A character I made up in my classical mythology class this past spring (because taking classes I'll never use based on personal interest IS MY FETISH).

This is Hesper, one of the more placid sphinxes you will happen to meet. She's a chatty girl, very vain, highly feminine, and extremely gossipy. While she can be a little terror and can come off as unintentionally threatening (it's hard not to when you're part lion), the worst she'll usually do is chew your ear far longer than you'd want.

She's a bastion of unnecessary facts, and seems to know everything that's happening to everyone as any given time. While her girlfriend--the harpy, Adra--finds it pointless to keep up with that much, sphinxes put a lot of value in obscure and useless knowledge. You never know when you'll need it.

I tried something new with the shading here, because I wanted to see if I could do digitally what I did in charcoal for three months straight. I put a bit more emphasis on highlights, too, since I under-do them way too often. It took a lot of playing, but I kind of like what I came up with.

I just need to refine it a bit, I suppose.

Also, got so stuck on a background it wasn't even funny, because what I originally had planned in my brain looked like crud but I didn't want to leave it blank. It's not... that bad?

I think this may be a case of "two weeks later, I will determine if I like it or not."