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.

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.

Brown Jenkin, Nyarlathotep, and Elder Things!

WOW! Have I a lot to tell you!

First, Brendan has done a bloody good blueprint for the Brown Jenkin puppet.

Secondly, we're gonna build our Elder Thing soon!

And thirdly, I am happy to announce that we are in contact with Richard Svensson, the Lone Animator!

In the script I wrote, Nyarlathotep keeps changing back and forth from the Black Man to the Howler in the Dark. We're low on materials and we need to focus on the more important stuff like Brown Jenkin. So, Mr. Svensson has agreed to animate the Howler in the Dark!

He built a puppet for this avatar a while ago, but he never managed to use it. Which means our film is the first time it'll be used in action! YES!

"Here's the final monster, with PAX paint smoothing out the overall colour scheme, and acrylic airbrush colours adding shadows and highlights.

Yes children, this is how the world will look when the black howler finally appears on Earth." - Richard Svensson, "My Lovecraftian Alphabet part 2"

We thank Richard Svensson from the uttermost nether pits of blasphemous darkness.

And by that I mean thank you so much!