Yggdrasil

30. Ziz
Fittingly, this theme month ends with the titanic king of the birds according to Jewish mythology. Ziz was to the sky what Leviathan was to the seas and Behemoth was to the ground, thought to share origins or be inspired by creatures like the simurgh, phoenix and dzû (which is a Mesopotamian demon with bird-like qualities I unfortunately haven't covered before as it would have made it more satisfying lol).

The Ziz was so giant that the waters only covered its feet and its head still touched the heavens. It wings darkened the sky when unfolded and when one of its eggs broke by mistake it flooded sixty cities. Much like Behemoth and Leviathan, Ziz ultimate purpose was to serve as food for the pious in the end times.

To create variety and convey the absolute size of Ziz, I chose to base the look off Quetzalcoatlus, the largest flying organism in Earth's history, but even that required an upscaling of course.

Thank you so much, everyone who has followed this project all throughout the month of April! A special shoutout is reserved for ‪@l1ve2art‬ who took the time to draw her own entries based on the prompts.

You all rock! Have a great May!

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1 week ago | [YT] | 21

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29. Xiao
The xiao or raucous-bird is an interesting little creature that appeared in old Chinese encyclopedias, its meat said to cure the symptoms of food poisoning. It had four wings, a dog's tail and only one eye, and sounded like a magpie.

I didn't go into this with much thought but instead started with an interesting pose and built the bird afterwards. 🙂

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1 week ago | [YT] | 18

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28. Ulama
The Ulama or Devil Bird is a mystical bird from Sri Lankan folklore, seldom seen but often heard through bloodcurling, eerily human-like screams in the night. Similar to the Gallo de la Muerte, the cries are said to foretell impending tragedies or convey other messages from beyond the grave.

Many birds have been said to be the "true" origin of the sounds, but I chose to base my design on the jungle nightjar, partly due to its natural camouflage (fitting of a bird almost no one has seen) and large, unsettling eyes.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 11

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27. Thunderbird
I always try to go with the original name for a creature I depict but in this case it was simpler if I just went with looking at the Thunderbird as a concept, rather than focusing on a specific thunderbird. The reason is that there exist so many different variations of the myth throughout different Native American tribes and nations, all named different things but not with that much information available for that specific creature.

Generally speaking the Thunderbirds where massive, god-like beings said to control the weather. Some say the bird produced storm clouds other that the storm clouds actually were the creature's massive wings. Some say it had a man's head, some that it had a man's head on its chest, underneath its regular. All in all it was a powerful spirit, worshipped and feared in equal amount.

It's often depicted as an eagle, but not explicitly described as one and I thought drawing the arguably most American monster as an eagle would be a bit cliché, so I instead took inspiration from different new world vultures, particularly the endangered Californian condor. I used colours typically used when depicting the bird in North American indigenous art (an idea I stole from ‪@ACrowingCockatrice‬) with the pattern forming a face on the chest.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 14

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26. Stymphalian birds
These birbs should be recognizable to anyone interested in Greek mythology as they were some of the many creatures neutralized by the legendary Herakles in his Twelve Labours. They looked like large ibises and much like them roosted in wetlands, hunting humans with their bronze beaks and dagger-sharp feathers that they would discharge at their prey.

Many real-life species of ibis do have pointed crests at their heads and necks so that was a great source of inspiration!

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 12

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25. Strix
The strigae (which is plural of strix) were a type of witches from Greek amd Roman folklore who would hunt at night in the shape of monstrous birds. They would suck the blood of adults with their sharp beaks and feed infants poisonous milk from their large breasts (which I chose not to draw). They likely inspired the medieval concept of the vampire and even had some bat-like attributes like sleeping upside down. That inspired me to give the strix claws on its wings as well. The large, malformed head is taken straight from the sources, though.

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 15

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24. Snallygaster
Time for another elusive hybrid creature, this one however is not the least bit friendly. The name is a corruption of the German "schneller Geist", meaning quick ghost and it was reported by immigrants and homesteaders of German descent in Maryland and other states in the American east in the 1700's. The popularity of the creature has mostly been attributed to the emerging newspaper industry though, that described it as an odd mix of avian and reptilian parts. A body with scaly, leathery skin, feathered wings, and a metallic, serrated beak from which tentacles emerged that it used to suck the blood of its victims.

I went in taking inspiration from crocodiles with the body. Descriptions of its eyes vary from one to three and I went with three because it's funner!

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 14

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23. Simurgh
The simurgh or senmurv is creature from Persian mythology with possible roots in Zoroastrianism. It's a giant hybrid of mammalian and avian part that was said to live in the Alburz mountain and responsible for spreading the seeds of wild plants across the Earth. It was an oracle and a protector of everything living and is common in art and iconography from Ancient Iran as well as other cultures like Azerbajdzan, Armenia and Kurdistan. It's often depicted as a peacock with the head of a dog and claws of a lion but also has attributes connecting it to the phoenix, griffin and roc.

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 13

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22. Shangyang
Shangyang, or the rainbird, is a creature from Chinese mythology known for either foretelling coming weather patterns through interpertative dance on its single leg, or to outright cause those events by magically redistributing water.

I could not find many description beyond the fact that it only has one leg (which has led to some confusion with another one-legged bird named Bifang). I chose to take inspiration from the crowned pigeon which isn't endemic to China, but to me the blue colour convey water in a fun way.

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 15

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This is my cousin's band performing a Norwegian song with classical instruments. Not really the type of thing I usually upload to my channel anymore, but I thought it would make it easier to show it to others. They are all insanely good!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 6