Day 25: Dagon (2001) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2023

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2023:
Dagon (2001)

It's another Stuart Gordon, Lovecraft adaptation, "Dagon" (2001).  This time, it's much less the titular H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" and more H.P. Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth".  (A good insult is to label someone as having "The Innsmouth look".  You're welcome!)

When I thought about doing "Dagon", first considered just painting the female cult leader of Dagon, but she just seemed rather normal aside from her golden crown, given that she was actually a tentacled monster beneath the ceremonial garb.  So, what to do?  Obviously a parody the Starbucks logo!

Also, it was relatively simple, so that actually lets me catch up a bit, so there's that.

There isn't really anything to do as far as the Work in Progress.  Here's the circles and lettering I did in Affinity Designer 2... and here's the drawing I did in Clip Studio Paint with the Symmetry Tool.

* * *

Done digitally with Affinity Designer 2 and Clip Studio Paint.

.

Day 05: Color Out of Space (2019) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2021:
Color Out of Space (2019)

I am a fan of H.P. Lovecraft--not so much a fan of his political and sociological takes, of course.  The movie, "Color Out of Space" (2019), as opposed to the British spelling of the original "Colour Out of Space", did a great take on the ethereal dread and sense of cosmic foreboding.  A mysterious meteor crashes on the small farm of Nic Cage, and everything begins to transform and bend to the trippy, Day-Glo, horror.

Nic Cage melting down as the movies goes on?  Check.  The movie looking like each frame is shot on a series of black light posters?  Check and check.  A family's decent into madness and communion with--and conversion into--monsters?  Check, check, check.

See?  Something new!

* * *

STEP ONE:  The pencils were scribbled out on an 8-1/2" x 11" toned heavy cardstock.

* * *

STEP TWO:  Here's the first layer of Acrylic paint.  I was almost tempted to stop here and leave it sort of impressionistic.

* * *

STEP THREE:  Here is the finished Acrylic painting.  The scan was still a little dark and muddy in spots, and trying to get a glow effect in traditional media can be a little... tricky.  Either you use too much white and wash out all the color, or go too dark and swamp out all the color. 

* * *

STEP FOUR:  So, for the last step, I imported it into Clip Studio Paint and created an Add Glow Layer.  I tried to keep it limited and not over do it.  Maybe...

* * *

This was done with Acrylic paint on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock and digital additions in Clip Studio Paint.

. 

Day 22: From Beyond (1986) - 31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2020

31 Days of HELL-O-Ween 2020
From Beyond (1986)

I'm always a sucker for H.P. Lovecraft, being a fan of his writing, as well as the shared mythology of Elder Gods and Outer Gods beyond spacetime.  This is the late, great Stuart Gordon's Grand Guignol version of of the H.P. Lovecraft short story of the same name (Gordon also co-wrote/directed H.P. Lovecraft adaptations of "Re-Animater/Herbert West–Reanimator" and "Dagon").  Of course, there is lots of blood, gore, body horror, breasts, and erect pineal glands to be found in the movie, as well.

I found the movie to be good, gory fun.  After all, with an opening line like "It ate him... bit off his head... like a gingerbread man!" you kinda know what you're in for...

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are pencils, done on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock with a black colored pencil.

* * *

STEP TWO:  And this is the first... well, maybe second pass as well with gouache/watercolor.

* * *

STEP THREE:  After a few more passes, here's the finished painting.

* * *

Done with Watercolor/Gouache on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

.

If H.P. Lovecraft Wrote SHAZAM?

SHAZ-THULU!

OK, this was idea that came to me a while ago, but **FINALLY** got around to working on it.  While looking at some of the origin stories of SHAZAM, I came across the panel talking about Elder Gods, which immediately makes me think of H.P. Lovecraft:

I've always been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft's stories and the idea of a cosmic horror-based mythology (one that was more-or-less Open Source--with other authors adding to it, which delights me even more).  So, it was just a matter of plugging in the Outer/Elder Gods from the H.P. Lovecraft Mythos into the acronym/initialism of S.H.A.Z.A.M.:

S - (Yog) Sothoth, the Key and the Gate
H - Hastur, the Unspeakable
A - Azathoth, the Blind Idiot God
Z - Zhar, One of the Twin Obscenities
A - Abhoth, the Source of Uncleanliness
M - Mordiggian, the Charnel God

Yes, Yog Sothoth is a bit of a cheat for "S", but Yog Sothoth is a far more well-known Outer God and has more cultural cache.  Besides, the other name in contention, Shub-Niggurath, is... problematic.  And a bit too long to fit properly into the scroll, so that bullet was dodged due to lack of space.

As a side note, I was considering doing this as a full 4-6 page pastiche of the original origin story with subtle changes here and there, but I guess they say brevity is the soul of wit.  Or, in my case, half of the wit.  Maybe I'll come back to it.

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a blue line layer in Clip Studio Paint on a 1,500px x 2,250px canvas.  It amused me to mix together the cartoony drawings of Billy Batson from the original origin in "Whiz Comics" and a slightly more realistic drawing.

* * *

STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks.  I thought it would be more of an in-joke to have Cthulhu's symbol as part of the lightning blast to transform Billy Batson into SHAZAM.

* * *

STEP THREE:  And here are the colors, done with a series of Multiply and Normal layers.  When it was finished, it was exported as a .jpg at 1,000px x 1,500px.

* * *

Done digitally in Clip Paint Studio.

.

Cthulhu Mostess Pies

Cthulhu Mostess Pies Ad

Click to Embiggen!

For those of you old not enough to remember, Hostess used to have ads in comic books in which criminals plans were commonly thwarted with Hostess Twinkies or Hostess Fruit Pies.  Also, it turns out I missed H.P. Lovecraft's birthday last week (August 20th), but I've been thinking about doing this fake Hostess Comic Ad mash-up for a while.  And I do have another Lovecraft-based mash-up coming up in the near future...

For those of you interested in the nostalgia of the Hostess comic book ads, HERE'S A LINK.  Enjoy!

* * *

This was done in Photoshop.

.