Two jokers

My two jokers are:

1.) A jormungandr (Norse sea serpent)
2.) A Quetzalcoatl (Mesoamerican deity which is a half lizard, half bird)

Both of these appear to be serpent/ dragons of some description..

links to info about these creatures from wikipedia:

Jörmungandr (Norse) - Sea serpent - which features in 3 Norse legends...

Jörmungandr (pronounced [ˈjœrmuŋɡandr], mostly known as Jormungand or Jörmungand, the Midgard Serpent, Midgårdsormen, or World Serpent, is, in Norse mythology, a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki. According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki's three children, Fenrisúlfr, Hel and Jörmungandr. He tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so large that he was able to surround the Earth and grasp his own tail. When he lets go the world will end. As a result he earned the alternate name of the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. Jörmungandr's arch enemy is the god Thor.

When I reasearched Jormungandr on google images i found that the sea serpent is often depicted in a ring, almost as if it is eating its own tail. I also found this more traditional representation of him..which is from an 18th century manuscript called Prose Edda and features all the Norse mythology.


I also found this image, which i though was good because it was a totally different take on what i was expecting the Jormungandr to look like. This image also shows how it is possible to simplify the Jormungandr which is shown in quite a detailed fashion in all the other images i found.




I really like this image, which captures the Jormungandr quite simply in ink, it is much looser and more expressive than any of the other images i found.












Quetzalcoatl (Aztec) - half bird half lizard from Aztec mythology

The Quetzacoatl was related to several different cultures - Mesoamerican cultures including Mayan and Aztec.
Among the Aztecs, whose beliefs are the best-documented in the historical sources, Quetzalcoatl was related to gods of the wind, of Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts, crafts and knowledge. He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge.^[5] Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli.

When I looked up Quetzalcoatl in Google images, i found many of the same style of image - those which are iconographic depictions - these reminded me of the playing cards Mel showed us on Monday (were they Mayan?)



A lot of the images were pretty similar to this... The iconographic style of these type images would work quite well on a playing card design.

i found this one too....


This one reminds me some what of a Chinese Dragon.

I also found these images, one shows how to you could begin drawing a Quetzalcoatl in a particular stance (it was from quite a good website called dragonart - will post the link later if i get time....)

I also found this more detailed image... i don't know how much i like it but i thought as a kind of more detailed representation of the Quetzalcoatl it was quite interesting.