Weird Winged Cryptids

Been playing around with aging paper at home with coffee, tea, and ink. I love the eerie aesthetic these treated papers give off. And thought I'd use them to draw some of my favorite cryptids.

In his book "Operation Trojan Horse" journalist and ufologist John Keel discussed the possibility of ultraterrestrials- beings living on our planet that were so far advanced technologically and biologically beyond humans that we would only barely be able to conceive of their presence. He suggested that ultraterrestrials could be responsible for all sorts of unexplained phenomenon- UFOs, ghosts, aliens, and some cryptids such as the Mothman. Creatures resembling the Mothman have been sighted all over the world, as have other winged beings that bear a strong similarity to it, such as the Cornish Owlman, the Bat Beast of Kent, the Van Meter Visitor, the Chernobyl Black Bird, and others. 

Regardless of my own feelings about the reality of Mothman, ultraterrestrials, UFOs, and other Fortean phenomena, I love them from a folklore perspective. I particularly like the idea that these bizarre winged humanoids could all be different interpretations of the same species of entity, filtered through our limited human perceptions.

Here's my version of three forms of this creature. From top to bottom:  Mothman; The Bat Beast of Kent; and the Cornish Owlman.