A Break-through Of Sorts

Though the idea of mythology and folklore has danced around my project without having gone into much depth with it, I have suddenly realised that it is the key lynch-pin for the whole thing! When it comes down to it, all modern imaginary creatures are decended in one way or another from those monsters of old.

To this end, I have come up with a new project title that is still a bit of a work in progress, but never the less is closer than ever to what I've been scrambling around in the dark for:

The adaptation and interpretation of creatures through mythology and folklore.

Now, I might want to re-phrase that to talk more about the fact that I'm looking at modern creatures more, with a historical basis in mythology and folklore. I have also come up with a sort of vision statement too, one that could act as the starting point for the abstract of my project:

Creatures are rife within the mythology and folklore of all cultures throughout history, and remain prevalant within modern media as a tool for story telling. Though modernised creatures may not directly link to those within mythology and folklore, their very existance is due to such tales and it is therefor important to recognise the deep roots that permeate the culture of the creature. This project looks at these roots and provides a practical response to the modern media that has arisen from them.

I'm really pleased with that short paragraph there, as I feel it does sum up exactly what it is I want to talk about within my project and dissertation. Now, I've been reading a lot of the book 'Imaginary Animals - The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human by Boria Sax and it has given me a lot of things to think about and delves deeply into the history part of the project that I want to carry out. From my reading, I have created a sort of diagram that should help show and explain everything that my project will look at and explore:

As you can see, down the left and middle paths, I show the research that I will/have conduct(ed), showing the origins of imaginary creatures and discussing their existance in modern media. The right hand path shows the practical responses that I have been/will be working on. As you can see, the practical works all link in well with the lynch-pin of the project that is the mythology and folklore. Going way back to when I was dessigning dragons from Harry Potter, I believe that I want to return to this and look into it far more heavily, making it a crucial part of the project. I will be looking at dragons and how modern media represents them, taking a step away from personal qualms over dragons/wyverns/wyrms and simply looking at the newer innovative designs that we see through games, films and television. It will be good to compare and contrast the modern looking designs with those that aim to keep the traditional 'dragon' look. This will be a good opportunity to discuss things like Smaug from the Hobbit and the dragons in games like Monster Hunter, Skyrim and even Pokemon. Through this, I will be able to bring forward my practical responses of the Harry Potter dragons, but perhaps be more adventurous with the designs this time, mixing and matching between the 'true dragon' image and more modern concepts. I would also like to create realistic versions of some of the dragon type Pokemon, as many of those are highly stylised and do not resemble a 'normal' dragon at all. 

Also! Looking into the Warhammer universe, there are many creatures featured there that are taken directly from mythology and folklore, such as unicorns, dragons, chimeras, manticores etc., but also unique races and creatures, so it will be interesting to take these images from the world and design them in my own style, but stay in-keeping with the IP as given by Games Workshop.

So! Plenty to think about and get on with, but it looks like I'm much more on track now after that break-through, and what's more, dragons are back on the menu! I don't think I'll ever truly stop drawing them . . .