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Showing posts with label Brown Jenkin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brown Jenkin. Show all posts

Saturday, February 28, 2015

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.





Sunday, November 2, 2014

Happy Belated Halloween

Hello!

We figured that since we haven't posted in a while we just might throw something together for you to look at. I can tell you that Richard Svensson has started on the sculpt for one of the Hyperspace creatures, and so far it looks amazing. But you'll have to wait and see...

What is this, exactly? A while ago I put together a DeviantART journal of all Witch House-inspired artwork. I think its a fine selection. It took me a while...everytime I found something cool, I found another thing, and I eventually had to stop myself. Yes, there are KingOvRats, Jason McKittrick, and Lone Animator pieces in there, but still.

I also wish you a happy belated Halloween. In celebration, watch this Vinyl Geek Halloween special with Dreams in the Witch House - a Lovecraftian Rock Opera in the foreground. Alaine Kashian (the Witch), Douglas Blair Lucek (himself), and Mike Dalager (Brown Jenkin) appear in it. Its an interactive video where you navigate the Vinyl Geek through the Witch House, so you'll wanna try to watch it on YouTube, but I'll post it here anyhow.


Now, the list of concept artists in-waiting are:

  • Jason B. Thompson
  • Devon Devereaux
  • ...and maybe Kory Merrit. He does the fabulous webcomic Lost Side of Suburbia which features some pretty Lovecraftian beasties (though he has only a passing knowledge of H.P.) but he is currently too busy to help us. He might do so in the future, though.
I am also pleased to announce that Gregg Stockdale will be drawing the scene where Gilman sees Keziah on the witch-cult island (y'know, the one on the Miskatonic River with the standing stones) in the fog.

Some of the actors will come for Christmas and we'll do some shooting. Goodbye for now!


Saturday, October 4, 2014

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 EditionHistory 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.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

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!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

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.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

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.

Friday, June 20, 2014

The KingOvRats Abyss - Part III

WOW! KingOvRats uploaded a lot of Abyssal awesomeness tonight, and even a Brown Jenkin skeleton sketch! Now let's dream into the twilight abyss...

A cluster of spider web-like planes.

A surrealistic Cyclopean building.

The movement of the glowing congeries of spheres and bubbles. Michal says that it should move more like a group of spheres rather than a single entity.

This serves as both the movement of the Polyhedron Monster AND a multi-perspective, as the Polyhedron constantly changes.

"I'm such a pretty skeleton!"

The "ophidian animation" of the Arabesque Creature.

The jellyfish-like movement of the small Bubble Congeries.

A sketch showing the Abyssal Centipedes interacting with the Abyss.


Thursday, June 19, 2014

Mark Foster's Poster Art

Mark Foster has provided his piece for the Dreams in the Witch House poster art, and I must admit I'm really quite blown away.

Iä Nyarlathotep! Sened Mark Foster! Oosur poster art! Iä! Iä! Iä!

I actually received this back on June 12th but it was just so sudden I could not provide the money immediately. But it really is QUITE an astonishing piece in my opinion. The look, the design, and the detail that Keziah's face is just like Brown Jenkin ("the accursed little face which he at last realised bore such a shocking, mocking resemblance to old Keziah’s") all make this poster one of the most stunning pieces of art ever produced. I couldn't be happier.

Mark Foster wrote of it on H.P. Lovecraft Art and added some personal thoughts on the story (as always, grammatically edited by yours truly) -
A commission I did for a student film inspired by the Lovecraft story. I had fun working on this one, especially the design of the poster. In reality Dreams in the Witch House is really the only story by Lovecraft that freaking creeped me out to no end; it's this blackly-dismal story of a helpless student who is perpetually harassed by horrendous supernatural forces well beyond his control, and who wish for him to join in their unspeakable horrors. 
I would personally declare that this is Lovecraft's blackest story, with other dark stories, like Cthulhu or Colour actually having a sort of descriptive or conceptual beauty or wonder to them; whereas this story is to me his most horrifically dreary in its systematical destruction of Gilman's sanity, though there is a bit of wonder in the concept of Gilman being physically pulled to a specific point in space—that scene left me genuinely awestruck. 
Thanks, Mark!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Dark Adventure Radio Theatre - "The Dreams in the Witch House" Teaser

The trailer for the AMAZING new Dark Adventure Radio Theatre from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society...The Dreams in the Witch House! I pre-ordered mine. It looks GREAT!

See below for credits - but go here for the full package,.



Dark Adventure Radio Theatre - The Dreams in the Witch House performed live at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon this year at Portland.

CAST

Sean Branney...Frank Elwood

Dan Conroy...Erskine Blackwell, Dombrowski, Polish Neighbor Man, Cook, Dean Bell

Mike Dalager...Brown Jenkin

Chad Fifer...Robertson

Alaine Kashian...Keziah Mason, Mrs. Krupski, Polish Neighbor Woman, Waitress

Andrew Leman...Walter Gilman

Jacob Lyle...Angry Neighbor

Barry Lynch...Mazurewicz, Prof. Armitage

David Pavao...Prof. Upham, Desrochers

Josh Thoemke...Announcer

Time Winters...Fr. Ivanicki, Prof. Ward

David H. Brown, Leigh Carr, Kimmy Hale, Tamara Hembree, Ruth Horne, Tristan Jusola-Sanders, Tobias Nilsson...Neighbors, Diner Patrons, Students, Cultists

Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft
Radio adaptation by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman
Original music by Troy Sterling Nies
Theme from "The Sleepwalker" by Mike Dalager and Anders Ringman,
"Bub-L-Pep Jingle" written by Andrew Leman
arranged and performed by Harald Lindell and Kathleen Demarest
Additional music cues by Reber Clark
Audio engineering by Chris Horvath
Cover and disc illustrations by Darrell Tutchton
Bonus props by Andrew Leman and Sean Branney
Scenic Miniature by Fred Manchento, Jason Voss, and Andrew Leman
Stone Circle Sketch by Martin Schlierkamp
Produced by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman

Sunday, May 18, 2014

New Addition to the Creative Team!

Hmm, we've got a script, we've got music, we've got props, we've got poster art, we've got Nyarlathotep...what do we need now?

A DESIGNER!

Artist "KingOvRats" (DeviantART name) is joining as a designer for our film! I greatly admire all of his artwork, particularly his Lovecraft illustrations. Here are a few a LOT.

Wilbur's twin in The Dunwich Horror

Yig, Father of Serpents

  
Court of Azathoth

 
Azathoth, Blind Idiot God and Nuclear Chaos

Hound of Tindalos

Yog-Sothoth in The Lurker at the Threshold
  
  
Cthulhu/Spawn of Cthulhu
Wilbur Whateley in The Dunwich Horror

Mi-Go/Fungi from Yuggoth
     
Nyarlathotep as (from left to right): the Haunter of the Dark (story of the same name), the Mad Faceless God (The Rats in the Walls), the Black Man (The Dreams in the Witch House), the Black Pharaoh (Nyarlathotep and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), 

Hunting Horror (slave of Nyarlathotep)

Moon Beast from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Nightgaunt

Shub-Niggurath

Flying, semi-dimensional, half-polypous race member ("Flying Polyp" or "Elder Thing")

Elder Thing

 

Shoggoths

Cat from Saturn in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Tsathoggua

The Color in The Color Out of Space

He's gonna provide some sketches for the abyss and possibly the Elder Thing/Old One city.

He's also given us the liberty to use his Brown Jenkin sketch for our puppet. Sorry Brendan, but you cannot beat this.

Look at that! It's so smoothly connected!