Monster Women
A study on the combination of female anatomy with "creepy" animals to create monsters.
I first started sketching different forms and creatures that I found interesting. However, I soon realized that I didn't just want to do a similar rendition of mythological creatures that have been done hundreds of times. This caused me to choose the Cephalopod and the Arachnid rather than the Minotaur or the deer-headed creature.
For the spider, I wanted to be able to successfully combine human and arachnid anatomy so I diligently studied the ligaments and joints that were similar between the two so I could decide how to integrate them.
I decided that the new human-spider anatomy would be best integrated by having 4 spider legs attach at the sternum of the human body and 4 spider legs attach at the pelvis of the human body. The face would mostly resemble a human face, except for 8 spider eyes in place of two human eyes. The human torso would remain unchanged.
I did take some artistic liberties that would not be seen in either human or spider anatomy, because after all I was creating a new species. I decided that I wanted the legs to come to a point to further illustrate the "creepy" feelings that I wanted to emit, to make the human neck longer than usual, and to only give each leg three joints instead of four.
For the spider study especially, I wanted to show this new species in many forms. I chose to illustrate the spider-woman stagnant (almost like a diagram), in motion, and close up to the face.
I purposefully chose my color scheme and renderings to make the viewer feel slightly uneasy while looking at the illustrations. After all, the study is called "Monster Women."
As for the cephalopod, I decided to go in the squid direction rather than the octopus direction. I also decided that I wanted the anatomy to vaguely resemble a squid but not be an exact anatomical representation like the spider woman.
I decided that the squid woman should not have arms because if she did, she would just be half human and half squid, rather than a new species that includes both human and squid anatomy. Her head is shaped in a squid-like fashion with gills on each side, but otherwise human. Her torso is mostly human and transitions into 8 tentacle-legs on the bottom.
For the squid woman, I illustrated her stagnant and in motion.
