Friday, November 16, 2018

KLANG-UTANG

KLANG-UTANG
"It was," said Woodhouse, "more like a big bat than anything else in the world. It had sharp, short ears, and soft fur, and its wings were leathery. Its teeth were little but devilish sharp, and its jaw could not have been very strong or else it would have bitten through my ankle."

"The Dyak chaps talk about a Big Colugo, a Klang-utang--whatever that may be. It does not often attack man, but I suppose you made it nervous. They say there is a Big Colugo and a Little Colugo.'"
H.G. Wells, In the Avu Observatory


Wednesday, October 31, 2018

THE THING WITH THE OYSTER FACE


THE THING WITH THE OYSTER FACE
"'If there's anything deader-looking than a watery-blue oyster that's been open too long,' he said, 'I don't know what it is.'"

"'It had a head, a great round head that was as hairless as the rest of it. And a face - I cannot make you see it as I saw it. Staring into it, I could only think of an oyster. A monstous, wet, blue-gray oyster, with two darker spots that must have been eyes. It had arms. At least, two masses of matter attached to either side of its body reached out a little toward me. There were no hands on the ends of them. Just strings of - corruption.'"
Robert Arthur Jr., Believers


Wednesday, October 17, 2018

COEURL

COEURL
"He stopped short. Tenseness flamed along his nerves. His muscles pressed with sudden, unrelenting strength against his bones. His great forelegs—twice as long as his hindlegs—twitched with a shuddering movement that arched every razor-sharp claw. The thick tentacles that sprouted from his shoulders ceased their weaving undulation, and grew taut with anxious alertness."

"Utterly appalled, he twisted his great cat head from side to side, while the little hairlike tendrils that formed each ear vibrated frantically, testing every vagrant breeze, every throb in the ether."


"But there was no response, no swift tingling along his intricate nervous system, not the faintest suggestion anywhere of the presence of the all-necessary id. Hopelessly, Coeurl crouched, an enormous catlike figure silhouetted against the dim reddish skyline, like a distorted etching of a black tiger resting on a black rock in a shadow world."

"He licked his lips in brief gloating memory of the moment his slavering jaws tore the victim into precious toothsome bits."

"'Ah,' said Siedel. 'I was right. The tentacles each develop into seven strong fingers. Provided the nervous system is complicated enough, those fingers could, with training, operate any machine.'"
A.E. van Vogt, The Black Destroyer

"Ah," said Siedel, the psychologist, "the tentacles end in suction cups. Provided the nervous system is complex enough, he could with training operate any machine."

“He plunged his mouth into the warm body and let the lacework of tiny suction cups strain the id out of the cells.”
A.E. van Vogt, The Voyage Of the Space Beagle

IXTL

IXTL
"His elongated body convulsed in senseless movement, four arms lashed out, four legs jackknifed with blind, un­reasoning strength."

"Life surged from the bottom point of static to the swirling, irresistible height of dynamism that jarred every atom of his scarlet, cylindrical body and his round, vicious head. His legs and arms glis­tened like tongues of living fire, as they twisted and writhed in the blaze of light from those dazzling portholes. His mouth, a gash in the center of his hideous head, slavered a white frost that floated away in little frozen globules."

"He reached out with his four fire-colored arms, and with his immense strength clutched the human being."

"One arm, with its eight wirelike fin­gers, lashed out with indescribable swift­ness at the ceiling, through it, and then he had a gun from the holster of one of the men.

"The eggs were round, grayish ob­jects, one of them slightly cracked. As they watched, the crack widened; an ugly. round, scarlet head with tiny, beady eyes and a tiny slit of a mouth poked out. The head twisted on its short neck, and the eyes glittered up at them with a hard ferocity."


Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Monday, September 17, 2018

Friday, September 14, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 18

Here's a closeup of one of the sections of this creep that I'm the most excited about. It's that mouth that bleeds into a mouth that bleeds into a mouth!


Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Monday, September 10, 2018

Thursday, September 6, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 12


Here's a close up of the next section I'm working on. I'm working my way around clockwise and by color. 


Wednesday, September 5, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 11

Here's the second bit rendered. It's the offshoot just to the left of the crab claw bit. This tendril almost looks like an entirely separate creature and that's how I've started looking at this piece. A group of individual creatures that connect at some points. It's the only way I can rationalize my slow progress.


Tuesday, September 4, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 10

Let the rendering begin! Haha if you can't tell, I started on the lower righthand corner. That tentacle with the crab claw-looking bit at the end. 


Monday, September 3, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 9

Ok, sorry for the drop off but I got so into actually working on the piece that I forgot to post about it. Here's the drawing with the completed flat color. Now I just have to spend a million years rendering it!


Tuesday, July 24, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 7


Usually flat color takes the shortest time out of all my steps. While that was still the case for this guy, it took wayyyyy longer than usual due to the complexity of this creature. 

Thursday, July 19, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 6

Here's the completed inked Azathoth scanned and cleaned up. The next step is flat color, which surprisingly took a long time, due to the complex nature of this creep. 


Tuesday, July 17, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 4


The inking is half done! If you compare the pencils to the inks, you can see I cleaned up some things and added a few more details as I went.


Monday, July 16, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 3


Here are the first steps in inking my massive Azathoth drawing. There is a ton of detail in this one so it took a long time to complete this stage. Definitely longer than the drawing stage which can be loose and experimental. My inking is tight and controlled. 


You can see my technique in this video. 

Thursday, July 12, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 2

So I know it seems like a bit of a jump to go from the thumbnail to the finished drawing but I really didn't do much planning with this one. I got al basic idea of shape and motion and then used stream of consciousness to draw. Like I've stated before this is the largest single monster I've ever drawn. It's on two pieces of 14"x 17" paper taped together. Not the most ideal art situation, I know, but as long as I can scan it and clean it up it works for me. 

I also tried to design my Azathoth to reveal different "faces" depending on how you turn that paper and look at it. So, if flipped horizontally, you may see faces that weren't as apparent when you first looked. I wanted to incorporate all sorts of monstrous elements as well; wings, fangs, fins, claws, scales etc. My thinking was that this creep is the thing at the center of the universe that's possibly dreaming us all, so it'd incorporate all sorts of bits and parts. I'll post some close ups once we get to more advanced stages.

Next up...I start inking!

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

AZATHOTH PROGRESS PART 1


Here's the very first baby-step towards my version of Azathoth. It's a super quick thumbnail I did in the margins of my sketchbook. It was inspired by a paint spatter on a sidewalk in South Philly. The finished drawing doesn't really look much like this but I really wanted to remember and capture that swirling spatter. 


Monday, July 9, 2018

News...



Hey everyone! I know it's been quiet here since the Hoard Of the Gibbelins went up for sale (only 3 copies remain!) but I haven't been idle. I've been working on the very last Lovecraftian monster I have left to draw....that's right AZATHOTH!!! 

"Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes."
-H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath

If you're wondering why this one is taking so long, it's because it's the most complex and largest creature I've ever drawn for this blog. So, what I'll be doing is posting progress shots. From sketch to pencils, from inked to flat color, all the way to the final rendered piece. 

In other news, I'll have a new zine coming out in August. It'll be Stories From the Borderland II collecting the 6 essays and 7 monsters from my project with Scott Nicolay! 

I'll also have a very exciting item up for sale at the same time.....Seventh Church Ministries t-shirts!!
Stay tuned for more details on both and for progress shots on Azathoth! 

Monday, June 11, 2018

DOWN TO THE FINAL FIVE COPIES!!!


ON SALE NOW!!!

ONLY 5 COPIES REMAIN!!!
The Hoard Of the Gibbelins
First edition limited to 50. Release date: 5/25/2018
AVAILABLE FRIDAY MAY 25TH 11AM EST

Shipping incl.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

BASTET

BASTET
"What was the land of these wanderers none could tell; but it was seen that they were given to strange prayers, and that they had painted on the sides of their wagons strange figures with human bodies and the heads of cats, hawksrams, and lions. And the leader of the caravan wore a head-dress with two horns and a curious disc betwixt the horns."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Cats Of Ulthar

"Bastet was the goddess of the domestic cat, loving and faithful, in contrast to the lion-goddess Sekhmet, who stood for all the fury of which the cat family is capable."
Charles Freeman, The Legacy Of Ancient Egypt

"She was depicted as a woman with a cat's head, carrying a sistrum."
Veronica Ions, Egyptian Mythology


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

ISIS


ISIS
"Then we knew that we were done with Saracen Cairo, and that we must taste the deeper mysteries of primal Egypt—the black Khem of Re and Amen, Isis and Osiris."
H.P. Lovecraft & Harry Houdini, Under the Pyramids

"At other times he was seen protecting the deceased (Osiris or others identified with him)with long feathery wings. Most often Isis was represented as a woman with a throne on her head. At other times her headdress was a disk flanked by feathers and cow's horns. "

"Accompanied by seven protective serpents, she took refuge in the swamps of Buto and there gave birth to Horus."
Veronica Ions, Egyptian Mythology

"Snakes of all types are sacred to Isis and were used in Her rites, often being carried processions."
DeTracy Regula, The Mysteries Of Isis


Tuesday, May 29, 2018

SEKHMET

SEKHMET
"What was the land of these wanderers none could tell; but it was seen that they were given to strange prayers, and that they had painted on the sides of their wagons strange figures with human bodies and the heads of cats, hawksrams, and lions. And the leader of the caravan wore a head-dress with two horns and a curious disc betwixt the horns."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Cats Of Ulthar

"Drinking from it she was eventually lulled to sleep, and the slaughter ceased. The fury lived on in the goddess Sekhmet, the lion goddess, who was always worshiped at the edge of the desert where lions came to find water."
Charles Freeman, The Legacy Of Ancient Egypt

Sekhmet was usually represented as a woman with the head of a lioness wearing the solar disk and the uraeus;"
Veronica Ions, Egyptian Mythology


Thursday, April 12, 2018

DORFF

DORFF
"It twitched it’s fat body to indicate the carrying pouch growing on its back between its furry shoulders."

"Then it drew its eyelids up over its oystery eyes and nodded upward, the dorff 
gesture of negation.”

“Their grayish skin had turned a faint blue, and their eyes were more than usually oyster-like.”

“The elder’s pink mouth whiskers were trembling with emotional intensity.”

“At least, half their constitution is, well, you could call it electrical.”
Margaret St.Clair, Marriage Manual


Monday, April 2, 2018

EVEN MORE MARGARET ST. CLAIR!!!


It's time for another dive into the fiction of Wilton Hazzard aka Idris Seabright....or more commonly, Margaret St. Clair!!! As previously stated I fell in love with Margaret St. Clair's work after Scott and I covered Horrer Howce for Stories From the Borderland.

Two months ago my first zine inspired by her work went up for sale and sold out in under 24 hours. Now it's time for Volume II!  There will be aliens, blobs, glorps and mutants...weird mutants!

AVAILABLE FRIDAY APRIL 13TH 11AM EST!
These have NOT been available anywhere else and will be limited to 35! 

Sunday, April 1, 2018

HELLCOW

HELLCOW
"Three hundred years ago, Bessie was old Hans' favorite milking cow. One night a desperate Dracula - finding local Swiss village locked tight - feed on Bessie. Unable to bear eating her, Hans buried her instead. Three nights later, Bessie rose as a vampire and began a vengeance-seeking pursuit of Dracula."
Marvel Legacy: The 1970s Handbook


Friday, February 23, 2018

IPSSIS


IPSSIS
“And today was a good day to take a form he liked.”

"He leaned back against a blade of grass, forming optic lenses and protruding plasm over them.”

“His favorite shape was a rhomboid.”
Margaret St.Clair, Shore Leave



Thursday, February 22, 2018

CELLAR DWELLER

CELLAR DWELLER
“Now, as  the ferrets reached it, it seemed to well out, to puff up into a great stringy mass, an exuberance of reddish, blackish hair."

”For a moment Leon thought he saw two tiny blue points, like eyes, glowing in the thing’s blackish heart. Then a long coil of hair, spider-leg thin, shot out at him.”
Margaret St.Clair, Graveyard Shift


Wednesday, February 21, 2018

PLUNP

PLUNP
"The plunp are the oddest of the native peoples of Venus."

“Be that as it may, the plunp are not prepossessing. They have 
exceedingly slick grayish skins, long shallow jaws with ferocious teeth, and
fierce yellow eyes.”

“Then the plunp began to rotate slowly in front of Brian, its tiwggy, slick-skinned arms outstretched expectantly.”
Margaret St.Clair, Thirsty God



Tuesday, February 20, 2018

VENUSIAN CERBERUS

VENUSIAN CERBERUS
“Having the flesh sucked from one’s bones by a cerberus‘ corrosive membranes was such a nasty way to pass out of the viewing plate." ”The cerberus was a lifeform from the the deep Venusian swamps.” “The trouble was that the cerberus, in its uncanny, ameboid way, moved extremely fast.”
Margaret St.Clair, Idris’ Pig


Monday, February 19, 2018

SLURB


SLURB
"The creature was literally as wide as it was tall. Perhaps it was the fact that it had a series of extra joints along the shoulder girdle and down the upper arm, so that its arms moved with the seemingly boneless flexibility of snakes. Perhaps it was the color of its sleek 
integument, which was a dirty off-white. Perhaps...Anyhow, the slurb was nonhumanoid." “If he hit the slurb on the knee-for some reason they were very sensitive about their knees-it counted fifteen.”
Margaret St.Clair, The Altruists


MORE MARGARET ST. CLAIR!!!



As you've probably guessed I fell in love with Margaret St. Clair's work after Scott and I covered Horrer Howce for Stories From the Borderland. Well, I'll not only have one zine dedicated to her work....but two! This week I'll be posting five brand new monsters inspired by her work and then 
Horrer Kumpendyum I will go on sale 

FRIDAY MARCH 2ND 11AM EST! These have NOT been available anywhere else and will be limited to 35!