Tepeyollotl - Aztec Jaguar God

This is an ink drawing of the Aztec god Tepeyollotl. It took forever!! Ink pens are not the best medium for making something this detailed. It was fun tho, and it let me do a bit of research into one of the the more unusual cultures in the world - the Aztecs.

According to Aztec lore, Tepeyollotl is known as the Jaguar of Night. He is the lord of animals, darkened caves, echoes and earthquakes. In some legends he is a variant of the god Tezcatlipoca - who is the opposite and rival of the snake god Quetzalcoatl. This is why I've depicted him looking brooding and holding an anaconda. In one version of the Aztec creation story the two gods work together to create the world, but in it Tezcatlipoca looses his foot to a huge crocodilian monster - which is why the serpent is encircling one of his feet.

It was an interesting project, tho it took over a month of lunches, coffee breaks, and before-bed sessions. After this pic I had to take a break from traditional media; my current project is in photoshop. I'll save that for another post tho. I hope you like this guy -