this is my entry for @jitaru's art collab!! the theme is mythical creatures, and mine was a griffin. :0 so hopefully you can tell that from my drawing? --- i wanted to express how griffins are proud, powerful animals, but they can also be vulnerable. wings are a important part to a griffin, and they rely on them immensely. of course, they still have their claws and beaks, but wings are irreplaceable. lucius, the griffin/human hybrid in this project, has had his wings clipped to keep him from flying away. he was part of a project to see how humans with griffin genes could be superhumans or something, but he was too rebellious and they took away his ability to fly as a result (and made sure it stayed that way by putting some chemicals on it so the feathers wouldn't grow back). he was asleep when they did it, so he didn't notice at first-- he tried to fly, and ended up breaking his spine. he can't feel/use below his waist anymore. unable to use his legs and his wings, he became a recluse and gave in; the scientists got what they wanted, in a twisted way. a obedient, mindless, broken shell of a person. however, due to the extent of his injuries, they decided he was of no further use. they put him in a wheelchair, gave him a few nasty looks, and tossed him out. for a a few years, he just,, wandered around aimlessly? idk he doesn't remember much from then. eventually he met some people and they became friends, and they slowly dragged him out of his solitary lifestyle. he became a co-founder of a school for human/mythical creature hybrids, and he works as a math teacher there. he learned that the government finally outlawed those experiments, and he gives talks about how he was treated to raise awareness for the people who have suffered. he's seen as a great figure of strength by the younger generation, because he is proof that you can live after surviving the horrible ordeals. he is proof that you can have a normal life, that you can heal from whatever wounds you gathered over the years. he is proof that there is hope. he is lucius ray. --- notes: i redesigned this dude 3 times!! this design was based off a dream i had which was creepy and disturbing but it did the job, so whatever. the first one was green themed and the 2nd was a little boy in a white suit clutching a bunny,, but they both failed miserably oof. also seems like i only do proper backgrounds (besides stripes) for my friends' contests. and that paper looks super bad whoops!! i'm tired --- disclaimer: i know almost nothing about clipping wings, so if the wings in this project are extremely inaccurate i'm sorry. i removed all of his primary flight feathers besides the two (which is something i think they do to make the bird look more attractive-- it's called a partial clipping) but i also removed his secondary flight feathers which is my fault but i'm too lazy to redraw them :^) --- credits! art: me font: mango smoothie music: gravity by john mayer inspired by: dreams and draco malfoy contest: (go enter!! there's 7 spots left!)