Presents instructions for drawing the sea god Triton, the Scandinavian kraken, and the Loch Ness monster, beginning with stick figures and construction shapes and ending with fine details and color.

Sea monsters are key characters in many tall tales and fables. In this innovative book, readers will learn about the role sea monsters play in mythology and learn how to draw them. Artists will practice drawing cartoon, manga, and more realistic styles of these spooky sea creatures by using simple lines and shapes that they already know how to draw. Step-by-step instructions make drawing these beautiful beasts a breeze, while colorful illustrations show the reader what they can look forward to seeing in their final product. Lessons range in difficulty, so artists of all levels can enjoy the projects this book has to offer.

[This] is a full-colour drawing title which guides readers from the basics of drawing right up to creating finished colour artworks. Featuring 18 creatures of legend from around the world, including Nordic, Celtic, Greek & Eastern European folklore; every drawing step is presented clearly.

The mythic creature expert and author of Phoenix takes readers through a bestiary of sea monsters featured on the famous 16th century map Carta Marina. In the sixteenth century, sea serpents, giant man-eating lobsters, and other monsters were thought to swim the waters of Norther Europe, threatening seafarers who ventured too far from shore. Thankfully, Scandinavian mariners had Olaus Magnus, who in 1539 charted these fantastic marine animals in his influential map of the Nordic countries, the Carta Marina. In Sea Monsters, mythologist Joseph Nigg brings readers face-to-face with these creatures and other magnificent components of Magnus’s map. Nearly two meters wide in total, the map’s nine wood-block panels comprise the largest and first realistic portrayal of the region. But in addition to its important geographic significance, Magnus’s map goes beyond cartography to scenes both domestic and mystic. Close to shore, Magnus shows humans interacting with common sea life—boats struggling to stay afloat, merchants trading, children swimming, and fisherman pulling lines. But from the offshore deeps rise some of the most terrifying sea creatures imaginable—like sea swine, whales as large as islands, and the Kraken. In this book, Nigg draws on Magnus’s own text to further describe and illuminate these inventive scenes and to flesh out the stories of the monsters. Sea Monsters is a stunning tour of a world that still holds many secrets for us land dwellers, who will forever be fascinated by reports of giant squid and the real-life creatures of the deep that have proven to be as bizarre and otherworldly as we have imagined for centuries. It is a gorgeous guide for enthusiasts of maps, monsters, and the mythic. “[A] beautiful new exploration of the Carta Marina.”—Wired

HERE THERE BE MONSTERS: THE KRAKEN explores the existence of the mysterious giant squid, a sea creature that may have inspired stories of the legendary sea monster known as the Kraken.

First published in 2003. From Part One: ‘Our ignorance of the marine world is much greater still. It is such that I do not hesitate to claim that, in the ocean, everything is still possible! Faced with the immensity of Neptune's realm, a certain degree of gullibility is preferable to blind incredulity. If it was claimed tomorrow that a real mermaid had been captured – not just an ugly manatee, but a creature boasting Marilyn Monroe's bust and the tail of a coelacanth - the attitude of the zoologist who wished to see it would be much more scientifically justifiable that that of his colleague who would merely shrug the news away. The sea covers more than three fifths of the surface of the globe, but our ships cross it only along rather narrow and fixed paths.’ This book looks at the science behind the stories.

"The popular Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang teach kids all about sea monsters"--