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Description
I recently decided to try painting a legendary creature. While doing a bit of research I find information on something called Piasa Bird. I had never heard of this before and thought it would be a fun challenge.

In the 17th century a Jesuit missionary named Jacques Marquette was exploring the area of North America that would one day be the state of Illinois and came upon a large mural on a cliffside painted by the local native population. He wrote a description of what he saw.

In the 19th century an American professor named John Russell wrote an article about a supposed Native American legend about a creature called a Piasa Bird that ate people. Russell claims that he heard these tales from local Native Americans but it seems he may have fabricated the whole thing.

Anyway, Marquette's description didn't say anything about wings so it seems that the modern idea of a Piasa bird is that description merged with Russell's story. That's the visual approach to the creature that I embraced.

Created in Photoshop.

Description
I recently decided to try painting a legendary creature. While doing a bit of research I find information on something called Piasa Bird. I had never heard of this before and thought it would be a fun challenge.

In the 17th century a Jesuit missionary named Jacques Marquette was exploring the area of North America that would one day be the state of Illinois and came upon a large mural on a cliffside painted by the local native population. He wrote a description of what he saw.

In the 19th century an American professor named John Russell wrote an article about a supposed Native American legend about a creature called a Piasa Bird that ate people. Russell claims that he heard these tales from local Native Americans but it seems he may have fabricated the whole thing.

Anyway, Marquette's description didn't say anything about wings so it seems that the modern idea of a Piasa bird is that description merged with Russell's story. That's the visual approach to the creature that I embraced.

Created in Photoshop.