October MOTM: Phoenix concept sketch + design commentary // sfw

folks. you know me. i'm a special snowflake. i like to try to deviate from the conventional even when i draw very classic, well-known, and traditional monsters--i want them to be recognizable, but i try to add an original spin to my designs. when i set about to draw a phoenix, i wanted to come up with a way to make them look a bit more unique than the conventional greco-roman and medieval european depictions. not that there's anything wrong with them--i just enjoy challenging myself to think outside the box. and so i did some research, looking for little nuggets of information that i could build off of to create an eye-catching phoenix design.

there's numerous ancient and medieval writers who wrote of a bird that, once every 500th year, dies and is reborn from it own flames--with some of the descriptions of its appearance being rather conflicting. i'm personally a fan of the idea of a raptor-like vibe, and i wanted my phoenix's plumage to be some degree of fiery, without being too colourful. bright red, yellow, and gold hues might be the first colours that comes to mind when imagining a phoenix--but i wanted to do something different, partly because of my aforementioned wish to deviate from standard depictions of phoenixes and partly because i personally don't really enjoy working with bright yellow-red colour schemes. i found out that one medieval writer describes the phoenix as purple-red, and that it was also associated with royal purple in medieval times (it was connected to kingship, and royalty wore clothes dyed with expensive purple dye). in classic times, phoenicia produced purple-red dye, and 'phoenicia' incidentally sounds a lot like 'phoenix.' i decided to go with a purplish red for my phoenix--it's inspired by the dye extracted from conch shells, except with more red mixed into it. the final colour scheme ended up more red than purple, but definitely more purple than yellow. 

her basic anatomy is that of a were-creature, which is the standard for most of my monsters, lets be real--but i don't often draw bird-creatures, so that was kind of new and very fun. she's generally quite beefy, with powerful legs, defined arms, and a strong torso. she can shapeshift into a legit bird form, with her arms transforming entirely into wings, and i'm personally fond of the idea of flying monsters having strong back and chest muscles that carries over into their humanoid form as well. since she's a goddamn bird she has no breasts; her chest is flat and muscular, but covered in fluffy feathers. i gave her paw-like bird feet rather than straight up bird feet simply because i like the look of bird peets, and her arms are decorated with wing-like feathers. these serve no practical purpose, though; she can't fly in this form. her head is based on a generic raptor (as in, i didn't base it on any particular species) and i gave her a crest, as mentioned by at least one ancient writer. the crest feathers can move to reflect her mood (smooth when relaxed, poofed up when pissed off), and her tail can spread out like a fan. i also gave her very un-birdlike slitted pupils, because hey, it looks cool.   

now for the really fun stuff. one theory for the origin of the name 'phoenix' could date it back to the late bronze age aegean, since the words po-ni-ki and po-ni-ki-ja/po-ni-ke-a have been found in linear b, the script used in the area at the time (tablets and pottery inscribed with linear b has found at sites of the so-called third palace period, including knossos, pylos, tiryns, and mycenae). we don't truly know how these words should be translated (but the former might mean 'griffin' and the latter might mean 'dyed crimson'), nor could i find where the particular texts containing those words had been found. but either way, this piece of information gave me enough of a reason to go full-on aegean bronze age with this design. for context, i'm a masters student of ancient history and classical archaeology, with my main area of focus being precisely the aegean bronze age, so i was all to happy to go full nerd on this one. beware that i mixed and matched features from various time periods and places, though, things that would not necessarily have been contemporaneous--but hey, it's fantasy. also artistic license. because fun.

her silhouette is (partially) based on the humans found in aegean late bronze age art; they have square shoulders, unnaturally thin waists, prominent hips, and rounded chests. she's wearing a minoan (bronze age cretan) type of loin-cloth/skirt, directly based on the yellow example from the so-called cupbearer fresco from knossos. this fresco is also one of the inspirations for the bracelets/anclets both characters are wearing, along with actual gold sheet artefacts from the graves on the island of mochlos. her human lover is wearing his hair in a very minoan way, and it's adorned with gold jewellery based on items found on mochlos. the phoenix' necklaces, on the other hand, are inspired by artefacts from the cemetery at archanes-phourni. the background of the motm painting--the throne and frescoes--is directly and shamelessly based on the so-called throne room of the court complex at knossos, but simplified (i didn't want it to look too cluttered). 

some people have discussed the greco-roman phoenix' relation to the ancient egyptian bennu, which is also a bird reborn from the flames of its own funeral pyre, but there seems to be no consensus about whether one of the myths directly inspired the other. the bennu looks quite different--it's a long-legged and long-beaked heron--but i decided to sneak in a few details borrowed from the bennu, namely the two long feathers in her crest and the markings around her eyes. also, both the phoenix and the bennu are associated with the sun; she has a sun halo in the concept sketch, though i ended up leaving it out in the other pieces.

last but not least i decided to simply use po-ni-ki as a name for her. 

feel free to comment below if you have any further questions about her and her design <3

// art + character © me.