Sooooooo anyone want to talk about gryphons with me? XD;

[Ryuukokoro]

No no, not Gryphions, just gryphons! Haha.

Okay sooo... not like I don't have a dozen novel ideas I want to work on for publishing, but last week this idea about a novel with gryphons as main characters just popped into my head. This fills me with consternation... I don't even like gryphons!

I've tried to ignore this novel idea but it won't leave me alone. The characters have been chattering in my ear and a plot is taking shape. It seems like I'm going to have to give in and write this thing lol.

So, I have some big issues with gryphons. Mostly it's because I have a brain that loves to figure things out. Even when I'm writing a kid's book, I want this to be believable. I want to write about magic, or lands filled with fantasy, but I want it to make sense and have rules, you know? I want to make my worlds believable so people enjoy reading them. Gryphons grate on my senses of realism because they're just so wonkily designed! There's no creatures in nature that look like you took the front half of one creature and stuck it on the back half of another creature. It just bugs me! Haha.

I'd love to talk about gryphons with some people and hopefully have someone change my mind. XD Or just help me look at things in a new light. Thus I started this thread!

I mean, I've done research by looking at a lot of gryphon art on DA. I know there's some different design options you can have for gryphons. Like, making all four feet the same (either feline or bird-like) makes it seem more like one creature, not just two halves stuck together. But then I worry about that design, too. If you go with four feline feet, the creature ends up looking like a big cat with a bird's head and wings stuck on. If you go with four bird feet, it just looks like a four-footed bird, with no cat elements.

So yeah, I guess the biggest issue I have is with the designs of the gryphons. I was also thinking about what other creatures I could use in this world. I don't want any humans or humanoids (like centaurs). I think I'm going to go with a world filled with entirely fantastic types of creatures. But rather than going with the popular ones like unicorns, pegasi, dragons, etc. I was thinking of maybe going with creatures that people don't know much about. I thought that would be a nice surprise. Maybe the roc, which was a mythical giant bird that fed its young with elephants. Or an amphisbiaena, a two-headed dragon/snake creature in Greek mythology. So if anyone has any suggestions for little-known mythical creatures, I'd love to hear about those too. ^.^

Soooo yeah! I'd love to start up a conversation with my Secundi friends about this. Someone convince me gryphons are cool so I can get this novel started! XD

[Neocridders]

Ahhhh gryphons are my loooove!
I've written a short story about gryphons for my creative writing class about a year ago. I should post that!!
Anyway, my own personal gryphons were influenced a lot by the gryphions. Here is a doodle of my own gryphon.


Mine have a very adorable fluffy face, not as eagle-like. They are more like... tweedy bird shape. There are typically feathered tufts for ears, similar to the gryphions. They have four paws, but I've also considered trying gryphons with back paws, front talons. I might try to do something like that I looove to doodle gryphons. All the time. My whole sketchbook is full of them.

Little known mythical creatures? I'd go find some dungeons and dragons or videogame things. They are full of mythical creatures you've heard of, but only like... a little bit. Most of those are creepy/scary though.

Haha.

>.> I kinda wanna post my story, even though it'll be a hassle to read. It's like 40 pages.

[Ryuukokoro]

Haha aww your sketch is adorable, Neo! I like that you made a mane around the neck, that kinda brings the bird-like aspect down into the creature's design and makes it less of 'feline with bird head and wings stuck on.' Were you picturing the mane to be made of feathers, or is it made of fur and the feathers are only on the head? Or is it entirely fur? I'm thinking my gryphons might be entirely covered in small feathers for their whole body. Or maybe the feathers blend into fur around the neck area, rather than the classic 'mid body' area like in most gryphon design. (But again, dangerous territory there because it makes it look like the head is just stuck on to a cat body.)

The tail is another thing that bugs me about them. XD (I'm so picky! *ducks head*) In real life, a bird's tail feathers are incredibly important to flight. They keep the bird upright in the air and are used for steering. There's no way a creature like a gryphon could actually fly, with a lion's tail! Just wouldn't work.

For the design of my gryphons, I was thinking of maybe something like a feline tail with feathers sprouting in a fan shape from the rump area. Kinda both feline tail and bird tail together.

Yes, you should post your gryphon story, if you don't mind sharing it! ^_^ Secundi has a cafe for a reason! *nod* Though I might hold off on reading it, cuz I don't want it to influence my story. ^^

[Neocridders]

Hmm. I'm thinking of Toothless in how to train your dragon. He has a fanned tail that is essential in his flight. So maybe a long tail with a fan of feathers at the end? Or... what if it looked like a tail being the shaft of many feathers? Like... hmm. I'm trying to think of a way to describe it. I'm thinking something like those plants... shoot. That sounds silly.

Looks kind like that. Only imagine feathers? And maybe not huge gaps between them.
I found an image like this, which might be a little bit more bird like, but not a completely bird tail.
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQF2GyO_fUkaHGCaxgrHGVo0ETcI3018Gt2JnI9OEPBIy4drUs3rA

[Ryuukokoro]

oooo yeah! Wow, that's awesome, to think of Toothless. Good job. I'll bet they were inspired by birds when they were designing him. ^^

The idea of combining a long tail with a feather design could be neat! The design in the art you posted looks like it could work, and is a great combination of both aspects together, feline and bird both, rather than an animal with just parts of one and parts of another stuck together. I like it! ^_^ Thanks!

[Neocridders]

The design I posted (not mine) really is an interesting look. It has more of a feline personality, which is rather obvious. And then the features that look bird-like aren't too overwhelming.

I love my cutesey little gryphons, but branching out to a more realistic style would be very interesting. And I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to read about it

I adore fantasy and gryphons.

[TheLeet]

Gryphons sure are awkward looking things. I quite like them, though.

Maybe another idea would be to embrace their inherently wonky design, come up with some sort of reason why they're like it (maybe some sort of genetic experiment, or a curse, or maybe a love story between a bird and a cat XD ), and then incorporate their daily troubles with their funny wonky bodies into your work.

A lot of gryphon design is personal preference but I think it's important to keep enough bird elements in there, because the overall body shape is decidedly non bird like. Like I feel that this picture works really well with the tail and the four bird feet:
http://katepfeilschiefter.deviantart.com/art/Gryphon-207683286

and I personally prefer them to be a little on he skinny side, because big muscley gryphons look weird to me XD
My favourite gryphon art ever is one of the illustrations of Alice in Wonderland. I think it has just so much character and soul to it:
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/LewisCaroll-AliceInWonderland/pages/alice_09b/alice_09b-1410x985.jpg

And just for fun. How cute is this?
http://mcgibs.deviantart.com/art/Humming-Gryphon-63613452
(You've probably already seen it on your search for pictures but it's just so squee)

As for slightly more obscure mythical creatures, the only one I can think of is the Yale. It's not exactly spectacular and also quite illogical but it was the only one I could think of >.<
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_%28mythical_creature%29

[Ravvana]

All this talk of random combo creatures makes me want to share this link XD

http://www.sadanduseless.com/2013/04/has-photoshop-gone-too-far/