The griffin looks like a combination of a ferocious cat and a giant bird. It usually inhabits primeval highlands and builds its nests on unreachable mountain summits. The griffin preys on large mammals and, being a highly territorial creature, fiercely defends its hunting grounds. When the first colonists appeared and trade routes expanded, griffins were known to attack settlers and merchants in defense of their territory.

Miniature Review

The Griffin is probably the one of the most recognizable traditional monster that I've painted so far other than the werewolf. Griffins are traditionally very majestic, whereas the Witcher version has been changed slightly to fit better in the world, looking much more wild and ferocious.

The pose i pretty nice, the wings aren't fully spread but they are open in more of a combat stance rather than flight. The wings themselves have a lot of detail with all the feathers, and the lions mane has a completely different texture that helps to give it the different look.

Painting Techniques

Body

Wings

Fur, Claws & Beak

Gums

Eye

Base

Rocks

Dirt

Rim

For all miniatures in the set I'm using a mix of GamersGrass tufts and flowers.

Roundup

I wasn't fully sure how different I wanted to paint the wings and the mane compared to the body. Usually they're a similar color all over, but from the artwork the mane and feathers are a lot darker. So I started with painting the mane black, then only painted the wings a slightly darker shade. It looked good, but I didn't feel like it matched the art closely enough, so applied a semi-transparent layer over the wings to darken them down while still showing the brown through. After a bit of drybrushing to bring the brown out a little bit more I think it looks great and helps tie the three different textures together.