Sketch Diary: Harpy priestess concept

Isn't she ADORABLE?! I think so. I'm pretty pleased with myself. It only took... forever to finish this sketch. Such is the curse of having full-time design work. Doesn't leave much time for random sketching. But I was inspired for this little illustration project I'm working on with some folks, The Compendium. It's a nice way to motivate each other to draw more regularly and with purpose without any real deadline to stress us out.

Anyway, what I mentioned when I first uploaded this sketch there was this whole priestess thing. "I'm not sure why but I like the idea of harpies being priestesses to the gods. Kind of like an pre-christian idea of angels. But I imagine harpies as being more...gray. Not good but not evil. They do the gods bidding and maintain the great temples or something. Guard the relics, preside over sacrifices, light the sacred candles."
Maybe she needs more cloths? I don't know. I feel like harpies should, in general, be pretty bare.
with love - M

Sketch Diary: Harpy dwarf girl thing whatever

Another example of not just letting something run off the page... those darn wings are way too small. Whatever. It's a dwarf harpy. There, ya happy! No. I thought not. Well enjoy the detail on those feathers and scales instead. Because that took forever. No, not forever. You know what I mean. It was arduous. I've decided to make this difficult anthropomorphic beauty my chosen creature thing for this other thing I'm doing with some people. So let's consider this chick (hah, see what I did there) step one. Bird structure is not my strong suit. Wish me luck.

with love - M