Gargoyles: what are they?

The first step once again was to look for basic research and get an idea of what I had to create.  So I started looking into gargoyles and creating mood boards for them.

The word "Gargoyle" is said to started in the legend of St. Romanius; where he saved his country from a monster called "Gargouille" (A French word meaning throat), which has a similar design to a dragon. The country decided to burn the monster, but the only parts of the body that would not burn where the head and neck. These parts were then placed up on the walls of the church to fend of evil spirits, protecting people inside from harm.

The use of gargoyles are defined as "a waterspout, projecting from an upper part of a building or a roof gutter to throw water clear of walls or foundations." Mostly the water spout's come out the mouth, but some gargoyle design's have the water coming out of different places, (I saw a picture of a spout coming out the butt). There are some Gargoyle designs that don't have water spouts, these are called "Grotesques", an easy mistake to make, unless you know about it.

The different designs of gargoyles where often that of animals and mythical creatures. sometimes they would have a mixture of animals in one gargoyle, these are known as chimera's.  Gargoyles came into Gothic architecture in the early 13th century, and can mosty be found on top of castle's, churches and american skyscrapers.

Links:

http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-art/gargoyles.htm
http://www.crystalinks.com/gargoyles.html
http://www.stonecarver.com/teaching.html
http://www.kuriositas.com/2012/08/gargoyles-glorious-gruesome-grotesques.html

http://www.exploring-castles.com/characteristics_of_gothic_architecture.html#.VMQW5vl_tch

Mood boards: