According to popular belief, when a lady had sex with a priest, she ended up being transformed into a vile, terrifying creature that desperately gallops, with tail and head engulfed in flames. It´s extremely strong hooves tear victims apart and it´s sickening groans are heard for miles around. It looks like a manifestation of sin and sex seen as something despicable, thus being exposed in a hideously profane way.
The headless mule is one of the most famous and horrifying legends of Brazilian folklore. It tells of a girl who has affections and relationships with some priest, and as a penance, she ends up transforming into a frightening equine creature. This was the theme for my Postgraduate thesis. My goal was to gather, analyze and interpret the legend
from many different perspectives, in order to recreate it my way.
MAKING OFF AND EXPLORATION
Below you can check the process in my sketchbooks.
The hardest part for me here was understanding the equine anatomy.
The challenge was to fuse the mule and a girl, make the creature fantastic
and still keep it believable.
I used a lot of liturgical vestments as reference
This is an early concept of the general idea, wich later became more consistent
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