griffon anatomy project

[gekitsu]

hey there :)

my dad and i just finished this collaboration drawing of a griffon.
the basic idea was going away from your default heraldic cat/eagle crossing and inventing something a) savage and b) anatomically working.
we had some research on cat and bird skeletons and fantasized about the concept of two sets of forearms.
the current status of research is summed up in this drawing:

http://www.polycount.com/cottages/gekitsu/pimp/griffon_web.png
edit: image link corrected

we may wind ourselves up making a pure skeleton drawing to give a bit more information on what is where.

basically, we went the way of adding a second set of shoulder joints on top of the shoulder blades.
other ideas we had were about using a deformed hollow joint housing two joint balls (word?) or using a quite complex joint anatomy to get one joint holding two extremities.

also, we added a birdlike sternum to the ribcage to get enough space for the root of the wing breast muscle (which has to be huge - the beast is going to fly).

another decision was if the wing breast muscle should cover the upper foreleg (which we decided for - for the pure weirdness of the idea) or vice versa.

anyway, this drawing is covering up most of the structural problems we were discussing, while focussing on the shoulder/torso area.
the final creature may look sleeker, as we want to add fur and feathers.

needless to say, we both had a blast designing :)

c&c highly appreciated.

raphael/gekitsu & dad

[jester]

It looks like the wing muscles are sort of wrapped round or enclosing the shoulder/arm muscles and I wonder whether this would be working. The mass of the muscles needed to lift an animal of that size looks quite good to me. The wings are a bit too undefined to call this really a finished piece. What do you have in mind, sort of wing bats or feathered wings? The eyes are a bit life-less. But these are minor flaws, I think it's a great project.

Jester

[TARGETE]

Very interesting design Gekitsu,

Jester made some interesting observations. I like the general pose and design of the creature. I would like to see more muscle and bone definition, even looking towards human anatomy might help a little. For instance I would lov to see some rib cage definiton etc.

keep pushin

J.P.

[gekitsu]

jester:
yeah, it looks totally weird to have the breast muscle supporting the wings actually covering the upper forelegs but we decided for this solution anyway. it made for some nice anatomical challenges :)
also, it would certainly add to the beast's character when walking: moving forelegs will result in bulbous movements of that huge wing muscle and moving the leg too far forward may make it stand out even more. all in all, i guess this beast would look not very proud on its four legs. more like a mixture of a hyena with limp forelegs and a german sheepdog with a bad hip :)
i posted it in the finished section because of the project, not only this one drawing. i think i will make a pale photocopy of the drawing and insert a skeleton drawing today.
oh and, it should have feathered wings, of course :)mixing cat and vulture was quite a task, putting bat in it would kick it over the top i guess :D

targete: thanks man :)
i guess some schematic drawings might help clearing the muscle and bones mess up.
human anatomy was our primary resource for details concerning anatomy, since we both know our share about it and just needed some details about birds (torso) and cats (pelvis).

stay tuned, this beast is going to get really weird :D