Edward Topsell's "Histories of Foure-Footed Beastes": a leopard like creature with a person's face.

Anyone ever seen a lamia before? #ImaginaryAnimals #Mythology

A strikingly lifelike digital painting of a fictional feline named Panthera domestica. The cat resembles a miniature tiger, with a sleek, golden-black coat covered in bold, tiger-like stripes. It has a long, expressive tail, large, intense eyes with slit pupils, and slightly rounded ears that hint at both wild ancestry and domestic familiarity. Its muscular yet graceful body is poised in a low stance, moving stealthily across a natural stone path surrounded by lush greenery. The cat’s gaze is mesmerizing, radiating both curiosity and quiet power.

Meet Panthera domestica

Design your own fictional house pets! What would yours look like?

Drop your ideas below! Let’s create a whole menagerie of mythical pets!

#FictionalPets #PetDesign #ImaginaryAnimals #CreatureConcepts #HousecatUpgrade #PantheraDomestica #DreamPets

An illlustrated alphabet poster of imaginary animals, from A for Amphisbaena to Z for Zouyu, via Dragon, Roc and Unicorn

And here's the whole alphabet - glad you enjoyed it - need to go and make more art now!

#imaginaryAnimals #mythicalBeasts #animalAlphabet #kidlit

A drawing of a silver letter Z on which stands a tiger-like creature, white with black spots

Z is for Zouyu (last one!) - a white tiger with black spots and a vergetarian diet, that appears during the reign of a benevolent ruler

(speculation on Wikipedia that this gentle spotty vegetarian cat may actually be an allusion to the giant panda)

#zouyu #imaginaryAnimals #mythicalBeasts #kidlit

A drawing of a dark blue letter Y, on which leans a yellow yale (a heraldic antelope-like beast with spots, tusks, and large horns)

Y is for Yale - a heraldic beast with spots and tusks and large horns, also known as a centicore. I first encountered one as a statue at Hampton Court (back when I was hoping to marry Henry VIII)
#yale #centicore #mythicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

A drawing of a bronze X, through which climbs a turquoise serpent with a pointy tail, two front claws and a grinning mouth with sharp teeth

X is fo Xiuhcōātl the turquoise serpent, an Aztec god of fire. The picture's partly based on the two-headed Aztec serpent at the British Museum. Nearly at the end of the alphabet!

#xiuhcoatl #mythicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

A picture of a dark blue W, in which perches a purple wyvern (a two legged dragon) drawn in somewhat heraldic style

W is for Wyvern - basically, a two legged dragon

#wyvern #kidlit #imaginaryAnimals #mythicalBeasts

A picture of a blue letter U on which lies a peaceful unicorn, with a tree behind it and flowers around it

U is for Unicorn

#unicorn #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

A drawing of a silver letter T, past which runs a creature with the body of a teapot with steam coming out, and the head, tail and legs of a Japanese raccoon tog

T is for Tanuki - a Japanese raccoon dog - specifically a bake-danuki - a magic tanuki with shapeshifting powers, here transforming itself into a teapot, as in the fairy tale Bunbuku Chagama

#kitlit #mythicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #tanuki #bake-danuki #bunbukuChagama

A drawing of a bronze S on which perches a creature with a lion's body, woman's head (with an elaborate curly hairdo) and blue and bronze bird's wings - her mouth is open and there is a question mark floating above her upturned claw

S is for Sphinx - head of a woman, body of a lion, and wings of a bird, and a tendency to throw people of a cliff when they couldn't guess her riddle. (I still think I should maybe have gone for a Greek question mark shaped like a semicolon)

#sphinx #kidlit #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals

A drawing of a dark blue letter R through which flies an enormous bird with an open yellow beak, carrying an tiny-by-comparison elephant in its claws

R is for Roc - the enormous bird from the One Thousand and One Nights - here shown carrying an elephant in its talons to feed to its nestlings
#roc #kidlit #mythicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #1001nights #arabianNights

A drawing of a dark blue and gold letter Q, in which sits a beast with the tail of a lion, body of a leopard, head of a snake, and feet of a deer - it seems to be in a friednly mood

Q is for Questing Beast - the snake-headed, leopard-bodied, lion-tailed, deer-footed creature, eternally hunted by King Pellinore in Arthurian legends

#questingBeast #beastGlatisant #kidlit #imaginaryAnimals #mythologicalBeasts

A drawing of a large blue P, through which is flying a large brown horse with blue and brown wings

A photo of a section of this animal alphabet artwork (first draft), the inking complete up to R - a large splash of black ink has been spilled over Pegasus!

P is for Pegasus - the winged horse from Greek mythology. This also marks the exciting moment in this project when I spilled a bottle of ink over the first version of this alphabet picture and and had to start all over again!

#pegasus #kidlit #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #inkspill

A drawing of a golden horned serpent biting its own tail encircling a map of the world

O is for Ouroboros - the Egyptian/Greek serpent biting its own tail - and also the Norse world serpent Jörmungandr. Britain and other islands seem to have fallen off the map a bit!

#ouroboros #jormungandr #worldserpent #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

A drawing of a large silver N through which swims Nessie (looking a bit like a pale green plesiosaur with a long neck)

N is for Nessie!
#nessie #lochNessMonster #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

A golden L, over which strides a lamssu - a bull's body (with 5 legs), a blue and gold wing, and a (very cheerful) human head with a curly beard and blue and gold hat and earrings

L is for Lamassu - a winged bull with a human head, found guarding the doorways to Assyrian palaces - note that this one has five legs, like many of the statues do!
#lamassu #wingedBull #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

A dark blue K embraced by a dark blue kraken (somewhere between an octopus and a squid, crushing two sailing ships in its tentacles)

K is for Kraken

#mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit #kraken

A large blue J in which sits a cheerful looking rabbit with antelope horns

J is for the ferocious jackalope - a jackrabbit with antelope horns that terrifies the hunters of Wyoming
#jackalope #mythicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

A silver letter G in which sits an orange and blue gryphon (in heraldic mediaeval style)

G is for Gryphon - part eagle, part lion - I was thinking of the one in Alice in Wonderland in particular - hence my choice of spelling

#gryphon #griffin #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals

A blue and gold letter F with an orange bird with flame-like wings and tail, and an apple in its mouth

F is for Firebird - as in the one in the Russian fairytale, which steals the king's golden apples. The youngest prince manages to find it, and much more besides, with the help of a friendly grey wolf.
#firebird #mythologicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #kidlit

a blue and white capital D, in which sits a gold and pale green dragon with an egg

D is for dragon, of course

#mythicalBeasts #imaginaryAnimals #dragon

A smile bigfoot embracing a big blue letter B

B is for Bigfoot (from an alphabet of imaginary animals I made for my son)
#bigfoot #animalAlphabet #imaginaryAnimals #mythicalBeasts #kidlit

illustration of a giraffe, with a beer keg for body, a "beeraffe"

#imaginaryAnimals
- beer (bier) themed
#Puns #woordspeling

de Bieraffe (the beeraffe)