Andrew Ritchie's Azathoth

I've been a fan of BOOM! Studios for a while. In their earlier days they published a masterpiece of Lovecraftian horror called Fall of Cthulhu, the delightful anthology series Cthulhu Tales, and the worth-a-read Necronomicon. They have gravitated away from Mythos stuff, but they're still quality publishers (Hexed comes to mind immediately).

Andrew Ritchie was a staple contributor to BOOM!'s Mythos titles. Necronomicon was drawn by Andrew Ritchie. Fall of Cthulhu's first volume, The Fugue, featured Andrew Ritchie's work. Cthulhu Tales had some stories illustrated by Andrew Ritchie.

Ritchie is known for his eerie, corpse-like characters and monsters mixed with old-school comic book colors. "The Beach" from Cthulhu Tales is a good example. Michael Alan Nelson, who wrote Fall of Cthulhu, creates a typically horrifying story, but Andrew Ritchie's art will freak the hell out of you. Seriously. It will stay with you for a while.

Anywho, I'm a fan of his work, so I naturally contacted him to do a pic of Azathoth's throne. He already drew Azathoth in Necronomicon:

After a while, he agreed, and sent me the result today.

One word: wow.

Elder City Sketches II.

As stated formerly, the City of the Elder Things Gilman visits in his dreams is very important, since it makes him realize that his "dreams" are real. I specifically requested our faithful designer, KingOvRats, to make the designs similar to the late H.R. Giger. Here were the first designs:

The balustrade (top),  a dwelling (left), and an industrial mine (right).

Just now he posted some more designs. I like them even more!

A castle with an observatory/watchtower (top), a random building (middle), and a temple (bottom).

I originally wanted to make these in Photoshop, but now I think a full model (with Photoshop additions) is in order...

Twin Blasphemies: The Art of ebe-1 | Elder Thing Statuette - Design Level

Hello guys! A double post today.

The Art of ebe-1

ebe-1 on DeviantART is a somebody who's currently too busy but is still considering our project. In the meantime, I'd like to show you some of his Lovecraft work, so you get an idea of how his art looks. "The Dreams in the Witch House" piece is placed at the bottom of the list for dramatic effect.

The Shadow Out of Time.

"From Beyond".

"The Festival".

And now...

..."The Dreams in the Witch House".

Elder Thing Statuette - Design Level

We've sent the Elder Thing statue designs over to a sculptor who our grandmother knows. I feel like we should show you the designs.

Sorry for the blurry quality of this image.

This tiny little Elder Thing thumbnail sketch is taken from the first set of designs KingOvRats did for the Elder City.

Which I hope makes up for the blurry quality of the thumbnail. You can see the Elder Thing statues on the upper sketch of the balustrade.

Before I show you this next one I'd better explain. KingOvRats obviously had to provide us with a larger sketch for sculpturing, so he simply suggested one of his (pre-Witch House) best and most enduring Lovecraft sketches...

...the Elder Thing itself.

This horrifying abomination is completely based on HPL's description. Here: just read some descriptions of an Elder Thing from At the Mountains of Madness and check it with the drawing.

"Objects are eight feet long all over. Six-foot five-ridged barrel torso 3.5 feet central diameter, 1 foot end diameters. Dark grey, flexible, and infinitely tough. Seven-foot membraneous wings of same colour, found folded, spread out of furrows between ridges. Wing framework tubular or glandular, of lighter grey, with orifices at wing tips. Spread wings have serrated edge. Around equator, one at central apex of each of the five vertical, stave-like ridges, are five systems of light grey flexible arms or tentacles found tightly folded to torso but expansible to maximum length of over 3 feet. Like arms of primitive crinoid. Single stalks 3 inches diameter branch after 6 inches into five sub-stalks, each of which branches after 8 inches into five small, tapering tentacles or tendrils, giving each stalk a total of 25 tentacles.

"At top of torso blunt bulbous neck of lighter grey with gill-like suggestions holds yellowish five-pointed starfish-shaped apparent head covered with three-inch wiry cilia of various prismatic colours. Head thick and puffy, about 2 feet point to point, with three-inch flexible yellowish tubes projecting from each point. Slit in exact centre of top probably breathing aperture. At end of each tube is spherical expansion where yellowish membrane rolls back on handling to reveal glassy, red-irised globe, evidently an eye. Five slightly longer reddish tubes start from inner angles of starfish-shaped head and end in sac-like swellings of same colour which upon pressure open to bell-shaped orifices 2 inches maximum diameter and lined with sharp white tooth-like projections. Probable mouths. All these tubes, cilia, and points of starfish-head found folded tightly down; tubes and points clinging to bulbous neck and torso. Flexibility surprising despite vast toughness."

"At bottom of torso rough but dissimilarly functioning counterparts of head arrangements exist. Bulbous light-grey pseudo-neck, without gill suggestions, holds greenish five-pointed starfish-arrangement. Tough, muscular arms 4 feet long and tapering from 7 inches diameter at base to about 2.5 at point. To each point is attached small end of a greenish five-veined membraneous triangle 8 inches long and 6 wide at farther end. This is the paddle, fin, or pseudo-foot which has made prints in rocks from a thousand million to fifty or sixty million years old. From inner angles of starfish-arrangement project two-foot reddish tubes tapering from 3 inches diameter at base to 1 at tip. Orifices at tips. All these parts infinitely tough and leathery, but extremely flexible. Four-foot arms with paddles undoubtedly used for locomotion of some sort, marine or otherwise. When moved, display suggestions of exaggerated muscularity. As found, all these projections tightly folded over pseudo-neck and end of torso, corresponding to projections at other end."

But as inspired as this drawing is, it is NOT naturally suited to sculpture form.

So what we we to do? Luckily, I had found this stunner based on the story by Mesozord on DeviantART...

The Elder Thing sculpture in the center "panel" is very similar to KingOvRats' design and would give the sculptor a clearer idea of what we wanted. So with the kind permission of both artists we sent this bunch to the artist.

Mockman Website Coverage

Jason B. Thompson, who created a fantastic image for us, has now posted about the project on the Mockman website! You can see it here.

A new anthology that Jason is contributing to. Cover art by Jared Morgan.

Jason B. Thompson Artwork

I just got the Jason Bradley Thompson artwork as a digital file. And it looks amazing!

You'll notice the Living Hindu Idol (#2), a new incarnation of the bubbles (#2), the central horrors from #1, and a new amorphous starfish piper.

These (along with the sketches) are so good we may need to use them as Throne of Azathoth designs.

Jason'll be posting it on the Mockman website, so keep your eyes peeled!

Jason B. Thompson Sketches III.

A third and final (for now) day of Jason Bradley Thompson creature drawings. I've had to pick and choose, and we're probably going to go with ones from the other two posts as opposed to this one. Not that this is bad, but the other ones are more what we're going for.

Jason B. Thompson Sketches II.

Here's another page of sketches that I received with the former post. The last'll be posted on Tuesday.

This one depicts a Living Hindu Idol (the jellyfish with human heads), an arabesque (it might read "centipede" after it), a plant-like demon, and a bubble-congeries (with embryonic monsters!).

Jason B. Thompson Sketches I.

Today I received three-pages-worth of roughish monster sketches from Jason Bradley Thomspon that'll be worked some way or other into the 9"x12 commission. I think they're amazing, but, as they are quite rough, I'll only show one.

Now Jason's one of my favorite artists on-board the violet light train. His Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath adaptation is really a remarkably faithful and interesting adaptation. No one can really draw those fantastical landscapes and weird creatures quite like him. Leong Wan Kok (Ben Avery on the adaptation side) and I.N.J. Culbard (whom I contacted, but was too busy), amongst others, have both made their own wonderfully imaginative versions of this rich-but-rambling tale, and our own KingOvRats had depicted fine Dreamlands monsters, but - as I said - NO ONE does Dreamlands like Jason.

Jason's Dreamlands Poster

He's also done SIX OTHER Dreamlands comics ("The White Ship", "Celephaïs", "The Strange High House in the Mist", "The Doom That Came to Sarnath", and "The Cats of Ulthar") and "The Beast in the Cave", all of which you can read on his website with a bunch of other non-Lovecraft goodies.

I thought he'd be perfect for the film. So, after chatting a bit, a $75 fully shaded drawing was in place, depicting the Twilight Abysses. And today, as I said, I received three pages. I'll only show one, and end off by saying that some of this is going to have to be incorporated into the film.

Elder City Sketches I.

The Elder Thing city (which evidently lies in a triple star system somewhere between Hydra and Argo Navis) that Walter Gilman travels to is a crucial turning point in the story. When Gilman wakes up, having broken off a miniature statue of one of the Old Ones on a distant planet in his dreams, he finds the statuette in his bed. This is when he starts acknowledging that the frightful inter-dimensional vistas of his nightmares are not just nightmares.

Art director (that's what I'm calling him now) KingOvRats has just released the first sketches for the city.

Need I say more?

Depicted? A tower's balustrade (note the miniatures), a home, and a inousjpy/mine (by the way, I cannot read what that says, so don't laugh at me for writing...that. Note: just found out it reads "industry".).

Not much to add, other than that this is FREAKING INSPIRED.

One last note - we've been pretty slow on production, but it's happening, trust us. I have put a lot of effort into this beast and I'm not going to stop. We will tackle this story and make it good. Believe it.

Pete von Sholly and Others

In looking for more concept artists to jump onto the already talented team of Witch House, I have contacted several renowned artists in the past few months: most recently Jason B. Thompson (artist of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath comic and movie), Devon Devereaux (artist of Hot Rod Horror and Graphic Classics contributor), ebe-1, and Pete von Sholly (artist of the utterly random, grotesque, and fabulous, including P.S. Publishing's Lovecraft series, Graphic Classics: H.P. Lovecraft; First Edition, History of Monsters, Capitol Hell, and other strange and limited collectibles). Less recently, Gris Grimly (Frankenstein, Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness) and Michael Zigerlig (friend of the late H.R. Giger and artist of The Call of Cthulhu) were contacted. Here are the results.

• Jason B. Thompson will be drawing the Twilight Abysses of Hyperspace in December.
• Devon Devereaux will be doing a pen, ink, and Prismacolor drawing of the meeting between Gilman and the Black Man, also in December.
• ebe-1 is too busy to work for us right now, but we're going to talk about it soon.
• We'll talk about Pete von Sholly in a minute. He did supply us with something awesome.
• Gris Grimly is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy to busy to work for us, but he told us so in a very courteous manner.
• Michael Zigerlig is willing to do something once we have the proper funds.

So if you like creepy art by awesome artists, you're going to be in for a real treat in the next few months.

Now, here's the wonderful thing that happened with Pete von Sholly.

Mr. von Sholly has done an admirable job of resurrecting good ol' popcorn-munching monster movies, toys and pulp magazines in his work. When I contacted him, he was very polite and kind, saying that he'd be happy to help - but he'd need to decompress from Monsterpalooza first. Today, I contacted him again.

After giving him an outline of what I wanted, he told me that there was nothing new he could bring to the table. He had outlined all of the best scenes so well in his book version from P.S. Publishing that he had already said it all - already got the best bits.

What he did do was send me all six images from the book, and said I could use any or all for free.

The City of the Elder Things.

The Hyperspace Endpapers.

Hyperspace.

The bones of Brown Jenkin.

These are two thirds of what he showed us - the others just as fantastic.

I tried to make a Universal monster movie style poster out of the Elder Thing City drawing. It turned out TERRIBLE.

Mr. von Sholly made a few suggestions on this little mockup.

• Credit H.P. (I forgot)
• Don't put stuff all over it - let the art speak
• MAKE IT READABLE
• Remove cast names. Sounds kind of weak when everyone has the same last name

Here's the direction he suggested.

So I tried it out that way, arranging the words like Mr. von Sholly suggested. My only addition was the artist credit. It looks MUCH better, and Mr. von Sholly agreed.

But, in any case, I am eternally thankful for what Mr. von Sholly has given us.

Living Hindu Idol Evolution - a New Stage

Gregg Stockdale, amazing Witch House concept artist, has done something that adds a new stage to the

LIVING HINDU IDOL EVOLUTION

Stage One

Rough Design

The first rough design.

Stage Two

Original Design

The original, finished design: the first Michal sent to me.

Original Design Movements

The tentacles move in and out like tongues in a rolling movement. In a embryo-like position, it sits until disturbs when all limbs fan out and ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stage Three

Distorted Incarnation

The second incarnation. KingOvRats believes its MUCH better in terms of form (i.e., the melting shape and the tentacles) and detail (the eyes, the head, etc.). I would personally prefer a combination of both from a directing standpoint...

Update Movement

Instead of fluently rolling the tentacles, Michal would like a more convulsive movement, similar to this.

Stage Four

Gregg Stockdale Combo

The stunning concept artist Gregg Stockdale is at it again! Since he could not make a Photoshopped image, he did the next best thing. He "cherry picked the best bits" from the two drawings - the tentacles and mouth of the first incarnation, and the underarms, body, and mouth of the second. Michal still has some doubts, but I think its looking good.

What do you think?

Cool Stuff Coming...

Along with some major changes to the design of this website, something really cool is going to come from a member of the  (possibly tomorrow). It isn't a puppet, of course, but its pretty good and comes close. I can tell you it relates to the Living Hindu Idol.

The major changes to the site will take longer, but it'll be worth it.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Four: The Seal of Nyarlathotep in the Angled Room (and a Violet Mark Foster)

Going back to an old idea, the fantastic, devoted artist Gregg Stockdale has done some work in the Angled Room.

The original Angled Room.

The original idea for it was that there would be purple/violet, esoteric rays of light forming into orbs.

Expanding on the idea, he changed the shade of the image to a vivid fuchsia-pink, made the back window a maddening arrangement of fuchsia, blue, and green, added a glowing Seal of Nyarlathotep, and defined the lines and angles. The Kamea of Mercury (seen emerging from the window in the original) has been heavily faded and is almost gone, but if you look hard, you can see it.

A LOVELY piece of work has been done here.

Gregg, at my request, put the Mark Foster into a shade of pinkish-violet.

While its very good, it was not QUITE what I was looking for. So I did some experimenting of my own in Picasa. Excuse the poor picture quality.

It has been darkened, so you'll note that some areas are now pitch black where they were not before: in particular, above the heads of Brown Jenkin and Keziah. The text I did not do such a good job with, but there it is.

Gregg and I are going to call it a day. It's all over, at least for now. We thank him for his top-notch work for the film. He did some truly stunning work.

[Note that these images are supersized. YAY!]

Gregg Stockdale Takes a Swing at Mark Foster, Part Two (and an edited Sigil)

Gregg Stockdale, the devoted Witch House artist, has done a version of the Mark Foster poster art with a starfield. He's not fond of it, and I can't say I am either, but here it is.

The background is just too busy.

Also, he sent me a new version of the Sigil based on a suggestion by our very own KingOvRats: the outer ring is now empty, the word Nyarlathotep being white/black. This kind of makes more sense as a) these symbols are meant to be drawn and b) it kind of cleans things up in a graphic design sense.

It looks similar to some other occult symbols, such as the Seal of Astaroth in Satanism.

There will be updates tomorrow with new KingOvRats designs...for an added scene...what shall be what the film is remembered for...THE TEMPLE OF THE CRAWLING CHAOS!

Some Updates

Hey guys! Back from Ireland! I'm putting the polish on some filmed sequences and they're looking good.

Some updates: Gregg and Michal have done some new pieces.

While working on the Elder City and the Temple of the Crawling Chaos (more about this soon), Michal decided to update the Living Hindu Idol. I've put together the Hindu Idol Evolution process.

LIVING HINDU IDOL EVOLUTION

Stage One

Rough Design

The first rough design.

Stage Two

Original Design

The original, finished design: the first Michal sent to me.

Original Design Movements

The tentacles move in and out like tongues in a rolling movement. In a embryo-like position, it sits until disturbs when all limbs fan out and ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stage Three

Update

The latest incarnation. KingOvRats thinks its MUCH better in terms of form (i.e., the melting shape and the tentacles) and detail (the eyes, the head, etc.). I would personally prefer a combination of both from a directing standpoint...

Update Movement

Instead of fluently rolling the tentacles, Michal now would like a more convulsive movement, similar to this.

While my feelings about this update are mainly positive, they are mixed, and I will be using both.

Gregg Stockdale has finished the grimoire page.

Note some extra symbols (including the Sigil of Nyarlathotep at the bottom) and pseudo-Arabic reading "Nyarlathotep watches through the angles of reality".

Exciting times for The Dreams in the Witch House. Stay tuned!

 - BRIAN

Gregg Stockdale Takes a Swing at Mark Foster, Part One

Gregg Stockdale really is one of my favorite people here - he's very...devoted to The Dreams in the Witch House, and is willing to do a lot just for the sake of helping us out.

Well, we've been having some discussions on the Mark Foster composition, and Gregg did some requested redesigning. Let me show you the process.

The original Mark Foster art, without any text (sent to me by the artist).

The poster with the original font. This typography received VERY negative reception in the Mark Foster Mission.

The newer artwork: darkened by the artist and sent to me.

The darkened artwork with the new font, added by Gregg Stockdale.

Now, I, personally, think that this looks a HECK of a lot better.

There is something appealing to me about the brighter background, but overall, I think the darker tone works better for our purposes and represents the story better.

Next up I asked Gregg to experiment a little and try to put the Sigil of Nyarlathotep into the poster.

The Sigil of Nyarlathotep against a solid green background (it will be used in the film).

Gregg and I agreed that these versions don't really work. Version One (on the left) blocks out the house, Version Two (on the right) makes it so transparent that you can't see it at all.

These were just a few fun experiments. The final design is coming soon.