New Monster drawing!

[capri0mni]

Though this isn't actually a "new monster" -- just my new take on it -- this one actually appears in the "canon" of traditional folklore -- Baba Yaga's House (though I'm pretty sure the original was less "20th Century Suburban" than this):


A ballpoint pen and pencil sketch of a small house with a crooked chimney walking on a pair of giant chicken legs -- After the witch "Baba Yaga's" house from traditional Russian folklore.

--
I wanted to draw a "mechanical monster," that had a geometric body type (as a counterpoint between yesterday's "long and pointy" and "dumpy and soft") but I also wanted to draw something organic/biological in shape, and I remembered this house -- the most surreal detail of European folklore I've ever come across...

Here, have a page of Google results for how other people have imagined it (I love the folks who actually figured out how to build such a house to live in... If only the house could be made to sit down, so someone who can't climb stairs could come inside).

Comments

[raze]

Ahhh! I love Baba Yaga. Wonderful work!

[capri0mni]

^_^ Thanks...

I'm thinking these pictures might be illustrations of characters for a story idea that may or may not come to fruition.

But if it does, this will be "The House that Ran Away from Home." People often ask ze if ze has heard the story of Baba Yaga, but ze always ends up changing the subject...

[meloukhia]

I love this! I have kind of a Thing for Baba Yaga.

[capri0mni]

She is rather nifty -- someone even speculated to me that maybe her mortar and Pestle mode of transport might be seen as a magical version of a wheelchair...

Interesting thought...

[spiralsheep]

When I was in Hereford (famous for Hereford cattle, obv) recently the local council had held a competition to decorate some builder's hoardings in the centre of town with Hereford cow motifs. One that especially caught my eye was a sort of cow-tractor hybrid with a back wheel. I can't remember if I took a photo to upload later but it looked very much like a cow-tractor amalgam rather than the horse-cart front-hind I've seen people create before.

[capri0mni]

Hee! That's one of the things that gives me faith in our species, in spite of all our faults-- the ability to combine humor and creativity.

[smw]

Baba Yaga's hut is my favorite figure in European folklore – maybe because it represents geographic mobility with a maintenance of the physical household. Or maybe because it's really, really cool. Add a cabin on chicken legs to the "if I'm ever so stupidly rich that it makes sense to spend money on frivolities..." list. I'll make sure to install a lift of some sort for those of us (including me!) that can't or don't want to do stairs.

[capri0mni]

If you put hydraulic lifts in the legs, you could really freak out the neighborhood kids on Halloween... >;-)