Neat! Art of my very own! I sketched this creature based on a mask and description from a book of mine of a Delaware Indian god/spirit/figure called Misinghalikun, or Living Solid Face. I don't know where that book is, but here's some description from a quick Googling:
"The Living Solid Face is what it says it is—a mask, a living mask. When the Indians first saw Misinghalikun riding a buck, and herding the deer, it was simply a fur-clad figure with a wooden face, the right half red, the left black."
Here's a picture:
I love it when inanimate objects are alive, and I love masks, so I REALLY love masks that are alive! I'll be doing more research on this guy in the future.
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Whenever I base a creature or character off mythology, I like to shift or reinterpret things until it's a more original creation. My Misinghalikunish creature is still a baby in terms of development. As of now, he's a spirit in the form of a mask that has created a body from the hide and claws of a monster, deer antlers, and a bunch of rattles. This means he's hollow and makes a lot of plinky noises when he moves, two characteristics I love in spirits. I can imagine him standing on the back of a big ol' buck, hanging onto one of its antlers, leading a massive herd. Badass.
To avoid making him so similar to Misinghalikun, I may combine him with traits of another folklore figure named Eshu, the connection being a story about Eshu in which he walked down the middle of a street wearing a hat that was black on one side, red on the other. After he passed, the people on either side of the street came together to discuss the stranger and ended up arguing over the color of his hat. In some versions, Eshu comes back and teaches them a lesson on perception, but in others, the people end up killing each other and Eshu laughs. Ahh, the contradictory personalities of a trickster.
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I've got some pencil sketches of this guy I may scan someday later maybe.
