Lovecraftian Cthulhu
I finally drew the Cthulhu! I've tried once before long ago, but it was simply too challenging. Now I have learned enough to really do it!
Usually I draw much smaller pixel art, as it is easier and much faster. This time I was inspired by Paul Robertson's art.His work is extremely detailed and colorful. I love it but I prefer drawing with more desaturated colors and less depth in the composition.
I love the Lovecraft's stories that I have read so far (and have many more to go). The most memorable one for me is "The Music of Erich Zann", amazing mystery. What is yours?
Thank you @jonny-clearwater for the awesome theme of this weeks Pixel Art Weekly Contest
I began with the Cthulu's description:
In "The Call of Cthulhu", H. P. Lovecraft describes a statue of Cthulhu as "A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind." Source: Wikipedia
- Octopus-like head
- Scaly, rubbery body
- Long claws
- Long narrow wings
I began the sketch with the round octopus-like head, then marked the torso and the arms placement. I first thought of drawing him reaching for a boat in the ocean as Cthulu originates from Southeast Pacific Ocean. However, I felt that it would be hard to transition well from water to Cthulu and then stormy sky. I decided to make it simpler: him simply floating and holding multiple spheres. Eventually I decided to draw a simple Earth globe and maybe the moon.
I knew that I wouldn't have much time to animate, so I tried to keep all of the elements relatively simple. I added wings and legs last. The yoga position was a random inspiration, as it adds a more wise pose to the monster. The face is also more wise looking and wrinked than menacing and spiky.
The claws are actually long nails making the creature less scary and more old looking. Overall the composition looks like an old wise seer looking into a crystal ball.
The third eye and 6 fingers/toes are my additional design ideas, making the monster more personalized.
I also collected as much varied Cthulhu art as I could find on Pinterest
Before animating I made a list of the elements:
- Floating Body
- Wings
- The spheres
- Hands (slight animation
- Head Tentacles (slight)
- Stars
- Blinking eyes
Ideally pixel art animations should be at least 8 frames, but each additional frame requires more planning.
I reused frames whenever possible, mostly animating only 3 frames.
Before doing the line art I decided that I would use mostly greens and blues, the more traditional Cthulhu colors.
Pixel Art
First I scaled down the pencil sketch as much as possible, without losing too much details. I drew the outline roughly first and made a few proportion adjustments. Afterwards I cleaned up the outline. The most common way is to avoid jumbled pixels and zooming out a lot to see if the lines look smooth. It takes a bit of practice, but for bigger drawings tiny outline mistakes become less visible.
I started with very strong green and dark tones, which I adjusted afterwards to my liking. It is important to get started, afterwards it is easier to make adjustments.
I worked with very dark tones for most of the drawing. In the end I added a lot of brightness and contrast, because some monitors show less color and contrast (like my laptop vs monitor).
The decision to keep or remove the outline is mostly based on preference. Outline helps save a lot of time, and it can be blended with the local colors, it doesn't have to stay black. For stronger visibility I used some rim light, because I wanted a dark background.
When I got stuck I started adding some subtle textures to make the skin more interesting.
I left the spere for last in case I decided to change it's size. I didn't want to make it too difficult to animate so I draw a very quick full map, which I cut into 6 pieces and distorted slightly for animation.
The start and constellations are soft and mostly small, to not distract from the main composition. Based on some feedback I received, I decided to not use the moon.
Final art
I animated in Aseprite, with only 4 layers and an additional one for the moon.
x3 scale for better preview
I really enjoyed drawing this and I hope you enjoyed this post!
Edit: A shoutout to @juliakponsford and her "Art Explosion" contest. For those interested this week's theme is Animals, any art style accepted (around 4-5 days left).
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by kristyglas from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
Pixel art always gives me a sense of nostalgia, as I go back to the ancient times when I used to play games with moving pixel-sprites on my Amstrad 6128 and Commodore64... Yours is one step ahead from those I remember, the details really make the difference: the stars & constellations (the stars are right!), cthulhu handling the world like a crystal ball of divination, that weird 3rd eye...
And, yes, Erich Zann was an excellent read, with a weird mystic feeling to it and great dark inspiration for many music-makers. I like Lovecraft's more descriptive works, like "At the mountains of madness" and the "Case of Dexter Ward". Also, his Dreamlands cycle is very interesting, full with magical landscapes that might inspiring too.
Keep the good work up!
Thank you! I will definitely read those next :D
It's a bit hard for me to understand the stories so I have to reread them at least once.
I really liked The Rats in the Walls, I believe that is the one where they fine the ancient civilization under the mansion. The game Darkest Dungeon was most likely based on that story.
The Whisperer in the Darkness was actually even creepier, that's the one that mentions space and a special planet other than Earth.
I really wish the stories were easier to read because they have amazing/insane imagery. The writing is an art on it's own, but I'm more interested in the stories and visuals :D
Well, Lovecraft is celebrated for the original concepts he wrote of, not his writing style. Sometimes, it becomes too hard to follow, with the exhaustive descriptions and long sentences. I like them, anyway, I am a blind fanboy of his work! Do you read them in English or some other language? My first read was in Greek, thankfully the translation was made by a really talented person (Γεώργιος Μπαλάνος) and he managed to perfectly transfer Lovecraft's dense & lyrical writing style.
As for the visuals, you should really try to read his Dreamlands stories!
Awesome!
I read in English :)
I grew up traveling a lot and going to international schools, so English is more of my first language than any other. However, I learned a bit too many different Slavic languages so I don't really speak or write any language perfectly.
This is why drawing and painting is perfect for me to express myself :D
Awesome stuff!
Glad you like it ^-^
Cool art, @kristyglas! This is the first of your work I've seen. I especially liked seeing your pencil notes for the project. I'm following you now - looking forward to more.
(And thanks @artwatch for resteeming another killer art post!)
Thank you very much! For now I do variety of art (no specific style), but I hope it will be just as interesting ^^
You may have confused @artwatch with someone else :D (or did they share it somewhere else?)
Ha! I feel dumb! 😅
You got me, it was @drwatson, not @artwatch who resteemed. My 'thanks' was misplaced. But I'm still glad it was resteemed, or else I would have missed your Cthulhu. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
Haha dont worry, really xD
I just wanted to check posts of the person who resteemed as a ty ^^
I've also thanked the wrong person once before for winning in a contest by another person xD
Okay, whew. Good to know I'm not the only one who has goofed on a 'thanks' :)~
interesting piece of pixel art! Thanks for share ^_^
Very nice drawing, I met Cthulhu very long time ago, however I haven't read it stories... I saw you left a link to Lovecraft writings so I will check them for sure. The drawing is just excellent, loved Cthulhu and the whole composition as well. Those constelations was a really good touch. And also, as you well said, avoiding the moon (eventhough I love natural satellites) was a good decision. I am new to pixel art, but I'm loving it. Now, that was about your painting, and I would like to give you some last words about the whole post... very good post, was really nice to see the whole process, very very interesting, I liked particularlly the pencil sketches you showed. Hope to see more of your art soon. I am your follower now!, bye bye.
P.S. I am not sure but I think that in that sentence you meant earth and not moon, If not, just ignore this Post scriptum : I animated in Aseprite, with only 4 layers and an additional one for the moon. Bye again.
Thank you so much and for reading the whole post :D
I was worried that I write too long, so people won't really read it.
Lovecraft's stories are little hard to read but definitely worth it :D
The environments and creatures are very unique and there are many different ones.
Some libraries have audiobooks, so it's worth asking if they have ^^
As for the 4 layers and the moon: I meant I animated the moon as well, but I turned the layer off afterwards. I should have explained a bit better.
Oh I see, I did not understand that part and assumed that you were referring to the earth, my bad^^. The post was not long, "normal" lenght I would say :D, and was very interesting so I think it would be ok anyway if it was a little long ^^
Following you, I share also that passion for dragons and fantastic literature! Waiting to see more drawings.
D
Thank you :D
Really glad, the only problem I have with Steemit is that it's so hard to find the old posts, especially the older they get.
I post variety of things simply because I spend a lot of time when drawing, so it really helps to get inspired. Other times I pose something simple or reuse what I have, so I don't post too rarely ^^
Trippy, weird, and beautifully disturbing - Thanks so much for outlining the process. Steemit's making me wanna try all sorts of new and creative things ;)
Sweet! You definitely should! I made a begginers realistic toad pencil tutorial a little while ago :D
(If you haven't drawn before)
For pixel art check https://www.patreon.com/saint11
I'll eventually try to make pixel art tutorial but it could take some time :)
Wicked - thanks so much - And I'll be getting my girlfriend to check out your feed. Exactly what she digs :)
p.s Love the way steemit is an inspiration gallery if we want it to be.
Very clear work @kristyglas. I like the idea of the gif you made.
Thank you :3
Very nice to see such a detailed post laying out the entire process. This looks awesome.
Also, Paul Robertson's work is legendary. Anyone with even the tiniest love for pixel art should check him out.
Thank you :D
Yeah I pledged this month on his Patreon (it's just 1$), there he shares his process, like the original sketches, outlines etc. It's so fascinating and very detailed.
Beautifully creepy. Awesome work!
Thank you! The colors are very cold probably why a bit creepier xD