Gaze (and Dread) Upon This Stunning Lovecraft Art

vansau

Mortician of Love
May 25, 2010
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Gaze (and Dread) Upon This Stunning Lovecraft Art



Eldritch horror never looked so good...

Stephen King once called H.P. Lovecraft "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." This seems like a fair descriptor, seeing as how the man pretty much created the Cosmic Horror genre. Lovecraft's stories have been inspiring horror artists for the better part of a century, but a recent challenge to art students has resulted in what is quite possibly one of the best collections based on the man's writings.

Jon Schindehette, one of the creative art directors for Wizards of the Coast, recently issued the following challenge to art students at the Rhode Island School of Design:

Create a creature based upon a non-humanoid critter from H.P. Lovecraft's literature. The creature should have a fully resolved form, convey motion where appropriate, and be believable. Creature can be shown as either 3/4 view or 'turn-arounds'.

Schindehette has now posted some truly fantastic results on his blog, complete with commentary from various art directors and illustrators who specialize in this style of work. The image on display here is Craig J Spearing's "Shoggoth", and I highlight recommend heading over to the blog itself and checking out the whole selection on display.

Source: io9

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Ignatz_Zwakh

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Sep 3, 2010
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Pretty damn intense...Good example of why I wouldn't want to be part of an arctic spelunking expedition. XP
 

Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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Awesome Pic. Makes me feel like doing one myself.

(This Spot for Future Lovecraftian Horror)
 

Celtic_Kerr

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May 21, 2010
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I love weird, deformed creatures and their creativity... I shall have to look into this
 

Crayzor

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Aug 16, 2009
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These are incredible. I can't help but feel slightly jealous that my artistic abilities are nonexistant.
 

voetballeeuw

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May 3, 2010
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That's an awesome picture. Reminds me I have to finish the Lovecraft book I have, I've read most of the stories, but I still have a few left.
 

rabidmidget

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Apr 18, 2008
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That is the best drawing of a shoggoth, ever.

It would be awesome if the artist could be commissioned for the Call Of Cthulhu card game.

EDIT: Actually that seems very probable seeing as one of the judges is from the creators of the game.
 

Sheinen

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Apr 22, 2009
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Its worth following the link too, the Ghast painting is phenomenal and the hounds...woo! Freaky stuff! Some people are both amazingly talented and incredibly twisted at the same time. I love this world sometimes...
 

Grahav

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Mar 13, 2009
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cainx10a said:
So does shooting those blue orbs dish out some critical damage?
I think not, because the elder horrors are supposed to not make sense.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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I've seen that creature design before.

It's in 40K: Xenology under the Umbra section. The whol design from the shape of the mouths to the glowing orbs and mouths is just a bit similar.

<spoiler=See>http://www.stuartjennett.com/images/illustration/finalmarines.jpg

Shame, I quite like it, but I don't remember Shoggoths ever being described as having mouths (per se) so the design is just a little too 'inspired by' for my liking.
Nice painting though.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Some stunning work there, although I can't believe they mistook a Deep One for a Ghast.

IA! IA! Shub-Niggurath! Curse these heathens, oh Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!
 
Feb 13, 2008
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fix-the-spade said:
Shame, I quite like it, but I don't remember Shoggoths ever being described as having mouths (per se) so the design is just a little too 'inspired by' for my liking.
Nice painting though.
H.P Lovecraft said:
It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train?a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.
And without mouths, they couldn't cry 'Tekeli-li'.

cainx10a said:
So does shooting those blue orbs dish out some critical damage?
Sort of. It makes them mad, and they throw 8d10 damage punches. Average Human has 12 hit points.