How to Draw a Harpy

Description: In this delightful tutorial I am going to show you "how to draw a Harpy" from Greek mythology. Now, harpies from Greek myths where known to be winged death spirits. The story of the harpies goes like this; there was a king named Phineas who ruled over Thrace. This king had an extraordinary gift to see into the future, so they labeled him a prophecy. Phineas talked too much by telling the secrets of the Gods, so Zeus got very angry with him because he felt betrayed and violated. Zeus punished Phineas by putting him on an island isolated from everybody with a big buffet of food, but here’s the catch, he could never touch it. He literally had to live there looking at all this delicious food and not able to put a single grape in his mouth. Zeus sent him another surprise, he sent down three sisters of Iris and daughters of Typhon and Echidna. Their names were Aello (who was labeled storm swift), Celaeno (the dark), and Ocypete (the swift wing). What these three winged beauties did was steal the food right from Phineas hands just before he could place the food into his thirst quenching, hunger bearing mouth. Even though the harpy by nature was originally a beautiful long haired woman that had the wings of an eagle and half of their legs from the knee down was that of a bird, they where almost parallel with the siren, both are known for being the angels of death. Even though these creatures sound like mean, spiteful, evil beings, they also had the capabilities to bring life into the world. The tale goes that a harpy was the mother by being the West Wind Zephyros, which is a wind God that brings light spring and early summer breezes to all mankind, or also known as being the mother of Achilles horse Xanthus. Over time the myths change and so does the image of the harpy sisters, this is when they said that the three sisters wanted a more fowl, ugly look to go with their demeanor, so they transformed into ugly looking old hags who then only had the head of a woman, and the full body of a bird. I decided to draw a beautiful harpy with long flowing locks, I mean who wants to learn how to draw an old hag with a body of a big bird, YUK! This tutorial will show "how to draw a harpy" step by step. The image may look hard but it really is quite simple. After you are done with your sketch you can create your own blend of colors for her hair, wings, and suit. I hope you have fun drawing this mythological creature.