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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Five: The Tendrils

With a few tweaks, the Tendrils design from Gregg Stockdale is finished.

Wow.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Four: The Beginning of the Tendrils

Our main concept artist has revealed a rough draft of what he's been working on since we started. Yes, Witch House's own Gregg Stockdale has revealed the first draft of...THE TENDRILS!

For those of you who don't know, the idea of this is to make foggy tendrils emerge from the Window, which represents the higher dimensions. Its a fabulous idea and Gregg has been working on it for quite some time. This is only a rough draft, but I think it looks amazing and eerie.

Now I don't know where he got those shadow tentacles from (other than Gerald Scarfe or a drawing by an inmate of Summer Breeze Mental Hospital) but good God that's cool. I mean, its enough that he takes fabulous violet photos, creates the hideous faces of Keziah and Brown Jenkin, makes a Grimoire page, and designs the Sigil of Nyarlathotep to represent the film, but this? WOW!

And this is only a rough draft! Tell me, is there one of you who wouldn't like to see this in its finished format? I DON'T THINK SO!

Thanks, Gregg for being a devoted member of the Witch House team.

The Sigil of Nyarlathotep

Gregg Stockdale has designed a new symbol that will represent Witch House. I call it the Sigil of Nyarlathotep. You can see it here imposed over the Violet Window and the Logo.

The Photography in the Witch House - The Grimoire Page, Part One

Gregg has a new concept in the making...one featuring a page from a grimoire, kept in Keziah Mason's loft.

It contains "Instructiones for Conjuring a Rat Thynge".

Gregg is getting knee surgery tomorrow. BEST OF LUCK, GREGG!

The Photography in the Witch House - The Brown Jenkin Gap

Gregg, who will be going through knee surgery on Friday, slapped this eerie image together.

Note his Brown Jenkin image peeking through in the top right corner.

Its very creepy! Best of luck with the surgery, Gregg.

Welcome Zachary Bos, Graphic Designer, to the Concept Art Team!

The Mark Foster initiative on Facebook was really quite successful. Without it, how would we have got Gregg Stockdale, or our latest addition, Zachary Bos?

Zachary is a graphic designer, who will be doing re-designs of the Mark Foster art. DO NO WORRY, we will definitely be using Mark Foster's originals as well. But Zachary will be making some re-designs for a promotional series. Its just a fun experiment to see how the poster could have been done if it was taken in different directions.

First up, he photoshopped his way into this, a re-design I'm calling "The House."

I think its awesome. REMEMBER, WE'RE STILL USING MARK FOSTER'S ORIGINAL - but this too.

Mr. Bos believes that the geometrical pattern in the background is strong, but needs a little cleaning up. So he darkened them. Then, turning the house black-and-white, he went for a more esoteric mood then a 1930s Universal horror picture poster. The triangle is meant to unify the image.

He'll be doing a couple, each with a central figure from the Mark Foster art. Yay!

P.S. For those of you who are kind enough to visit this blog, know this - I am in contact with Michael Zigerlig, a Swiss artist, friend of director/producer/screenwriter Brian Yunza (H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon, Bride of Reanimator) and the late artist H.R. Giger (Necronomicon). He is the artist and adapter of H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu - a graphic novel adaptation of the story. We're discussing him doing some concept art.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Three: Brown Jenkin at the Violet Window

Since this is being posted following the previous one on Gregg Stockdale, please view the Photography in the Witch House Effects, Part Two: Keziah at the Violet Window for more photomanipulation.

Like Keziah, Gregg composited three different photos together to make Brown Jenkin. The result is truly disgusting.

Now envision this, on a rat, nuzzling you in your sleep.

Yet again, he just put the images together, making the subtle features of the furry little horror appear in the Violet Window.

Before...

EEEK!

We thank Gregg for his valuable contributions to The Dreams in the Witch House concept artwork. We'll definitely be coming back to him for other Red Death Productions films.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Two: Keziah at the Violet Window

The Violet Window.

We bring your attention to the photograph above, dubbed by me "the Violet Window," for it is here that the next installment of "The Photography in the Witch House", wherein Keziah lurks into the window.

First off, Gregg took photos of three old women and composited them together. When this was finished, he distorted the horrific image. The result achieved, Gregg ended up with this - 

Ick!

All that was left was to composite one image into another. Subtly, the image of the Arkham witch became visible...

Awesome work! Check out Gregg on DeviantART.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part One: Curves, Slants, and Violet Tints

Gregg, our latest addition to the Concept Art team, has shown me the images from last time with some more tinting and awesome effects. They aren't done yet, but here is what he has so far.

A long shot of the room, this time with some freakin' awesome effects - angles, sigils, symbols, and violet light. Note the stunning glowing text, too.

The blackness of the window, with violet light glowing around it. Gregg says he will subtly add the shapes of Brown Jenkin and Keziah waiting in the darkness.

You know, these are really cool and I'm glad to have them to promote the film with. Yes!