The Jersey Devil

Alright I’m a little early with this, but here’s my Halloween Pic for this year. Usually I do a werewolf but ended up with a picture of The Jersey Devil instead. Cryptozoology is another of my many interests and of course folklore and this creature has a little of both. I actually woke up in the middle of the night with this drawing on the mind and couldn’t sleep till I drew it out; surly was something strange to wake up to that’s for sure.

While I meant this to be scary, I’m not that afraid of it personally, but I might have been desensitized after staring at the drawing for so long. I took some artistic liberties on the head; the actual supposed creature doesn’t have a skull for one, but besides that it’s a pretty good representation in my opinion. Giving the lore the creature would be over 200 years old so I wanted to reflect that age in my rendition, through the skull and skinny body proportions among other things.

For those of you who don’t know the story behind this creature here it is below.

Most accounts of the Jersey Devil legend attribute the creature to a "Mother Leeds", a supposed witch, although the tale has many variations.

According to the myth, Mother Leeds invoked the devil by saying "let it be the devil" while giving birth to her 13th child in the 18th century. When the baby was born it was named Lucas, and soon afterward transformed into a devil-like creature with eyes which glowed like burning coals set within a head of a horse with two horns, bat wings, a long serpentine tail and hoofed legs. Soon after the transformation the creature gave out a blood curtailing scream and flew out of the cabins chimney. The creature is still believed to haunt the woods of the New Jersey Pine Barrens to this day.

Hope you all enjoy and happy Halloween.

Mechanical and Colored Pencils along with Felt Pen on Parchment Paper.