Name: Paola Grbić
Country: Croatia
Online Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/artist/zbu
Description:
Described as a dragon-like 6 legged creature with a lion’s head, turtle’s shell and the tail tip of a scorpion that terrorized the Provence region of southeastern France before being tamed by St.Martha in the legend (and then subsequently killed by the still fearful people once she brought the monster into the city to show he was not harmful anymore. Feeling sorry for what they’ve done, they renamed the city in honour of him)
I thought this was quite interesting so I decided to make a rendition.
Often you find in old sculptures of lions that they have vaguely human features in their faces,
which is something I wanted to incorporate (including the mane shaped more like hair)
I imagine it can also retract that strange long head into the shell to play more into the turtle aspect (besides just the fact he has a shell on his back) and add to that bear-like legs that sprout from the sides as described and more serpentine tail.
I think those elements really add to the uncanniness of certain monsters, as they are supposed to, by their definition, represent something unnatural.
