Harpy Horror
(Or "Beware! Greek Sunbathers!")

When I started this painting, I was planning on doing two different Harpy paintings. An evil Harpy, (the monster I depicted here) and one that was good, and malevolent. I plan to paint the good Harpy sometime in '07.

"Harpies
Huge predatory birds with the faces of women and the talons of eagles, used by the gods to punish or torment humans. Their name derives from the Greek harpyiai, meaning 'snatchers', which indicates their practice of swooping upon a victim and snatching him or her away....
Apparently there are two types of harpy. One consists of wind spirits, with such names as Swiftfoot, Stormwind, and Swiftwing. They are ruthless personifications of the wind, but not nearly so unpleasent as the other type. These, with such names as Dark, are violently antagonistic to humans.
The harsh semi-human screams of a harpy as it swoops upon its prey, the thunder of its wings and the foul stench of its unpreened feathers, are signals that it is executing a sentence of the gods from which there is no escape."

Harpy info from the "Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were" by Michael Page & Robert Ingpen
Left: My original sketch for the Harpy Painting. I was just trying to get the feel of the character. I was really thinking of a scavenger bird, like a vulture or condor. I wanted her to look greasy and sorta mangey. I was thinking it might be diffucult for her to clean herself? Sketched on cardboard with a black ballpoint pen.
Above/Right: Fleshing out the victim (man), at first I was trying to decide if he was attacked by the Harpy or dead already? I decided that it was up to the viewer. I was originally thinking that he was a soldier but I decided that he could be anyone.
Center: Quick color test, to help with my composition. The open wings pose was more fleshed out, I tried to make it look as if she was stretching out or getting her balance.