A partially completed vector drawing of a minotaur (~0.5h sketch in photoshop, 1.5h illustrator). One of a set of murals, commissioned for a Dungeon-and-Dragons module called “Tomb of Horror” (don’t look at me funny, I just draw!) The set of 20 murals are divided between two artists. To keep it consistent, we will try to use the same style throughout, so vector gives us more flexibility down the road.
A core theme here is that the imagery should look ‘creepy’. My solution for a creepy minotaur is one that carries a pulled-off head (hence the dangling spine and windpipe), with the remainder of the mangled body dragged on a hook (not drawn yet). To add to the creepiness, the minotaur should have a not-too-concerned expression. The second core theme is that there is a sphere in the middle of each mural – I’m not too clear what it is for.
This was an interesting exercise – I thought I could do the whole thing from imagination, but it turns out I’ve forgotten a great deal of anatomy. Most of the time was spent correcting the head, with me running in the washroom to see what pulling on my cheek does to the rest of the face. And then I got royally confused about how the thigh ought to connect with the hooves: hooves are really toes, and what look like calves on a cattle is actually their metatarsal. At the end I looked up some other painting of minotaurs, and was delighted to found that everyone just sorta fudged it 🙂
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