This is an unfinished digital painting I’ve been working on, and a quick sketch of a Hippogriff. I’ m trying to get a feel for this creature. Each individual part is easy, but putting the whole creature all together is a nightmare!
I am planning to do Hippogriffs as Windstone sculptures, either as Paint-Your-Owns, or as production pieces. After doing one rough clay of a lying mare, ( she is pictured here, in my gallery http://www.windstoneeditions.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=16&pos=46 ) I am finding that this is the fantasy animal whose proportions I have the most trouble with. Hippogriffs have some unresolvable conflicts of proportion when you combine a lion and horse body with an eagle’s. The horse hind legs are long and thin, the eagle/lion front legs are shorter and thicker. No matter how I do it, the horse hind end ends up looking too small and weak. I have gotten around this issue with the one hippogiff I have done so far ( The candle holder, pictured here: https://www.windstoneeditions.com/shop/hippogriff-candlelamp.html ) by having him sit up with the troublesome eagle paws held up, So you can’t really tell how big they are in comparison to the horse legs !