One of my favorite things about my [day] job is how it inspires my artwork. From maps, to printmaking techniques, to nature studies, they all manage to work their way into my pieces somehow. I am especially lucky when I can be creative at work. One of my jobs is managing our collections-based social media with my colleague and work-wife Arielle Middleman. Together we took a GIF workshop so we can bring some of our collections to life. Now we can do all sorts of fun things, and I hope animation makes it way into my creative digital life more in the future. I suggest to all, do as Hermione does, you might even find a monster book of monsters.
I first learned about the manticore as a kid, when I was obsessed with The Last Unicorn (think 1970s anime of the Hobbit era). I also think that movie influenced my drawing (all that intertwining and wild hair). Anyway, a manticore is a ancient monster said to be a head of man, body of a lion and tail of a scorpion. This illustration also shows that the manticore was a regular at his local barber.