What about a Merlion caretaker?

Today’s mythical creature takes us to the Strait of Malacca, to visit Singapore. In addition to the magic of the supertrees, Singapore created a mascot to represent the nation’s identity. Now, imagine you could apply to be the caretaker of this half-lion, half-fish creature. Would that be a super fun job? Here is a scene of the caretaker who has to brush the Merlion’s teeth every morning:

I hope your work is as fun every day. Enjoy your weekend and see you in 7 days with one more mythical creature.

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Hi, welcome!
Thanks for stopping by my blog, this is week number 24 and this time I was doing, probably one of the most popular mythological creatures in Western culture. Below there’s a clue as to where it comes from:

I have always been captivated by the stories of ancient Greece. Since I was a child I was exposed to Homer’s Odyssey, the stories of Circe, Hercules, Pandora and many more works of that fantastic mythology.

I always thought Medusa didn’t have to be a horrible half-serpent ugly woman. Maybe she was more of a someone who left adventurers who looked at her perplexed, leaving them “petrified” with her beauty… it sounded more credible to me, but it’s still fun to see the adaptations of the story in contemporary formats. Here’s an idea of ​​what this creature looks like in my head:

I hope you continue to enjoy this series of mythical creatures, I’m halfway through my self-imposed 1 year commitment and I’m already thinking about what to do for the next cycle. Keep checking back here to see how this turns out.

See you next week!

This week’s creature comes from the cold Nordic lands, in fact, these mythological creatures have been welcomed as a way to attract tourists in Norway.

There are hundreds of troll stories, and usually, they are always ugly, rude or stupid. But maybe they are misunderstood beings with feelings like any other blue creature you meet lol. 😂

So let’s give a chance to these creatures that have been misunderstood and more recently exploited to attract tourists.

Deep down… aren’t we all a bit trolls?

Have a great weekend, I hope you enjoyed today’s mythological creature, see you next Sunday!

🧌

A few years ago I was doing an news piece with illustrations about a particular Australian native group. It was very difficult for me to find reference images for the subject I was trying to reproduce. Then an editor told me that I had to remove everything because for these people, depicting their dead and even some of their objects in an illustration was disrespectful. 😬

Luckily in this space things are conceptual with far less impact, even so I hope not to hurt any sensibilities.

This mythical creature who’s name, accordingly to Wiky, originates in the Wergaia language of the Aboriginal people of Victoria, in South-Eastern Australia: The Bunyip, a mythical creature from the billabong.

It’s shape seems to be not quite well agreed, some say it looks like a mountrous dog, or a manatee, or a crocodile… I even found a kids show Aussies use to do about the Bunyip. Any way, here’s a personal interpretation of how the Bunyip look in my head, along with a cool group of Australian dancers.

Maybe the can become the next sensation in breakdancing like “Raygun” Gunn did at the Olympics?

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Thanks for visiting!
…and don’t forget to comeback next Sunday for another mythical creature!

Hi there! Thanks for visiting my blog, this week I’m making doodles from the land of the “jogo bonito”.

I remember the first time I heard about this mythological creature, I was about 8-10 years old and I thought a creature with inverted feet was creepy. Here’s my interpretation of the Mapinguari, which according to Wiky, is a humanoid cyclops with a giant mouth on its abdomen.

That’s it for this week, hope to see you again next Sunday.

This week’s mythical creature comes from the Germanic lands… The infamous Krampus.

The German legend says that the night of 5 December, the Krampusnacht (Krampus Night), this creature visits the children along with Saint Nicholas, one of them rewards well-behaved children, while the other punishes badly behaved ones with birch rods.

We are still a few months away from Christmas, but don’t let this duo to scare or wipe you on Krampusnacht, you know, be a good one! 😂

Thanks for visiting my blog and remember to stop by next Sunday!

🎅

This week I’m imagining the Pixiu, a mythical creature from Zhōngguó, or how we know it in this side of the world, the wonderful China.

Accordingly to Wiki, the Pixiu is considered a powerful protector and also attracts wealth due to its exclusive appetite for gold, silver and jewels. Statues of this creature are often used to attract wealth in feng-shui… So, you maybe want to have one of these at home?

Thanks for visiting my blog this week, I hope to see you next Sunday again, meanwhile, have a wonderful and prosperous week!

🐲

Hi there!
I’m glad you are here, thanks for visiting my sketching blog.

Welcome to week 15 of a crazy journey through world folklore through my perspective. This week I’m visiting a creature from Georgian classic stories named Bakbak-Devi (ბაყბაყ-დევი).

From the little information I found in English, this appears to be some kind of multi-headed giant that lives in a cave with in a dark tale that includes kidnapping and of course a hero who plays a prank on the giant to rescue the hostages…

Here’s my imagination trying to portrait that hero:

I think the hero and the hostage are having an argument since our hero is playing its epic monologue before accomplishing the mission:

But of course, this is not about heroes, but the evil Devi who kidnapped the princess and her parents, King Nino and Queen Olivia, who are also arguing because he thinks everything is fine and there’s nothing to worry about, too much Hakuna-Matata Queen Olivia thinks.

Seems like in Bakbak-Devi tales, the hero heroine always plays tricks and games to defeat the giant, a classic from the playbook isn’t? So that’s why I’m intrigued by what happens in the middle of the stories, little details that the characters may have experienced but no one wrote about… or maybe they did, can anyone from Georgia here tell me more? Leave a comment if you know more about this.

Meanwhile, here you have a close up of fictitious King Nino and Queen Olivia who are still down there in the cave:

Hakuna-Matata

Have a wonderful weekend, see you next week with a little piece of the wonders that China has to offer.

Hi there!
Welcome to my sketching blog, this is week 13 of my second year of doodles for fun.

Keep in mind that there is no intention to offend anyone, you can always visit the page about what this is and why I do it, let’s get to the drawings:

Hide and seek was a completely different level of game in ancient times. This week I dreamed about the beautiful Mesopotamian stone carvings, particularly in the deity known as Anzû, written in Sumerian as 𒀭𒅎𒂂.

I guess rich kids back then had a lot of fun with their exotic pets. I don’t want to imagine what happens if you don’t hide well.

No matter if it was day or night.

Thanks for visiting my blog, don’t forget to come back for another quick visit next Sunday.

Have a great day!

Hola!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and welcome to an other illo weekend. Today I present to you a little piece of Taiwanese folklore.

But is not a pretty woman I want you to meet, but rather a little creature that Wiki describes as the Taiwanese Mosina. These little tricksters play pranks on the elderly and small children. They are afraid of noises and probably of young people too. Here’s my interpretation:

And just in case you want to look closer:

I hope you are having a great weekend, don’t forget to stop by next Sunday.

When I first learned about this mythical creature, immediately thought about the DC’s Batman. This is the Mayan equivalent of the dark detective hero from comics but hundreds of years earlier, isn’t that cool?

Today’s mythical creature scene comes from the ancient mayas folklore, the Camazotz is a bat spirit, servant of the lords of the underworld.

Here’s the paper draft from sometime ago:

https://www.tumblr.com/manmadesketches/742046852777672704/the-camazotz-is-mayan-spirit-at-the-service-of-the

If you google “camazotz” you probably will see some stone-carved images showing a man with bat head, check the wiki page if you are curios on who it looks. But since I do’t follow the traditional images but rather my own concept, this is my view of this super cool mayan legend:

Thanks for visiting and don’t forget to come back next week for another mythical creature. I still have 41 more to complete this cycle.

A quick visit to the Caribbean. Let me give you a hint: the bird pictured below, called the red ibis, is the national bird of this country, can you guess the country?

You’re right, the illo here is not red, but yes, the country is the one you’re thinking of. Trinidad and Tobago’s national bird is the scarlet ibis also known as red ibis.

But this is not a bird blog right?

Also native to that Caribbean nation, the Soucouyant is a shapeshifting witch who can fly when she engulfs herself in flames… Impressive, right? I bet she’s a good camping buddy!

Aha! Now you noticed the red ibis, right?

Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend, and don’t forget to look for that light to illuminate your path if you are going out camping.

Thanks for reading.
See you next week!

Hi, welcome to week 9 of my weekend sketching hobby. This week’s mythical creature comes from France, mere coincidence and nothing related to the Paris Olympic Games 😆

A Gargoyle or Grotesque?

From the French “gargouille” which in English is probably “throat”, gargoyles are guardians that ward off evil and that totally makes sense because they protect buildings from water damage by “spewing” excess rain away from the walls.

Here’s the paper draft for this week creature:

https://www.tumblr.com/manmadesketches/741431181966491648/meet-the-mystical-figures-of-notre-dames

A bit that no one asked for, but here it goes: During my process, I usually do lines first, then color, and then shadows/light, but sometimes I do shadows before color:

Thanks for visiting my blog, and remember to step by next Sunday for one more illo presenting tribute to the folk of another corner of the world.

Mexico!

So many beautiful things to highlight. It’s difficult, however if I have to choose just one…

I’m fascinated by the graphic interpretations in native cultures around Mexico and Central America. According to Wiki, the name of today’s mythical creature originates from the Nahuatl for feathered snake. Here’s my interpretation of what the mythical Quetzalcoatl would be like as human:

And here’s the paper draft from some time ago, which by the way you might saw in the about this page when I first started this new series:

https://www.tumblr.com/manmadesketches/741321831675478016/quetzalcoatl-aztec-deity-to-whom-the-creation-of

Thanks for visiting and come back next week for more illustrations, next week I will be visiting an icon of European folklore, so stay tuned!

Originating from Slavic culture, this is one of the most well-known stories in the world. The first time I saw it, I was impressed by the concept of a wandering house with chicken legs. Chickens would be terrifying if they were bigger, especially their legs, don’t you think?

Surely you already know what today’s creature is, right?

Yup, the mystical Baba Yaga. I imagine that she has a nursery of little houses that will grow until they become the terrifying thing we know, but for now, they are just the size of a chicken:

Thanks for visiting me, don’t forget to come back next week. Although I do this as a relaxing escape, seeing the number of visits increase each week is an impetus to continue doing this nonsense for a while longer.

According to out friend, the good old Wiki, some 32,000 years ago the first settlers arrived to the group of more than 900 islands known today as the Solomon Islands. On one of those +900 islands, there is a legend of an evil creature known as Adaro. Some sites describe him as a merman-like ghost.

Probably far from what people from the Solomons will portrait it, but this is how it looks in my head:

Here’s the paper draft from a few months ago:

https://www.tumblr.com/manmadesketches/740702886922747904/todays-creature-is-the-adaro-this-mythical

Thanks for visiting my blog, please come back next week for a different creature, I hope you have a great weekend.

A few years ago I visited Bali and was amazed by the beauty of the island. Its culture is so rich that I suppose it is a fair example of the diversity and beauty of Indonesia.

This week I presenting to you a piece of the amazing Bali. Today’s mythical creature is the Barong, a type of mythical lion.

Here’s the paper draft from this week:

https://www.tumblr.com/manmadesketches/740179167118802944/wikiwand-barong-mythology

The Barong dance is very popular among tourists, these dances in general are spectacular, if you are ever there in tourist mode, you want to see one of these, this is probably just a “tourist thing” but still, it is magnificent.

Anyway, no more “free advertising” for Indonesia hehe, here is why we are here, this week’s illustration:

Thank you for visiting my blog, that’s truly my only reward, so keep visiting me so that the motivation to do more of these things for fun continues to rise, see you next week.

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Welcome to week four of my folkloric aventure around the world, this week I’m exploring the rich myths of Albania. Or actually what wiki and the web in general says about this country in Southeastern Europe’s Balkan Peninsula.

Among the many traditions, myths and other folklore of this country, the Divs caught my attention, which although they appear to have originated in a neighboring larger region, represent a type of evil giant. I guess today, I don’t know… Maybe you could even take a selfie if you happen to be in the right place.

Here’s the paper draft from a few months ago.

https://www.tumblr.com/manmadesketches/740155674762395648/wikiwand-div-mythology

Don’t forget to come back next Sunday to see a new doodle, this new cycle is just starting, I’m 48 Sundays away from my goal and your visit will give me encouragement to move forward.

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Welcome to the third Sunday of my Sketchbook, this week our journey through world folklore will take us to Belgium. I have heard that Belgians are very proud of how they cook potatoes.

But since this year of sketches isn’t about food (maybe next year), today’s illo is about those creatures that might be hiding in your garden.

See you next week!

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