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.

Lone Animator Blog Coverage

Richard Svennson is posting about his contributions to the Witch House on his blog. He finished the one on the Octopus today. Check it out for some more behind the scenes imagery and a proper detailing of the process!

"Here's one of those collaborative projects: the video-horror-musical 'The Dreams in the Witch House', based on the rather good tale by H P Lovecraft."

The Interdimensional Octopoid

Here is the original KingOvRats design.

And here is the F-KING FINISHED PUPPET!!!!!!!!

That thing is STUNNING. There are no words. Just...nothing to say. I'm so freaking happy! It looks GREAT floating in it's alternate space! And the blue-color...so vivid. On that blue color, Richard (who will be covering the creature in a blog post, perhaps later in the week) wrote: "...You can't really tell on this photo, but it's spattered with a greenish gray mottling of tiny dots. It doesn't really matter what colour it is now. We can alter that in AE editing if we want to tone things down. It really jumped off my green screen background, which is a good thing."

Some multi-perspectives:

And some shots of the creature in progress:

The first shot I saw of the W.I.P. clay sculpture.

The final head sculpt before the plaster mold was cast.

Richard working on the Octopoid this morning.

Richard Svensson's workroom. Note the Interdimensional Octopoid on the table towards the bottom-right corner.

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!