For those that know me, this is no surprise – since I was a child, I was completely in awe of all manner of imaginary creatures, fantastic beasts, and legends that contained them. From the minotaur to dragons, to gryphons and everything in between, I was completely captivated!
My love of all this fantastic and fantasy in films meant that I completely adored the Harry Potter movies and Lord of the Rings – I think I saw Fellowship of the Ring 7 times… at the cinema!
When I was younger, I read all the Greek myths I could find, In the hope of stumbling across a new, as-yet unseen-by-me-creature to add to my imagination. I couldn’t get enough!
When I was younger, I would draw those creatures and as I grew up, I never really grew out of it. A few years ago I even started to work on an art book of all the fantastic imaginary creatures I had found over the years, but work commitments and general lack of time made it hard to complete.
Now I have been given a chance to rekindle my love for these creatures with the help of the guys at ImaginaryCreatures.co.uk that are compiling a list of the legendary creatures from myth and legend, from all over the world! It is fascinating to learn about so many new creatures! My speciality is definitely in Greek Myth and European Folklore, So it is so intriguing to discover a whole world of myth and legend!
The Long-term goal with Imaginary creatures is to compile a list of the world most fantastic beasts, and then eventually add my interpretations of the creatures with my drawings and art. Obviously, that will take a while to make the whole list, so it is an ongoing project, with the eventual aim to creature a book (probably digital) that is available with the best of the best beasts and our personal favourites.
We have only just started compiling the list, and the style and formatting are currently being developed. We hope to have the complete list by the end of the year, with some beasts having individual pages, that we will be added to gradually. I have already started work on an “ancient” world map to show where the creatures come from and will be adding art for the individual beasts when I can.
Imaginary Creatures is both a pet project and a project that is being worked on with other people, so it is a joint effort that is fascinating and daunting to be part of. It will not be completed in the usual timeframe, so please don’t be impatient with me! 😅 I really can’t wait to show what is to come with our list of fantastic creatures of legend! But please visit often, and we are of course always open to peoples input! We love it! So if you have discovered a creature that has mostly gone unnoticed, then please tell us about it! We have even considered a list of user-created creatures because sometimes peoples imaginations are even more incredible than what has come before, and all imaginary creatures had to start from someone’s mind, right?
Have a good day! 🙂
Luke
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