Week Three of #INKtober 2019

It's getting more difficult to squeeze in a daily drawing. I admit in spite of the consecutive dates on this week's drawings, there were a couple of days when I doubled up. As you can imagine, the two on this page sucked up a lot of time, and that dragon still had about half-way to go by the time I had to stop on that day. No matter, I am very pleased with both of these. The Basilisk is another from the serpent family, in fact, presented as the king of serpents. It supposedly could kill with a single glance "due to its mythical nature, born of the confluence of two traditionally opposed worlds, the earth and the heavens." My version has the front end of a chicken and the tail of a reptile which is seen as reconciling opposites of birds and reptile into "an abomination possessed of extraordinary power." Not surprising that biblical references would be quite negative, even to the extent of using it to symbolize the anti-Christ. Mine rather looks on a mission. You can read more about the mythical basilisk at Wikipedia. In real life, the common basilisk is a species of lizard.

As for the Dragon, the medieval versions are often hard to distinguish from other serpents which it is a species of, not always looking like the ones we've become accustomed to seeing: large, 4-legged, fire-breathing and with membrainous wings. These Western dragons became popular in the 16th to 18th centuries. Winged hybrids like mine, with "two lion's paws and a dog's head that populate the drop capitals and decorated margins of manuscripts . . . are a priori serpents." It is speculated that "this is probably because the term draco is the one most often used to designate the diabolical figures of the serpent in the Bible." Thus the term dragon became linked with monstrous serpents. As always, Wikipedia has more.

After all the time I spent on that dragon, I needed a couple of quickish drawings. The two at the top of this page are indeed weird mythological creatures, both having out of control horns. The Parandus is described by Pliny the Elder as "a type of Scythian reindeer, the size of a cow with a head larger than a deer's, but similar in appearance because of the branching antlers. It also has split hooves, a mane, and a coat similar to that of a bear, and its skin is so tough that it can be used to make breastplates." It also apparently had the ability to camouflage itself. The Bonnacon also comes from Pliny: "It is said to have the mane of a horse and the body of a bull, as well as horns so twisted as to be useless in combat." However, it was fleet of foot and could project its dung which burned on contact as far as a hundred feet. Thankfully, my version does not include the flying dung, which many illuminators did. You can see one such illumination here.

I've previously drawn the ubiquitous hunting dog but I also ran across several depictions of guard dogs. Mine has that same slender body of a greyhound, although most other examples are a sturdier, stockier kind. All look fearsome and in some cases are praised for their loyalty to their master.  In depictions of shepherds and their flocks, dogs almost always appear. "They are usually of secondary importance . . . but related comic images, such as depictions of shepherds playing a fife while their dogs dance - doubtless a reflection of contemporary reality - are frequent in margin illustrations."

Wanting to get the rest of the week's drawings on this same page, I found this small tortoise a perfect fit. Pliny also had a lot to say about tortoises and turtles and they were common enough that their traits, like their slowness, were well known. They did not commonly appear though, in medieval manuscripts, but occasionally are seen among the animals in representations of the Creation and of Noah's Ark. Not much symbolism was ever attached to them.

I really wanted to draw the boar this week, partly because his coloring fit well with the others, and it was a tight fit getting him into that last space. His legs are a little short because of that. I like the way he is looking back over his shoulder. Boar hunting was popular among the nobility "who discerned in it echoes of armed combat." It was difficult and dangerous, just as it is today. They got classified with the "black beasts" (as opposed to the gentler "red beasts" such as deer) and were viewed negatively, even as the animals of the devil. The text lays out a list of their natural properties which were interpreted as negative signs and tied to acts of sinners (like they love to wallow in the mud, as sinners love to wallow in transgression), thus using the boar's behavior to label it "a natural opponent of the celestial aspect of the Christian ideal." Me thinks these medieval religious folk had too much time on their hands.

That's it for this week. I'm still using pencil undersketches to get things right before adding ink using my brush pens (which I'm really starting to like), fountain pen and the occasional gel pen and pigma pen. And I'm still having fun. Remember, you can click on the pictures to see a larger version to see more details.