CHAPTER 1 | MYTHICAL CREATURES

In 1806, German illustrator Friedrich Bertuch created a children’s picture book in which he illustrated mythical creatures such as the griffin, the phoenix, the unicorn, the dragon, and the mermaid. Each mythical creature has its own exciting or romantic story!

Notice how almost every mythical creature is a combination of different animals, or half-human, half-animal, like the mermaid. A mythical creature can therefore have different types of skin within a single body: smooth, scaled, hairy, spiky, and/or feathered.

Exercise: Choose a mythical creature from the images to draw in your own way, or invent a mythical creature of your own.

Anyone who thought mythical creatures like dragons only appeared in ancient stories is mistaken. The Shoyrus, for example, are small dragons that fly around in Neopia, a digital world.

Less cute is the African/Asian dragon below, eating an elephant

Exercise: Find/choose a mythical creature to draw, or compose one yourself. You can also write the creature’s name in decorative letters at the bottom of your drawing, or create an elegant border like in the example above.