tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67535705558801408602024-03-12T20:11:27.192-04:00Drawing is NeatThe art blog of me, Kurt Komoda. I'm a freelance artist, so please feel free to contact me about commissioning work or purchasing art!Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-36471810819604313902022-07-27T03:06:00.004-04:002022-07-28T02:53:12.458-04:00Night-gaunt: a Midjourney Midnight's....Journey<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicRWk7n1esOe49upzWXORUll-l978yoOE6nRdq0iKG8OiFJWvtfvh2GmEKV7KGvDRFyDNN6iI2i-Fo-Ay4rw9MlCGIdUkuuOKxB2bDjvSdsvEQpyKnN8_rhybRsSurIcYCQwDLkT_IfcBS_xBo90tFqHM93IjVn30hZGnd5ONpzslAQc0jTIKTqORcZw/s4104/night%20gaunt%20back_phase2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4104" data-original-width="2930" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicRWk7n1esOe49upzWXORUll-l978yoOE6nRdq0iKG8OiFJWvtfvh2GmEKV7KGvDRFyDNN6iI2i-Fo-Ay4rw9MlCGIdUkuuOKxB2bDjvSdsvEQpyKnN8_rhybRsSurIcYCQwDLkT_IfcBS_xBo90tFqHM93IjVn30hZGnd5ONpzslAQc0jTIKTqORcZw/w456-h640/night%20gaunt%20back_phase2.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> Salutations! A word I learned from Charlotte. Midjourney. That thing that every artist friend of yours is posting instead of their own work, and I see that it's got some people uptight - threatening to block anyone who posts Midjourney results, and such. I kind of get it, but I really do see this as an exploratory tool. It's like being able to talk to your tv and have it create a show for you....except that you have to type in a strange prompting language and it only creates still images. Believe me, an a.i. multimedia creation platform is on the way. Just think of the porn- and I </span><i style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;">know </i><span style="text-align: justify;">you did. </span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"> So, I'm pretty familiar with H.P. Lovecraft's night-gaunt, so when I was able to access the Midjourney Beta, it's one of the first things I tried to have it create. And tried. Annnnd tried. You shall now bear witness to my toils- and they weren't ever really <i>toils, </i> as I enjoyed every result for one reason or another. So, let's jump in.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzW5RThiBrr75e8HXZsdaJiACvXUah_nGjOqYQTeOiHKdk76ZluAnliDr5XcKWwvTAMmkFrTK48pk-4xk2Wq2IUrvDq224Q_e-g8R0Pu8M5rgUU3UKN6tdumG4XCUlqlBaHPvolTsgdPOek7bA-FFRllCvXYdqK1uOB9vFGEPCmdUKuZpyPJ2tIvrfoA/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_81dea1ca-d369-402b-a475-b4c08505aa43.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="429" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzW5RThiBrr75e8HXZsdaJiACvXUah_nGjOqYQTeOiHKdk76ZluAnliDr5XcKWwvTAMmkFrTK48pk-4xk2Wq2IUrvDq224Q_e-g8R0Pu8M5rgUU3UKN6tdumG4XCUlqlBaHPvolTsgdPOek7bA-FFRllCvXYdqK1uOB9vFGEPCmdUKuZpyPJ2tIvrfoA/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_81dea1ca-d369-402b-a475-b4c08505aa43.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> Sweet, but not the tickling-terrors of Lovecraft's nightmares, Too fuzzy, too bulky.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAW3IMJw4COyg1VPxJLncJGjLcJT4Rk-dsmlc8R0H40Rw9ldu7SgBO_UtABaRzptGggFsESClKCied8P7M3b9oKM0LOOWo7RZRnOP7-bjjJLw-fHgTJ_gbbGZzLkc8Lv7mMKFFhEaJO4S1NJB-r9gYPVu8NwJ_wdGcg_HE_KQ-Jzl7zLFylkQguc2rUg/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_skinny__curved_1242a287-4ad8-4b19-9173-f3f8a11ae866.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="357" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAW3IMJw4COyg1VPxJLncJGjLcJT4Rk-dsmlc8R0H40Rw9ldu7SgBO_UtABaRzptGggFsESClKCied8P7M3b9oKM0LOOWo7RZRnOP7-bjjJLw-fHgTJ_gbbGZzLkc8Lv7mMKFFhEaJO4S1NJB-r9gYPVu8NwJ_wdGcg_HE_KQ-Jzl7zLFylkQguc2rUg/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_skinny__curved_1242a287-4ad8-4b19-9173-f3f8a11ae866.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: justify;"> Okay, so that's odd. It gave me what looks like giant water bugs. </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdfPAXtPk0N08Frg06Xd_kBfds9wkTiYdZxRqfv5Jv-kxOwaKdsYVBhh3T6reZ0MU4sSeB4-MTA1wjfcfSTcujHC_ywcqbotislpIc6GNHwe5MK5wWByz5KwimwEHtcA9qjdcM2GVQRrQYbKFDBwayqvoCTC_uLgdcQDz9n1fbsUu0MzyjJ4-X8sBfA/s768/grid_0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="512" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdfPAXtPk0N08Frg06Xd_kBfds9wkTiYdZxRqfv5Jv-kxOwaKdsYVBhh3T6reZ0MU4sSeB4-MTA1wjfcfSTcujHC_ywcqbotislpIc6GNHwe5MK5wWByz5KwimwEHtcA9qjdcM2GVQRrQYbKFDBwayqvoCTC_uLgdcQDz9n1fbsUu0MzyjJ4-X8sBfA/w426-h640/grid_0.png" width="426" /></a></div><i style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></i><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNUBk2hsTHPEgqKCLBqPjAxjVHL-XVePDMvw8Q7ti240Tzxck0zO2ecYakP3Wxv2I08FTqTvzJA0U1xJGaAr43KFx_azvTQEpTYJ_ZjT_GxwJ63LlISKPULjmnDOPfCbQMDoxyiPOuYOZSSTebst-_aCuubJgcobNvlaA92zhCv0t-r7n6fj8x6YidQ/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__curved_11245c0f-f945-40fb-b566-df88b75e6fbc.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="357" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNUBk2hsTHPEgqKCLBqPjAxjVHL-XVePDMvw8Q7ti240Tzxck0zO2ecYakP3Wxv2I08FTqTvzJA0U1xJGaAr43KFx_azvTQEpTYJ_ZjT_GxwJ63LlISKPULjmnDOPfCbQMDoxyiPOuYOZSSTebst-_aCuubJgcobNvlaA92zhCv0t-r7n6fj8x6YidQ/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__curved_11245c0f-f945-40fb-b566-df88b75e6fbc.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For some reason, adding a stormy sky background added just enough confusion for the app that it got rid of the bat wings and leathery texture.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5IOcr_4dsFKbbMKUCISIBINT-s7bP0dbWx0T_VF8SPuP8IK9s29YDonMdl8VC2Mv2GTlAQ6IfkB2-Nk9q2tulW9N_4df_DCPCou8Xg3sLbAUn84rw3oK9GfaP9Vkuc0yrhXrWmKa4jI2qyDJGlr-UXwnUquDLouURv5XrNap839LJLhqQZA4HSM_w7A/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__curved_13b5a2f9-2996-4a84-a7f1-8f7479da5dd4.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="357" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5IOcr_4dsFKbbMKUCISIBINT-s7bP0dbWx0T_VF8SPuP8IK9s29YDonMdl8VC2Mv2GTlAQ6IfkB2-Nk9q2tulW9N_4df_DCPCou8Xg3sLbAUn84rw3oK9GfaP9Vkuc0yrhXrWmKa4jI2qyDJGlr-UXwnUquDLouURv5XrNap839LJLhqQZA4HSM_w7A/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__curved_13b5a2f9-2996-4a84-a7f1-8f7479da5dd4.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> Okay, really weird. These are looking more avian or moth-like. Some possibilities with the first one, but not enough to spawn variations from.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOCiqO9h-PoGtMExd07C5wONLfuUymDPhBO3972QlTiCWFbYkjwSPC9ws6UteGG2Y_krcAsaHo8i-gSqcYZb4sf48oZL0uE4_hNcx-EqZu3RBybOunwRmMsoAsZLwbs_HQKY0aj86V51Y2ZA9GZtoA6_uxz2HQwmWyb_FEYtZ3H_ri_0KKOxO8LPpxQ/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_black_demon_with_bat_wings__curved_horns__leath_42c7f70a-01db-40ba-87aa-b2ac04a6abf2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="357" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOCiqO9h-PoGtMExd07C5wONLfuUymDPhBO3972QlTiCWFbYkjwSPC9ws6UteGG2Y_krcAsaHo8i-gSqcYZb4sf48oZL0uE4_hNcx-EqZu3RBybOunwRmMsoAsZLwbs_HQKY0aj86V51Y2ZA9GZtoA6_uxz2HQwmWyb_FEYtZ3H_ri_0KKOxO8LPpxQ/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_black_demon_with_bat_wings__curved_horns__leath_42c7f70a-01db-40ba-87aa-b2ac04a6abf2.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> These four are only interesting to the extent that the top two almost look like creatures from Wayne D. Barlowe's </span><a href="https://waynebarlowe.com/artwork/expedition/" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">Expedition</a><span style="text-align: justify;">, sans bioluminescence</span><span style="text-align: justify;">. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoM3J0iW5NxxCEjA_daranN1lFirTaRnJpr0reH2CHWTjCTT4jafNn_WRHZUdyKG7iAvAq5IVTroDley5Uq-6SNfw0tDvpRj0CsDaq6ufM5TrQFufdph0FByeHXIHe-3UgKpFwsmwsxG-w-PZGthAhUEcQqOe07Q8b1CUfwLTOGpH0wl4oDHutUdGI0w/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraft_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demon___8a2f95ab-3f9b-4c37-979d-09aaba3e83b8.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="357" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoM3J0iW5NxxCEjA_daranN1lFirTaRnJpr0reH2CHWTjCTT4jafNn_WRHZUdyKG7iAvAq5IVTroDley5Uq-6SNfw0tDvpRj0CsDaq6ufM5TrQFufdph0FByeHXIHe-3UgKpFwsmwsxG-w-PZGthAhUEcQqOe07Q8b1CUfwLTOGpH0wl4oDHutUdGI0w/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraft_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demon___8a2f95ab-3f9b-4c37-979d-09aaba3e83b8.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Not night-gaunts, but the upper right is the most night-gauntish of them all, so I figured I'd upscale render that one. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxYYNGuhS8Ef57UnJQJi_duWC9ykPbEezvDj80-yaEb-n1arzZjo4TgEFXmi7nF8jXH0Cr5G6CX6SwntcK296Vy25AhHb5RUrTzm46qIByrKZ465Bt4C4eQf4U1zfxE64QTmKDNQJ21lBiLivcxHFu4HEb9ZxjW35m-siu8Ak0SyL3izYomYm_oYNrA/s1536/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraft_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demon___f0678b2d-3b61-4f30-912b-596ba11a4403.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxYYNGuhS8Ef57UnJQJi_duWC9ykPbEezvDj80-yaEb-n1arzZjo4TgEFXmi7nF8jXH0Cr5G6CX6SwntcK296Vy25AhHb5RUrTzm46qIByrKZ465Bt4C4eQf4U1zfxE64QTmKDNQJ21lBiLivcxHFu4HEb9ZxjW35m-siu8Ak0SyL3izYomYm_oYNrA/w427-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraft_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demon___f0678b2d-3b61-4f30-912b-596ba11a4403.png" width="427" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love the texture.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHEO0Yd-0mocb43f313QBnCqfrXRh5RmUf-_KNQ0nt-FiRmgqEE1r3E33NUxJQ2ObUFa1pX6xbiWRFFPHzU183PhsXk3Nmg-dtjoTHl2DSP_UJpEZh0Ug5Cbt7Gi3cm0dkKIkLbTtPWu6oRYjdvkxuYfpsdKIOYqLcEq2GY4x7bTG-bAAShVJZ-sKSDg/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_5a022e99-ad57-40a5-a74f-886ed35788a5.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="357" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHEO0Yd-0mocb43f313QBnCqfrXRh5RmUf-_KNQ0nt-FiRmgqEE1r3E33NUxJQ2ObUFa1pX6xbiWRFFPHzU183PhsXk3Nmg-dtjoTHl2DSP_UJpEZh0Ug5Cbt7Gi3cm0dkKIkLbTtPWu6oRYjdvkxuYfpsdKIOYqLcEq2GY4x7bTG-bAAShVJZ-sKSDg/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_5a022e99-ad57-40a5-a74f-886ed35788a5.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying to make a curved horn with the prompts, for some reason curved the sun, making it look eclipsed.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaD12A17-8lKphB7rA1A7CqOzd82VRcS292bu0BOCfeJF-6TxxBnq20pjTi7ldihxvmGsZuArwy9nxqru2lSCcURker5SwB6EELuTla3BQq6zLWL1FwbqJGt2nATookuBGppmoP2F80YBCufpKyvSHZncJ8Mz4c6aKTlq132M2jjVTJ94O8hrjH3Vpg/s1536/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_e8144c09-3766-4c7c-8dd1-16e9ae6df107.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaD12A17-8lKphB7rA1A7CqOzd82VRcS292bu0BOCfeJF-6TxxBnq20pjTi7ldihxvmGsZuArwy9nxqru2lSCcURker5SwB6EELuTla3BQq6zLWL1FwbqJGt2nATookuBGppmoP2F80YBCufpKyvSHZncJ8Mz4c6aKTlq132M2jjVTJ94O8hrjH3Vpg/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_e8144c09-3766-4c7c-8dd1-16e9ae6df107.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one did a really nice job with the leathery skin and the wrapped wing membrane. NANG- Not A Night-Gaunt, though.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtprUCuevoZ4lrrYuyIGI6I_MqMypmSA9EkGt1KSsUcmtzLMBoIK1xNejGgevjIT0KPpuFVNd1yqXCTyNZFrKOE9JkNZJmvDDfjRQBs9F8__oePurIasxyaHHIiKGp7ge2FR3KrXBQWuwYB2ZOAOAzU7aumQZr3lvmWDXUFzwMfaosqS-6lrtocRHSAw/s1536/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_b939a91b-2d62-43cb-8616-897293d2b69e.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtprUCuevoZ4lrrYuyIGI6I_MqMypmSA9EkGt1KSsUcmtzLMBoIK1xNejGgevjIT0KPpuFVNd1yqXCTyNZFrKOE9JkNZJmvDDfjRQBs9F8__oePurIasxyaHHIiKGp7ge2FR3KrXBQWuwYB2ZOAOAzU7aumQZr3lvmWDXUFzwMfaosqS-6lrtocRHSAw/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_b939a91b-2d62-43cb-8616-897293d2b69e.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Failed Guyver.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPbcApuxTWR38TecgmwA28wuRN5JwFUCVnbPXv3m9vtBUii1J6sNIWsVt4p6Ws3PQ_dknZGwBuvoFDIeW9x1Ck7wJOTdzXDH5GKZEWLnLcscGIph5y0PjqmaQl5z00i8Hd84Qun5d2rTbreWzcFdnnpstZ24ojvoKQKUJuX-k_SKEyXI18fwRyGFJcaA/s1536/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_b05a2bbb-43d0-4519-aaad-005df50cb02a.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPbcApuxTWR38TecgmwA28wuRN5JwFUCVnbPXv3m9vtBUii1J6sNIWsVt4p6Ws3PQ_dknZGwBuvoFDIeW9x1Ck7wJOTdzXDH5GKZEWLnLcscGIph5y0PjqmaQl5z00i8Hd84Qun5d2rTbreWzcFdnnpstZ24ojvoKQKUJuX-k_SKEyXI18fwRyGFJcaA/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_b05a2bbb-43d0-4519-aaad-005df50cb02a.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some sort of fish or a mask or a fish mask.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgC1LNgG3C2FxOx0UrrqIrol3HxpgUA_P69hkViOt5wA0mh6tXG53iO33CpgtWjXL_JquRXFf6EncgbvTVSYFEaRAiukbVTcPmY3craSJjdpalaHjzNIlHCE1bmLkVmuWuu2qmgLfi-8DhhcDqAQ0p1vkjzen4jXI1KWeb_UjiBNVf64-doZuZMHFqQ/s1536/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_a7aa3b09-ca74-413e-9542-8db6de2ba007.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgC1LNgG3C2FxOx0UrrqIrol3HxpgUA_P69hkViOt5wA0mh6tXG53iO33CpgtWjXL_JquRXFf6EncgbvTVSYFEaRAiukbVTcPmY3craSJjdpalaHjzNIlHCE1bmLkVmuWuu2qmgLfi-8DhhcDqAQ0p1vkjzen4jXI1KWeb_UjiBNVf64-doZuZMHFqQ/w426-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_lovecraftian_night-gaunt__black_bat-winged_demo_a7aa3b09-ca74-413e-9542-8db6de2ba007.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't know what this is, but I like it!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-2GihCdbGV3IkzTrDOcOIpEyKV4fIDuB_64EIr2AV819RwPnfeBTzAYL0gACmfRFvC9H_3EtiRLxmOpCsbwc3QvRYpjuS189Z56PznldUbqBymR5VySZ3gaCwY5avpYd2a9SijXOu8Ta9J3a0gWZ4U3AnEUaLEllHYuyj3NlQ3mCmIdzR5czhrcdWA/s1280/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_b79173e3-5f85-4bf4-a489-1bf1dc74d497.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-2GihCdbGV3IkzTrDOcOIpEyKV4fIDuB_64EIr2AV819RwPnfeBTzAYL0gACmfRFvC9H_3EtiRLxmOpCsbwc3QvRYpjuS189Z56PznldUbqBymR5VySZ3gaCwY5avpYd2a9SijXOu8Ta9J3a0gWZ4U3AnEUaLEllHYuyj3NlQ3mCmIdzR5czhrcdWA/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_b79173e3-5f85-4bf4-a489-1bf1dc74d497.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See, here we're getting close! It has some sort of barbed spike hand.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3lXp0zYfZ1Kidbi37zSGRGlsNlYWSBI8FJGC9Coh89wB_NVkZoCO-AYT5CUK8Sfy2hziZObRav1LNAevyprO3b5cqMAZhq6YhD26LR2b_Y5ZHDne1OBOJpff3zPkQF5F-Aiu104zJbs5Kl_4Ra83OqVTrYSdXv3ozNagR3lThOAAOHr7uF_vtpCgYeQ/s1280/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_27663139-95bf-433a-bda5-8676332c6426.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3lXp0zYfZ1Kidbi37zSGRGlsNlYWSBI8FJGC9Coh89wB_NVkZoCO-AYT5CUK8Sfy2hziZObRav1LNAevyprO3b5cqMAZhq6YhD26LR2b_Y5ZHDne1OBOJpff3zPkQF5F-Aiu104zJbs5Kl_4Ra83OqVTrYSdXv3ozNagR3lThOAAOHr7uF_vtpCgYeQ/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_27663139-95bf-433a-bda5-8676332c6426.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This looks like something dead and leathery you'd find on the beach. Some sort of discarded imp corpse.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GFmzTdP5nsYRS_eLvpwlr4fg-IPP6sd0zLLOJRB5FQvf4G9nQTyIHrJbXVluldG3pm62uvrCmWKjD8M7Ha3qEV7HLee4rfWuRi8WpGGt90uwGEtrM0no7aK9AeslYWd-0lkUK7t_oFxL4kpN6EPgIm-vxTgi4ZDOf71p_Gsjh45ay0k56r0Id4CABQ/s1280/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_18566635-4ce9-4155-878a-30e77ab5bd61.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GFmzTdP5nsYRS_eLvpwlr4fg-IPP6sd0zLLOJRB5FQvf4G9nQTyIHrJbXVluldG3pm62uvrCmWKjD8M7Ha3qEV7HLee4rfWuRi8WpGGt90uwGEtrM0no7aK9AeslYWd-0lkUK7t_oFxL4kpN6EPgIm-vxTgi4ZDOf71p_Gsjh45ay0k56r0Id4CABQ/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_bat_wings__very_s_18566635-4ce9-4155-878a-30e77ab5bd61.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is my favorite of the lot. Not a night-gaunt, but just a great, nasty demon of some sort. If nothing else, it's great texture and color reference.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZRkCQ54E91a3no8oJq9nH6t-jvn-NcKXKGsViJCDeIAW1RgjnHWo-eF6r_RRXocgt9nfll4Gqdw40DRaMYz0J6yPKhspVIMFDwmJjApwOvh2stVATUa-QYeTd-N-F8zfyIjDFiJq4EIbFAILzNzj4Ri4oV59dK2Cc2yx7p9WSPW-FABTvDbomTYgmA/s536/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_42a32324-0ca5-4ad5-917f-6badeaf181c3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="429" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZRkCQ54E91a3no8oJq9nH6t-jvn-NcKXKGsViJCDeIAW1RgjnHWo-eF6r_RRXocgt9nfll4Gqdw40DRaMYz0J6yPKhspVIMFDwmJjApwOvh2stVATUa-QYeTd-N-F8zfyIjDFiJq4EIbFAILzNzj4Ri4oV59dK2Cc2yx7p9WSPW-FABTvDbomTYgmA/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_42a32324-0ca5-4ad5-917f-6badeaf181c3.png" width="512" /></a></div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsTOikbKyjnUNn9CVPqYxqK6wnik3q_r9zaVHmcix_-jgez6xBOMgnmiKWZ7UsReS_dbNjGUFBz6MBhj2wfXYA2c7oIgf6BBk57UXobig883AktVBL8i2NIyhsUkvxfJCp50WZaj0hd31WE-hjztbWjI3mAfrpviVkGuUJ4AaXO7qbO4YZZYycPo14A/s1280/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_8e8d7dd8-9128-4ee2-b3e1-ca0ae15ee666.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsTOikbKyjnUNn9CVPqYxqK6wnik3q_r9zaVHmcix_-jgez6xBOMgnmiKWZ7UsReS_dbNjGUFBz6MBhj2wfXYA2c7oIgf6BBk57UXobig883AktVBL8i2NIyhsUkvxfJCp50WZaj0hd31WE-hjztbWjI3mAfrpviVkGuUJ4AaXO7qbO4YZZYycPo14A/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_8e8d7dd8-9128-4ee2-b3e1-ca0ae15ee666.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I like how its clutching this white orb that may in fact just be its head.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCslT472oIPjXbwSp43kwi_IYP2h_mxIuXN0iOi0K5EAKV7_DRiwkrqrgmUs20IMeXARzsHwT3WziHADX4eRDj-j5OSVhsY5rNBz6mwt76Pu6VYU4On_BupeRMqHuAc4DQcesKINvUiwaWiNdMMsAST1Sy48k6ynLKL14RG50ADFdDTFipJmjJKubZg/s1280/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_09d83fda-9fd3-4b32-ae9f-0c92b04fabcc.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWCslT472oIPjXbwSp43kwi_IYP2h_mxIuXN0iOi0K5EAKV7_DRiwkrqrgmUs20IMeXARzsHwT3WziHADX4eRDj-j5OSVhsY5rNBz6mwt76Pu6VYU4On_BupeRMqHuAc4DQcesKINvUiwaWiNdMMsAST1Sy48k6ynLKL14RG50ADFdDTFipJmjJKubZg/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_09d83fda-9fd3-4b32-ae9f-0c92b04fabcc.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one has wings like an elder thing!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFMNZplf9d1Dz1mvWxQemLl0I0WqEdgbFu2czO_Fluml44oAlfRmdb3CLOXRIb4pqGsj9sLxtuZ_b3KUXNpBgT6O45a53vAH3rIkj7OtKV3C840s2yHFGlHQcTnJQmGt86jSU5sZT2B_UtYc533QrpFlpieT8BDF9wchJppR8LXvNWDE-G_3vevxbTSg/s1280/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_bbb8e0e4-c6f3-48f4-a047-a565ca882fdd.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFMNZplf9d1Dz1mvWxQemLl0I0WqEdgbFu2czO_Fluml44oAlfRmdb3CLOXRIb4pqGsj9sLxtuZ_b3KUXNpBgT6O45a53vAH3rIkj7OtKV3C840s2yHFGlHQcTnJQmGt86jSU5sZT2B_UtYc533QrpFlpieT8BDF9wchJppR8LXvNWDE-G_3vevxbTSg/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_bbb8e0e4-c6f3-48f4-a047-a565ca882fdd.png" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaENFL7Uqi7wkqNhsZZ4ARFC_CjW3GOME8JMQUc3DMQB4xgHjP4PeDpuCb775r-TdztAWMtSReutAbHeW1zylFzKn_10xn_3w65gxZtS0fOI73xzEJoxpR23c6M9Z0Yc8nFjppLNu6POEAHn4tL_W5lkscYtRE2dKCrr42XhfZSltTyh2z1AaRY_DeFA/s1280/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_2ab66986-aa0f-4aaa-a78f-575bc21e4b77.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaENFL7Uqi7wkqNhsZZ4ARFC_CjW3GOME8JMQUc3DMQB4xgHjP4PeDpuCb775r-TdztAWMtSReutAbHeW1zylFzKn_10xn_3w65gxZtS0fOI73xzEJoxpR23c6M9Z0Yc8nFjppLNu6POEAHn4tL_W5lkscYtRE2dKCrr42XhfZSltTyh2z1AaRY_DeFA/w512-h640/Ticklemecthulhu_night-gaunt__black_demon_with_two_symmetrical_b_2ab66986-aa0f-4aaa-a78f-575bc21e4b77.png" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> So, we never got a true night-gaunt. Actually, never really thought we would, so I was very pleased with the fever dream versions we got. I even like the small gallery of Dreamworld butterflies we ended up with. Maybe as I learn the prompts better, I can get closer. We got pretty close tonight, and apps like this are only going to get better. I'm not out of a job yet, though.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div></div></div>Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-35028189534892214022022-07-25T07:40:00.000-04:002022-07-25T11:45:57.444-04:00Of Ghouls and Graveyards, Lovecraft in Providence<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBtFvPZBhfNDVyrKVngzV6pv0egsI6bBiKP5Skij5GPKTGG4Doh5vu-XLsKJLXHJaIKS4fMVW_LHsRmQ_LAtsTvo3-2xTkoD7ev-FTGk8WvKed4boVIs7T-uGnBS6nieT4UWoSwlg80WZxVspgEAijPFKqgp0ZiDnMpRMu7wWDOMVq3f3enOuSey7/s450/lovecraft%20pickmans%20model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBtFvPZBhfNDVyrKVngzV6pv0egsI6bBiKP5Skij5GPKTGG4Doh5vu-XLsKJLXHJaIKS4fMVW_LHsRmQ_LAtsTvo3-2xTkoD7ev-FTGk8WvKed4boVIs7T-uGnBS6nieT4UWoSwlg80WZxVspgEAijPFKqgp0ZiDnMpRMu7wWDOMVq3f3enOuSey7/s16000/lovecraft%20pickmans%20model.jpg" /></a></div><p> Pickman's Model, a July 28,1934 drawing of a ghoul by Lovecraft, himself. There are two ghoul drawings done by Lovecraft that I know of. The first is dated one month earlier, June 21, 1934 (below). Both feature a ghoul in a graveyard with a Boxer-like underbite and a small tail. Interestingly, neither of these features are mentioned in Lovecraft's descriptions of a ghoul. The ghoul in the earlier drawing features some sort of skin texture, which could be a lumps or fur- possibly both.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6v4SaMy4xIqEl3fdQwEpqomCRWOhaafiyfJmvJ1YsFxKW6gqXh0rmXHB6f9za59E-GQbxr5n3U3ZThDe5QJjsjS3yjmy73yC6OqjyO_Rp2tmX5tR-w5F7vgoSogxZ4je7p7e5US01vWttx6WBecc3nytaAKohB7usdI7znI00x2I_VfQfPpLpROUM/s599/Pickman's_Model,_21_June_1934.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6v4SaMy4xIqEl3fdQwEpqomCRWOhaafiyfJmvJ1YsFxKW6gqXh0rmXHB6f9za59E-GQbxr5n3U3ZThDe5QJjsjS3yjmy73yC6OqjyO_Rp2tmX5tR-w5F7vgoSogxZ4je7p7e5US01vWttx6WBecc3nytaAKohB7usdI7znI00x2I_VfQfPpLpROUM/s16000/Pickman's_Model,_21_June_1934.png" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Now, I've already covered my interpretation of the Lovecraftian ghoul in a previous blog post, <a href="http://kurt-komoda.blogspot.com/2016/07/ghastly-ghouly-hp-lovecrafts-ghouls-and.html" target="_blank">Ghastly Ghouly : H.P. Lovecraft's Ghouls and Ghasts</a>, so this post is more about a fun detail in the second drawing: the tombstone. Unfortunately, I cannot find a higher-res version of this drawing online, but I believe it comes from a publication of Lovecraft's letters, so I may have to track that down. The tombstone in the lower right features a winged cherub head and an inscription.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ9QzrIfXCpbGaYk_ocP6TntYBCnMYBxR_qUTOK5NfPyM76xckZGfQq8xHixuaTRNxDRlnZ0krMeWJO-M2dOWcgD-sdFLTuJNJmz-NpgDMKecU7jRSvDzP_WXwKGgrZS_llIPg7lwoEbmjKIQfaVlZjiZZG4oiW1fqrcOrnv1Z2azScwvrLskFq-CR/s263/tombstone%20closer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ9QzrIfXCpbGaYk_ocP6TntYBCnMYBxR_qUTOK5NfPyM76xckZGfQq8xHixuaTRNxDRlnZ0krMeWJO-M2dOWcgD-sdFLTuJNJmz-NpgDMKecU7jRSvDzP_WXwKGgrZS_llIPg7lwoEbmjKIQfaVlZjiZZG4oiW1fqrcOrnv1Z2azScwvrLskFq-CR/s16000/tombstone%20closer.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Now, it's a bit hard to make out, but it reads: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF. Now, this inscription is hardly unique and neither is the winged cherub head nor even the shouldered shape of the tombstone. All three together IS, however, notable, and I hope to explain why.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGH8qpxMpuWOBpZmj_NnmIGiJibuchzpPT32r9FQjDM2sN2RJ80sdrLf8Xogowoad-yKPn4SREobrue9pl9zpYvS-xdrAHm-e8Y3hJ6hN9rpEKVgM56sXzItmDc6YlIYY1zXvIl2V4jiU2hVEanG6-Wxaii0z5cHxXj6oum2HL5LYTtA4VRbThJkrV/s1076/193ad55ba95b9446e9cc37ed1f157d1f-standard-scale-2_00x-gigapixel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGH8qpxMpuWOBpZmj_NnmIGiJibuchzpPT32r9FQjDM2sN2RJ80sdrLf8Xogowoad-yKPn4SREobrue9pl9zpYvS-xdrAHm-e8Y3hJ6hN9rpEKVgM56sXzItmDc6YlIYY1zXvIl2V4jiU2hVEanG6-Wxaii0z5cHxXj6oum2HL5LYTtA4VRbThJkrV/w595-h640/193ad55ba95b9446e9cc37ed1f157d1f-standard-scale-2_00x-gigapixel.jpg" width="595" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">H.P. Lovecraft in St. John's Cemetery.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Here is a photo of ol'Howard Phillips himself, photographed on a stroll through the St. John's Cemetery at the Cathedral of St. John, in Providence, Rhode Island- not far from where he lived at the time. It's a small cemetery, with the path cutting in from Benefit Street (behind Lovecraft in the photo) and going down a slope towards North Main Street and the cathedral.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkpgMQwBHgW238nS8joiuMzOEe7lZgxkZgzYjzLuRdE0aAXpq1hmkTBR1YtX3yNtNieSq4iOop1lz3w_IrI8uwJW8DJQkvZrUqpobLskTRVngE67MFzX8rfaERf-OJ1THCvieD-GYw1_IWwHJ_awvfMVgpfid304kYk2H7WqOtBMx2ixMBYw0gA0j_/s6720/3M8A9821.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4480" data-original-width="6720" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkpgMQwBHgW238nS8joiuMzOEe7lZgxkZgzYjzLuRdE0aAXpq1hmkTBR1YtX3yNtNieSq4iOop1lz3w_IrI8uwJW8DJQkvZrUqpobLskTRVngE67MFzX8rfaERf-OJ1THCvieD-GYw1_IWwHJ_awvfMVgpfid304kYk2H7WqOtBMx2ixMBYw0gA0j_/w640-h426/3M8A9821.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of the cemetery, looking westward, toward North Main Street.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Okay, now bear with me. See where Lovecraft is standing? Well, of course you do, but let me further illustrate my point by doing something I haven't done in a long, long time: create a moving gif! Behold!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQjwmzakLkUEhCK4gE9FaZzfnbv6qQAHkn5gHXDwoUhom-e5iShPW8LlAa6iHCfxjqkuumHP27iYDxpF2IkvuCtY5-4d0-CjbrLk3ZeR_6lAT6gCUHisiCFOoD9eNo5rF_zW_KBNsuWgRpqQswdr9ZGnzVO6XOmea7Nyag-fzsIM1eGuXpE7AHvDH/s540/Layer%205-lovecraft%20st%20johns%20cemetery%20providence%20smaller.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQjwmzakLkUEhCK4gE9FaZzfnbv6qQAHkn5gHXDwoUhom-e5iShPW8LlAa6iHCfxjqkuumHP27iYDxpF2IkvuCtY5-4d0-CjbrLk3ZeR_6lAT6gCUHisiCFOoD9eNo5rF_zW_KBNsuWgRpqQswdr9ZGnzVO6XOmea7Nyag-fzsIM1eGuXpE7AHvDH/s16000/Layer%205-lovecraft%20st%20johns%20cemetery%20providence%20smaller.gif" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Pretty neat, eh? EH? Okay, so it doesn't really tell you much except that I was there, trying to match up my shot with a different type of lens and it only kinda sorta worked. So, if we start from where he was standing and pull back a bit, we see a set of tombstones on the left, which Lovecraft would have been able to see on his walks through the cemetery.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy3JnSHfGMvXjNbkvWEy-3qlyR_EpuZMQrxouXnhkd1_kf4f2L-76YJDBOVO3W_GUhXxvUxzRLF72RpB7x3O7MuBOemrRl_G_tXFmxjA69gRfFDmdPRHFweYYuG7GSkR3h8TPC_glB1lerEEV2eticQlY9wOMCvNoCRCcBSXR7nnZVll22u4RhrouJ/s6720/3M8A9834.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4480" data-original-width="6720" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy3JnSHfGMvXjNbkvWEy-3qlyR_EpuZMQrxouXnhkd1_kf4f2L-76YJDBOVO3W_GUhXxvUxzRLF72RpB7x3O7MuBOemrRl_G_tXFmxjA69gRfFDmdPRHFweYYuG7GSkR3h8TPC_glB1lerEEV2eticQlY9wOMCvNoCRCcBSXR7nnZVll22u4RhrouJ/w640-h426/3M8A9834.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Well, okay, he would have seen them on his walk back up the hill towards Benefit Street. What we're interested here is the tombstone on the right: the grave of one <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29297720/deborah-paget" target="_blank">Mrs. Deborah Checkley Paget</a>, born 1718, died 15 April 1793, but as far as I know, that's not important. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnkbXtLEUinHfZb6icavX2sukZtGWha7vBOwlMMqaNLmpDaP9saI5v_aY0vMFGnegw-3NyZNVSCkgPZ90UtxLjPqyBQ60u2-yKRfZwSfqP0D2NyOObRZ4r8oo9k9wKd1PxX_b_PTrJZQAOtaHjKlDZjPM8ml2KVFLYpCbQrWOFLQe10Ma5hbP70-H/s5265/KMDA3176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5265" data-original-width="3594" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnkbXtLEUinHfZb6icavX2sukZtGWha7vBOwlMMqaNLmpDaP9saI5v_aY0vMFGnegw-3NyZNVSCkgPZ90UtxLjPqyBQ60u2-yKRfZwSfqP0D2NyOObRZ4r8oo9k9wKd1PxX_b_PTrJZQAOtaHjKlDZjPM8ml2KVFLYpCbQrWOFLQe10Ma5hbP70-H/w436-h640/KMDA3176.jpg" width="436" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> What <i>is</i> important are the inscription and engraving at the top. Can't make it out? <b>ENHANCE!</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CCpg2LfXf59Gcfs7G0PZvSCrDTAIWL-0ttgBKR-0I382dbFNdmQS2BPf59hl1m3O9DaUcQZqjpG5EREMGs_UseOqBwXYbxBekHxc21KHMpZl2kQEgvBWKAnhEwCrPbuGM0zj-9pHuQ8g7CTsiMeXe9aBWpjWJF1K8x1iHMPReu7bOjCZoGkB9F1N/s6720/3M8A9844%20inv%20enh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4480" data-original-width="6720" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8CCpg2LfXf59Gcfs7G0PZvSCrDTAIWL-0ttgBKR-0I382dbFNdmQS2BPf59hl1m3O9DaUcQZqjpG5EREMGs_UseOqBwXYbxBekHxc21KHMpZl2kQEgvBWKAnhEwCrPbuGM0zj-9pHuQ8g7CTsiMeXe9aBWpjWJF1K8x1iHMPReu7bOjCZoGkB9F1N/w640-h426/3M8A9844%20inv%20enh.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"> </b><span style="text-align: left;">That's right, folks. Y'all saw where this was going. It's the tombstone from the drawing....at least that's my theory. We've looked around, and there was no other combination of a shouldered marker, winged cherub, and </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sacred to the Memory of </i><span style="text-align: left;">inscription in the cemetery. The cemetery in the drawings includes lawn crypts and what looks like a distant mausoleum, so it certainly isn't supposed to be the St. John's Cemetery, but that's okay. What does this all mean? Ehhhhh probably not much except that Lovecraft would have seen this grave on his walks and maybe he just remembered it for his drawing. STILL, I find it kind of neat.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">********</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> While I've got you here in the cemetery, I may as well show you something else, so sit yerself right back down and grab a nice cold Clamato and some year-old Toffifay I bought in bulk. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>The One-Winged Angel</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif8hpD-K248VerFj6azLTXb1e0GVv5Tb9EIwyH9716MDrG2IvBW6N0s2Pz47EyffwsmU0NIENqwJMr5-C2ShqucLsmnHAh0OhiCXIljAwJ2_r8uzlPfINda4baj5hkJMSXocoWkeV127V9NrKrNcqTokyX3e2n_Kqx5-l5CG4vpex8hBGnfMhuTGYa/s1894/onewingedangel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1894" data-original-width="1117" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif8hpD-K248VerFj6azLTXb1e0GVv5Tb9EIwyH9716MDrG2IvBW6N0s2Pz47EyffwsmU0NIENqwJMr5-C2ShqucLsmnHAh0OhiCXIljAwJ2_r8uzlPfINda4baj5hkJMSXocoWkeV127V9NrKrNcqTokyX3e2n_Kqx5-l5CG4vpex8hBGnfMhuTGYa/w378-h640/onewingedangel.jpg" width="378" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> So I illustrated a Lovecraftian drink recipe book, <i>Lovecraft Cocktails- </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1682686418/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_A4A4SHM0E6D3CRQ06PV1" target="_blank">available in fine book stores everywhere!</a> - and on one of the pages I decided I decorate it all pretty with the image of our dear Mrs. Paget's tombstone. Now, close by the Paget grave was a small eroded statuette of an angel and an urn for flowers. From the photos I took in July of 2019, I thought she only had one wing (upper right), so I thought, "Oh, that's neat. I shall depict my recently departed friend, Leslie, as this one-winged angel. Aren't I clever?" Well, a return trip to the spot in 2021 revealed that the angel did, in fact, have two wings, they were just angled off to one side, for some reason (lower right).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74ko7UeQE4KEhKWQxPDsdQrFanaz4rgELrNkiJomo5t7isOlvUB8MHHvAtlsvEU1TD8ZWATvwoxd5jmmo5FJfqi0AmZUI_zdYo5ZtZ1ggDzIBdWhteyCmgYtwuAMIeA53UWwMh3FE6aK-5N6RRW6CuPa-n23QCZ9rMa-bbTv0HNkSDMBK9W8hkm1n/s4391/CFTC_06_Pickmans%20Modelo_B_v01%20angel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3995" data-original-width="4391" height="582" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74ko7UeQE4KEhKWQxPDsdQrFanaz4rgELrNkiJomo5t7isOlvUB8MHHvAtlsvEU1TD8ZWATvwoxd5jmmo5FJfqi0AmZUI_zdYo5ZtZ1ggDzIBdWhteyCmgYtwuAMIeA53UWwMh3FE6aK-5N6RRW6CuPa-n23QCZ9rMa-bbTv0HNkSDMBK9W8hkm1n/w640-h582/CFTC_06_Pickmans%20Modelo_B_v01%20angel.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Why <i>are</i> the wings cocked to one side like that, though? Maybe there was more to the grave that is now gone. I still like the image of the one-winged angel well enough, even if it was erroneously inspired.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984975646939983338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-17065911729396542852016-07-18T04:16:00.002-04:002016-07-18T04:16:50.050-04:00Pokronomicon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yes, I'm playing Pokémon Go, but the only part I seem to enjoy is collecting the monsters. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmd8nL-Hh15GJMxlZPpJf8-Q1Xj9Y57tLo2q4TrAmGWMb6dpvo0-06LYT-1scS5Bu7eRWxRq7vSPzFCxQUtDNcbGtePYCBg_F4hXIkEm0TZufbFnH6bbms_VyluXNPMKaAA5J3c__qemo/s1600/fungozKurtKomoda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmd8nL-Hh15GJMxlZPpJf8-Q1Xj9Y57tLo2q4TrAmGWMb6dpvo0-06LYT-1scS5Bu7eRWxRq7vSPzFCxQUtDNcbGtePYCBg_F4hXIkEm0TZufbFnH6bbms_VyluXNPMKaAA5J3c__qemo/s640/fungozKurtKomoda.jpg" width="384" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2b325wimBJIz2sDEf_aHBKEOyBto7Wd_tMzDgqFO66lCLorXwpm5aN34bjkBmwoHvdVT8rOEYJPUhUQHDENDS9uhvIV3zHxNBLLuwf2Y441NTjJTGinW4GwEgj0aJlb8LS_eTK0vPj0/s1600/MoonbeezKurtKomoda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2b325wimBJIz2sDEf_aHBKEOyBto7Wd_tMzDgqFO66lCLorXwpm5aN34bjkBmwoHvdVT8rOEYJPUhUQHDENDS9uhvIV3zHxNBLLuwf2Y441NTjJTGinW4GwEgj0aJlb8LS_eTK0vPj0/s640/MoonbeezKurtKomoda.jpg" width="384" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHwXfHDHRbe2Mt-MpfNhoOs4NJJKPRyHw9Nkt8FngR0ywfiUZypdeAWy5HHwjbA86tZ7T_7c2MGy8tq1Vw0ntwM9n6f3eTcj0MAQH1GPV83JYq3wg1Q5B5DDlKForBF03HePujm7aAz7w/s1600/OldunKurtKomoda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHwXfHDHRbe2Mt-MpfNhoOs4NJJKPRyHw9Nkt8FngR0ywfiUZypdeAWy5HHwjbA86tZ7T_7c2MGy8tq1Vw0ntwM9n6f3eTcj0MAQH1GPV83JYq3wg1Q5B5DDlKForBF03HePujm7aAz7w/s640/OldunKurtKomoda.jpg" width="384" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpSUydTMKnrD74-tsodFZaM2ba93hlNm3mgAQG2Pu5FyqfKMqWuxRSL_upjwllQz9x3YXVm28YDgw7BVS1ZDgB_FduGD0xRijPwgwrJtieMDK4Y3ameCHx3rjwDs_mee0yk6i_iIhTXyE/s1600/ShoggyKurtKomoda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpSUydTMKnrD74-tsodFZaM2ba93hlNm3mgAQG2Pu5FyqfKMqWuxRSL_upjwllQz9x3YXVm28YDgw7BVS1ZDgB_FduGD0xRijPwgwrJtieMDK4Y3ameCHx3rjwDs_mee0yk6i_iIhTXyE/s640/ShoggyKurtKomoda.jpg" width="384" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxbaxJ_ig5RLPrjss-zRhrsYALEG6bBf7C84SuvxU7GrUo0VzWr3YKHth8dYjm2bMoqgmcMfr6Yi7N234Xjk2cAdq6R-gVH1W_fRjHlAk_R-VI2kNMvttiIb9QkJuq5yfWaV2BvZaSzE/s1600/FinnsmouthKurtKomoda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxbaxJ_ig5RLPrjss-zRhrsYALEG6bBf7C84SuvxU7GrUo0VzWr3YKHth8dYjm2bMoqgmcMfr6Yi7N234Xjk2cAdq6R-gVH1W_fRjHlAk_R-VI2kNMvttiIb9QkJuq5yfWaV2BvZaSzE/s640/FinnsmouthKurtKomoda.jpg" width="384" /></a></div>
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Oh, I wish I could create and place my own monsters into Pokémon Go. Thing is, if everyone could do that, there would be a lot of penis monsters.Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984975646939983338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-63282723618777855642016-07-04T23:49:00.004-04:002022-07-28T01:15:38.330-04:00Ghastly Ghouly : H.P. Lovecraft's Ghouls and Ghasts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim86OC6uq9z6nyBXwqxGCLEU25LMZTQSfN7vDmYsQzFH0VNS7sGhhmqD01IgiJli7UQS8dX0ZoKBtBQti9TvLYf5YQZ4_FJeR-g5w2Be6RfWOEr3Qd1_OI0Dv8uEctEN1JPKC5wKMZK_w/s2048/GGG27v2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lovecraftian Ghast and Ghoul" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1576" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim86OC6uq9z6nyBXwqxGCLEU25LMZTQSfN7vDmYsQzFH0VNS7sGhhmqD01IgiJli7UQS8dX0ZoKBtBQti9TvLYf5YQZ4_FJeR-g5w2Be6RfWOEr3Qd1_OI0Dv8uEctEN1JPKC5wKMZK_w/w493-h640/GGG27v2.jpg" title="Lovecraftian Ghast and Ghoul" width="493" /></a></div><br /></div> My original plan was to handle the ghast, gug, and ghoul all in one post, since they all converge at one point in Lovecraft's <i>Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath</i>, but as I was writing and drawing I found that I was going on and on about the gug, leaving no room for the other two. A better pairing might have been the ghast and the gug, since they appeared to be enemies of old, with the ghouls trying to avoid them both- but, here we are. One commonality between the ghast and the ghoul (aside from both of them starting with "gh") is that they're both basically slumped anthropomorphic naked things with claws and sharp teeth. Even though the story makes them quite distinct from one another, I had them both confused for a long time. The first time I tried drawing them was ten years ago, in 2006:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnSTTU7f5hCfmeK_AL8wbZupMTxYPLyNfMM7coNDnfRNUkoPF6E0nhgEz2lxRFPZXAL7V_uzQbtdrYKBWZoeF68dD01rIu-jq5GmgksqWsmdkC45fg6O08LBTfZzXO4rwmbQ-0QlKRQEg/s1600/ghoul.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnSTTU7f5hCfmeK_AL8wbZupMTxYPLyNfMM7coNDnfRNUkoPF6E0nhgEz2lxRFPZXAL7V_uzQbtdrYKBWZoeF68dD01rIu-jq5GmgksqWsmdkC45fg6O08LBTfZzXO4rwmbQ-0QlKRQEg/s320/ghoul.jpg" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first ghoul drawing from 2006. I think I gave it hooves only because I had it confused with the ghast, although the ghouls were described as having half hooved feet.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_PtLtwLMBX1X5TzKHljk2HGVIyNNAQ0LqoqAe33IhDYDMu_tuwX6blPFZspPY5lyyjn8yezFQ5IHo3rfqFl0fo1kI-sQ4HM_uYpQVGcDJCfkF03sInnTOxr7y0ddfaCfxH5m3LegvdI/s1600/ghast.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_PtLtwLMBX1X5TzKHljk2HGVIyNNAQ0LqoqAe33IhDYDMu_tuwX6blPFZspPY5lyyjn8yezFQ5IHo3rfqFl0fo1kI-sQ4HM_uYpQVGcDJCfkF03sInnTOxr7y0ddfaCfxH5m3LegvdI/s400/ghast.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first ghast study from 2006.</td></tr>
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Of course, now I find it quite easy to distinguish the two species and have some difficulty in comprehending how I had previously muddled them together. The most distinguishing feature of the ghoul is its canine-like head. In Arabic folklore, the ghūl is a type of jinni, a spawn of Iblis (the Devil). First mentioned in <i>One Thousand and One Nights</i>, it is associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh, but it is also known as a desert-dwelling shape shifter that can assume the appearance of any animal, but especially the hyena. The hyena has been linked with the ghoul partly because of its tendency to dig up graves to devour human flesh but also because of the trickster nature attached to it, no doubt helped by the hyena's ability to create sounds that sound like human laughter or crying. I believe that Lovecraft may have drawn from this particular bit of folklore. That the ghouls communicate through a series of glibbers and meeps (as opposed to the ghasts, who communicate in the coughing gutterals of their Pnathic language) further supports this.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More traditional ghouls in a sketch for an illustration I did for The Burning Wheel RPG.</td></tr>
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An article containing an interesting bit about the ghoul and its relation to the hyena in Arabic sources <a href="http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~caforum/volume8/vol8_article3.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</div>
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Interesting history of the ghoul <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/ghoul.htm" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</div>
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The ghouls are described as having rubbery skin that ranges from white to green. Initially, I was drawing them completely hairless, but in later drawings (meaning this week) I've begun to add sparse hairs in certain spots to give them a grungier look. I used a lot of photos of hairless dogs as reference. They have bloodshot eyes, great fangs, pointed ears, flat noses, and scaled claws (like a bird of prey or a reptile, I suppose). Of great help was a drawing of a ghoul by Lovecraft, himself- something that he apparently drew for <i>Pickman's Model</i>. You'll notice the jutting lower jaw, underbite fangs, and that short tail- none of which are mentioned at all in the texts. <i>Edit 28JUL22- I have a <b>new </b>blog post that examines this drawing closer right here--> <a href="https://kurt-komoda.blogspot.com/2022/07/of-ghouls-and-graveyards-lovecraft-in.html" target="_blank">Of Ghouls and Graveyards: Lovecraft in Providence</a></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkLM8lALthBF_xg4U054-o7lH7RJ4x5xLhPG8bZhdwBsqQ-SD0_mo_SCW0lcQxFS_vnXl6V5e4AqFqHXDtaGVZtzrtELar4zW6i0jwC3QJe7exsMTzYLJ0AbXGE6V9eoYn3yzIjWqFRls/s435/114685_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="H.P. Lovecraft's drawing of a ghoul." border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkLM8lALthBF_xg4U054-o7lH7RJ4x5xLhPG8bZhdwBsqQ-SD0_mo_SCW0lcQxFS_vnXl6V5e4AqFqHXDtaGVZtzrtELar4zW6i0jwC3QJe7exsMTzYLJ0AbXGE6V9eoYn3yzIjWqFRls/s16000/114685_1.jpg" title="H.P. Lovecraft's drawing of a ghoul." /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lovecraft's drawing of a ghoul.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik46B84TmHaURikdYsQZ15S-U4-6QULjbvHoMcLHAuPzRfM5SdIWC4oSCo3emikeDxA-EL81OEoxEkN0MX0PdXRjQ5bGRzfQUMblu3wbJeZkguVl4i_V7Lpj8UEZDE-c77n7UWQEOBU_g/s1600/GGG02sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lovecraftian ghoul in profile." border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik46B84TmHaURikdYsQZ15S-U4-6QULjbvHoMcLHAuPzRfM5SdIWC4oSCo3emikeDxA-EL81OEoxEkN0MX0PdXRjQ5bGRzfQUMblu3wbJeZkguVl4i_V7Lpj8UEZDE-c77n7UWQEOBU_g/w470-h640/GGG02sm.jpg" title="Lovecraftian ghoul in profile." width="470" /></a></div>
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Of particular interest is the fact that the ghouls are transformed humans, but by what process, I know not. In <i>Pickman's Model</i>, ghouls are seen depicted in a painting training an abducted human child to eat as they do, turning the child into one of them. Another painting depicts a matured changeling- a ghoul baby left in place of a stolen human baby- sitting amongst its Puritan family, curiously displaying features similar to Pickman, himself, who later appears as a ghoul in <i>The</i> <i>Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. </i> I'm not sure if that meant to infer that he was already a ghoul (that he was a changeling) or if it was just something he desired. Incidentally, we never hear of female ghouls- though, I can assume that they exist.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvPgcSuFNyFKHDwFS8-GjKnLXUSr5EoP5VVV7_N0lD2zoUqJTroTt4ARScO9IKxTKeEKVNjMPpEOYy5SoqxUOnDKJyHkmOWgKWaSqW9uImhiH33-nZiRJBBjBoGcwL7t2PCL7QgO_jh7w/s1600/GGG09v2sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvPgcSuFNyFKHDwFS8-GjKnLXUSr5EoP5VVV7_N0lD2zoUqJTroTt4ARScO9IKxTKeEKVNjMPpEOYy5SoqxUOnDKJyHkmOWgKWaSqW9uImhiH33-nZiRJBBjBoGcwL7t2PCL7QgO_jh7w/s640/GGG09v2sm.jpg" width="486" /></a><br /><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The one drawing on the ground with the stick was supposed to be Pickman, but I think I should have had him be just slightly more human, as the story suggested that he was recognizable as Pickman and that he hadn't completely turned.</td></tr>
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Now, the ghast is something I was sure I'd find in folklore, but apparently, this is a case where the word existed- Middle English: gast "afraid" 1350-1400- and then the monster came later. "Ghast" is an obsolete term for "to frighten,"and then, of course, ghastly, aghast, and beghast. As far as I can tell, we have Lovecraft using it for his beasties and then....Minecraft. Someone please correct me if I missed the actual origin</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z_oxKNmhF-emH1mzCJ1rxbqUVzElYYa49IZA6GS7apzaf9VCWL7IKtQNyWG0gi8kl79_f-wyBMtLqLDa1Mr1OMpiksHvxYBUq2cq6ZHtQd-mzAwmhGlehyDM2ygcdxpXrGp6-Wo3rgY/s1600/2016-07-03_04.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z_oxKNmhF-emH1mzCJ1rxbqUVzElYYa49IZA6GS7apzaf9VCWL7IKtQNyWG0gi8kl79_f-wyBMtLqLDa1Mr1OMpiksHvxYBUq2cq6ZHtQd-mzAwmhGlehyDM2ygcdxpXrGp6-Wo3rgY/s400/2016-07-03_04.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Minecraft Ghast<br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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Of course, Lovecraft's ghasts came first and aren't giant floating cubes with tentacles that make monstrous baby sounds and shoot fireballs- which <b>really</b> makes me wonder why Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, decided to call that thing a Ghast in the first place. Lovecraft's ghasts are humanoid, about the size of a small horse, and possess long legs with which they hop about like kangaroos. Their coloration is never mentioned, but their bodies are described as filthy and scabrous. For some reason, I always had the impression that they were a sickly grey color, but there isn't anything to justify this. We can be reasonably sure that they weren't any garish color and didn't have any obvious patterning, like stripes or spots, i.e. if they were bright purple with yellow feet and green spots, Lovecraft would most surely have pointed this out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbl0Eh_FDZxeFD3JFRqbqR7PD6GuQAajU7qXn97wRIzfXepCWzFM9fmStmz_spRN4aN-HqQ50a8VaVaZcEB97GVzKjsYvZl4iuZkdQPC8I3l59U_fLtGQZoGCrWPDJURalt9pFVOKyJk/s1600/GGG29sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbl0Eh_FDZxeFD3JFRqbqR7PD6GuQAajU7qXn97wRIzfXepCWzFM9fmStmz_spRN4aN-HqQ50a8VaVaZcEB97GVzKjsYvZl4iuZkdQPC8I3l59U_fLtGQZoGCrWPDJURalt9pFVOKyJk/s640/GGG29sm.jpg" width="470" /></a></div>
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As for the ghast's head, they have a face that "<i>is so curiously human despite the absence of a nose, a forehead, and other important particulars." </i>When I eliminate the nose and the forehead, a lot of my attempts tend to look too reptilian, which I don't want.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0CZskE5uhbpbVnt65uou9qrhuOvtP858pkce6b81ulItccBUiHvL2zGOpeVyb-OfyuGfdHjaXuHw3YzAv5c_gq_XHoMZlumIP6PMvYyKxiYPvt33Tulz_yImvOpz_weH3CLxRjXHazZo/s2048/GGG08.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="lovecraftian ghast head designs" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1544" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0CZskE5uhbpbVnt65uou9qrhuOvtP858pkce6b81ulItccBUiHvL2zGOpeVyb-OfyuGfdHjaXuHw3YzAv5c_gq_XHoMZlumIP6PMvYyKxiYPvt33Tulz_yImvOpz_weH3CLxRjXHazZo/w482-h640/GGG08.jpg" title="lovecraftian ghast head designs" width="482" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lovecraftian ghast head designs.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoWiPsrbQh0q9CkcSAqQcKnnb5_KVsXa5_ml9ca3V2VhsOORhOttL27XtqzWf7UATnCyaq5gjBzvSJNrJGRvvR9ou2S-NNV3pGAAQCjsHWNJzpXBC-tGhb-OOPZ3YP4mGp-IcT_Cyoe0/s1600/GGG10sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoWiPsrbQh0q9CkcSAqQcKnnb5_KVsXa5_ml9ca3V2VhsOORhOttL27XtqzWf7UATnCyaq5gjBzvSJNrJGRvvR9ou2S-NNV3pGAAQCjsHWNJzpXBC-tGhb-OOPZ3YP4mGp-IcT_Cyoe0/s640/GGG10sm.jpg" width="498" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This one looks too much like some sort of snake-man and the legs are too short.<br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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I kept getting this reptilian snake-man look when drawing the head, but then my brother sent me this picture of a man with severe facial disfigurement from World War I:\<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMfXiCKMadHQ1YyLUqwnDAqtW4v8cD2KrBuN0kddssIe3Vad_TwxXPhpDPQcQ6Gfm9pdWGXSJCo5kcaUKuPC2Yn7kUqAg3dx0ZCx8W23XfCrcZ5FqYYsmCqWtJ3bSMiMMzi2w2NZvWn8/s1600/13295297_10157003109550010_159954252_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMfXiCKMadHQ1YyLUqwnDAqtW4v8cD2KrBuN0kddssIe3Vad_TwxXPhpDPQcQ6Gfm9pdWGXSJCo5kcaUKuPC2Yn7kUqAg3dx0ZCx8W23XfCrcZ5FqYYsmCqWtJ3bSMiMMzi2w2NZvWn8/s320/13295297_10157003109550010_159954252_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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No disrespect for the man in the photo, but something about it was on the level of being disturbing that I wanted for the ghast. The photo might be squashed down vertically a bit, but the compressed shape may have been part of why it reminded me of the ghast. The horrible eyes, definite absence of a nose, receding forehead, the protruding teeth, and the way that the flesh of the neck just stretches onto the small lower jaw: all seem to me to be crucial elements for the ghast.</div>
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From the beginning, I've always drawn the ghast with big, round luminous eyes. Not sure if that's right, but I seem to be stuck on them. Originally, I drew them with very flat faces- just eyes over a gaping mouth, but then there's this bit in <i>Dream Quest</i> where it describes them as biting the gug sentry with their muzzles. So, I've been trying to draw them with the mouth protruding from the face a bit. The fact that they're venomous makes me give them sharp reptilian teeth. Even though I don't always depict them, I figure they must have nostrils, for they are supposed to possess an acute sense of smell. Ears: not sure, so I tend to draw them very small or not at all. I give them this slightly bulbous cranium, and strangely, that was mostly because when I was drawing them, they were looking a lot like a demonic version of E.T., from the Spielberg movie.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCsSQ7CEFVLow1S0l-7J-5NvbmwZmIu0ixJbRIBwgn3EgnVNVFPotJ4HhVcI6D_b6RURjuJgOiqJlyDNCFje7lWVwl1EHfy7xR_Xc3U8GP6zk-pJg0qixSdty14i1TFLDpcIYLXjhJL7w/s1600/GGG25HEad.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="590" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCsSQ7CEFVLow1S0l-7J-5NvbmwZmIu0ixJbRIBwgn3EgnVNVFPotJ4HhVcI6D_b6RURjuJgOiqJlyDNCFje7lWVwl1EHfy7xR_Xc3U8GP6zk-pJg0qixSdty14i1TFLDpcIYLXjhJL7w/s640/GGG25HEad.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">This particular ghast head drawing possesses mammalian teeth. Even though I tend towards rows of sharp reptilian teeth, perhaps it's more disturbing if they look more human. This one also lacks nostrils, which they probably should have.<br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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The good thing about ghasts- and, in fact, all the Lovecraft monsters I've drawn, is that they're a species, so they're allowed to look different from one another. There could be a variety of head shapes within the limitations of the description. The image below shows rather silly drawings, but it shows how I was playing around with the ghast's face.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh22LD8oKOyj3oeyIUbTTEhf-YIEYwjejlpzhkcis0zDswd34PH2GNR4g69nnb0Oo3TVidvgIuO932igmajfIUKyDF-PR_A0a99XYETCekcc6t6Yt_KiVbaT5ojPWMhjRkmJjHD0tKwo-I/s1600/GGG26Det.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh22LD8oKOyj3oeyIUbTTEhf-YIEYwjejlpzhkcis0zDswd34PH2GNR4g69nnb0Oo3TVidvgIuO932igmajfIUKyDF-PR_A0a99XYETCekcc6t6Yt_KiVbaT5ojPWMhjRkmJjHD0tKwo-I/s640/GGG26Det.jpg" width="628" /></a></div>
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The ghast's legs are pretty straightforward, though I keep drawing them slightly differently- and I keep forgetting to make them long enough. They're basically just hairless kangaroo legs, complete with the sharp hooves- especially that long center hoof-claw. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78ZJMNBvsD2YsVZUX5CBkBtEt7MRAFADtVDXd7OjC1qAuBoQgNFkx5ZZHKTtjSt77YrpmLKHOqvE0Zt4CYjchHeuOs580Lx9aNng0iaNe_qiHjctdlhOs5aVS8ETa_kX1TRxEOPN18ls/s1600/GGG28GhastHop.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78ZJMNBvsD2YsVZUX5CBkBtEt7MRAFADtVDXd7OjC1qAuBoQgNFkx5ZZHKTtjSt77YrpmLKHOqvE0Zt4CYjchHeuOs580Lx9aNng0iaNe_qiHjctdlhOs5aVS8ETa_kX1TRxEOPN18ls/s640/GGG28GhastHop.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">The ghast's hopping movement. I'm not sure how such movement would differ without the kangaroo's long tail, which I'm pretty sure it uses for stability and as a counterweight when leaning and hopping forward. Of course, they could have tails- since the ghouls have tails and Lovecraft never mentioned them.<br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjOmQ087VdMJSrrpjG5HKGVeevZcxAhAoI5PFipWswsAToGK2pFQ2Tzl0ICk8Ji5MAco1L14ee5TJ8nh0f16K7TrgF59OIlM1dKwzujouJGAzcWIKSg02rhyphenhypheny5cHNMsSBBiUBDZRJsas/s643/GGG28GhastStandRT.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ghast standing flat and up on its toes." border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="643" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjOmQ087VdMJSrrpjG5HKGVeevZcxAhAoI5PFipWswsAToGK2pFQ2Tzl0ICk8Ji5MAco1L14ee5TJ8nh0f16K7TrgF59OIlM1dKwzujouJGAzcWIKSg02rhyphenhypheny5cHNMsSBBiUBDZRJsas/w640-h502/GGG28GhastStandRT.jpg" title="Ghast standing flat and up on its toes." width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ghast standing flat on its feet and up on its toes.</span><br /><br /></td></tr>
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<div> As far as culture, the ghasts appear to have none. They're described as primitive beasts who hunt the gugs in packs- and the gugs, in return, hunt the ghasts in the darkness of the vaults of Zin. The ghasts communicate through coughing gutterals, but this by no means assures that they have a working language. Female ghasts? No idea. I don't suppose that ghasts just sprout out of the ground or reproduce by budding, so I suppose that they're should be some form of sexual reproduction. Well, in Lovecraft literature, unless we're talking about a witch, no females are mentioned. Asenath Waite Derby, from <i>The Thing on the Doorstep</i> doesn't count, because she was a female body possessed by a male throughout the story. Oops. Spoilers.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVYQNcQVgJe88qRYrcMbxk5sHvZTrSj0JqRiXlOYT80p2OJtRvweBSs2hKqi8s3FxpYtk3guTdwEc5n5u5OSw0VF0J-tkZGmx7L59NJTGqhXsHBVDAga4tyuKzyvNpU4vu3fCC9XTabY/s1600/GGG22GhastAttackS%252C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVYQNcQVgJe88qRYrcMbxk5sHvZTrSj0JqRiXlOYT80p2OJtRvweBSs2hKqi8s3FxpYtk3guTdwEc5n5u5OSw0VF0J-tkZGmx7L59NJTGqhXsHBVDAga4tyuKzyvNpU4vu3fCC9XTabY/s640/GGG22GhastAttackS%252C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">A sketch for an ink and water color drawing I was preparing for this blog, but I was surprised and disappointed to find that the ink I was using (Higgins Eternal black ink) was </span><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">not</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> waterproof.<br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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Okay, that's about it for this post. Oh, one more thing. Here's a little size comparison chart I drew the other day of all the monsters I've done so far in this series:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBghP2FPQ7ADCr44HBm6sCrlMltMfIRJ517JWy389rAVtSE13_S-jmYWukPSVOHhI9SOZc-Bv1_-iEeJ8gJIFoUlRd7KhzuUD1IwK66D1p4Oo5AQMgBoH8rtqQImW6Vc9l4jqwNxTcXiY/s1600/sizeChart01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBghP2FPQ7ADCr44HBm6sCrlMltMfIRJ517JWy389rAVtSE13_S-jmYWukPSVOHhI9SOZc-Bv1_-iEeJ8gJIFoUlRd7KhzuUD1IwK66D1p4Oo5AQMgBoH8rtqQImW6Vc9l4jqwNxTcXiY/s640/sizeChart01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Not sure what's next. I may do a non-Lovecraftian beastie or two, since there are a bunch I already have a load of drawings for. If you're interested in purchasing any of the drawings you see in this blog, just contact me at <a href="mailto:agony@optonline.net" target="_blank">agony@optonline.net</a>.</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> Not all drawings are available, and some of them aren't even actual drawings or have been reworked in Photoshop. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">Until next time, bye-bye!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">Alice in the Dreamlands</span></div>
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Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984975646939983338noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-4163335066125484102016-06-02T04:53:00.003-04:002022-07-28T00:04:04.785-04:00Gug Ugly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The full title was actually going to be <i>Gug Ugly: Let's Try to Not Draw a Face Vagina</i>, but I didn't want that showing up on all the links to this page. Then again, maybe it would have done wonders for my exposure. Anyway, let's get going here.<br />
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We return to H.P. Lovecraft's <i>The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath</i>, but this time we move underground, to the eternal twilight of the subterranean Dreamlands. A week ago, I thought that this post would be <i>Gugs, Ghouls, and Ghasts (oh my)</i>, as I was going to cover those three. As I started sketching, however, I realized that all three were giving me problems and were eating up sketchbook pages, so I'll hold off on the ghasts and ghouls until next week. Now, I had already done some drawings of what I thought the ghasts and ghouls looked like years ago, but I had somehow never drawn a gug. Lovecraft's description is mostly in a single paragraph:<br />
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<i> "</i><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"><i>It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equipped with formidable talons. After it came another paw, and after that a great black-furred arm to which both of the paws were attached by short forearms. Then two pink eyes shone, and the head of the awakened gug sentry, large as a barrel, wobbled into view. The eyes jutted two inches from each side, shaded by bony protuberances overgrown with coarse hairs. But the head was chiefly terrible because of the mouth. That mouth had great yellow fangs and ran from the top to the bottom of the head, opening vertically instead of horizontally."</i></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Further descriptions include that they stood 20' tall and were voiceless and communicated through expression, though the <i>muffled snortings </i>of sleeping gugs are heard in the very next paragraph.It's interesting to note that the gugs are a fallen race, previously worshippers of the so-called Other Gods and Nyarlathotep, banished to the underworld by earth's gods for some abomination they committed. The gugs are somewhat intelligent, at least, having built a great city of round cyclopean towers that disappear into the grey subterranean sky. They also have some sense of reverence, for they have erected a great forest of monolithic monuments to mark the graves of their dead. I have to consider all this when drawing them. I can't just have them be this slathering, lumbering monster, as I have seen so many times before. Now, I'm not saying that they wore full suits of clothing or played golf, but there must be a sense of culture.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Initial sketches, trying to figure out the mouth and arm structures, and of course, just how cultured the average gug is.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> At the very worst, I figured, they have, since their banishment to the inner earth, devolved over aeons to be like our own Stone Age ancestors, for they have a kingdom and a great wall and the aforementioned city of looming towers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Okay, I'm not going to go as far as the drawing above as far as costume, but it makes sense that the gugs would have bags or packs for carrying things, maybe belts, definitely tools and weapons. I imagine them wearing talismans and maybe other forms of jewelry. Note that in the above drawing that I was trying out digitigrade legs, like those of a quadruped, and that the gugs still lacked any visible ears. This gug is also carrying some sort of staff made from a bioluminescent plant, but this may just be ornamental and is not intended to be used as a torch in the dark. The fact that they live in near darkness and that they their pink eyes glow just tells me that they can see just fine. Maybe that's wrong, but having luminescent eyes just hollars night vision to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Still, just because they can see in the dark doesn't mean that they wouldn't mind a little extra light here and there, so I'm fine drawing them holding sources of light. I haven't drawn the gug city or any gug dwellings, but I imagine that they could be lit or decorated with torches or luminescent objects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">The Gug Head:</u> Yes, it's going to look like vagina dentata with eyes, so let's just get that out of the way. When I first started drawing the mouth, I had this idea that it didn't make much sense that the eyes would be attached to the two jaws, as they opened and closed like a bear trap. It seems like the gug would be blind to what's in front of it as it opened its mouth unless the eyes were very close to the open maw or they stuck out to the sides sufficiently. Lovecraft, however stated that they only jutted out <b>two inches</b> from the barrel-like head.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Now, when you have a creature 20' tall, and I figure the head is about 4-5' tall, 2" is a very small distance for those eyes to jut out. In other depictions of the gug- in fact, in mine, too- the eyes stick out <b>way</b> more than 2". In the detail above, I've drawn the eyes pretty small, but I figure that the bony ridge surrounding the eye juts out 2" from the sides of the head, but the eyes could be part of the face and be much larger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Still, at this point, I was concerned about the eyes moving with the jaws as they opened wide, but mostly because I was thinking that the eyes would be back, halfway between the front and the back of the head, like where human ears are. I came up with some designs that had the jaws separate from a skull that held them, like a split egg shape inside a cup.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In the sketches above, you can see that I had three basic concepts for the jaws. The first (A) was the split egg shape being cradled by a surrounding skull. I only did this to keep the eyes stationary, but it just didn't seem right. The second (B) had the jaws hinged onto the outside of a skull. Notice how far back the eyes are in that early version. The third (C) was a clam shell or bear trap design, with the entire head opening and closing. This is certainly horrific, but I couldn't figure out how that would fit on a neck or how the throat would work. </span> In the lower left, you can see that I did a version where I rotated the mouth at a 45 degree angle...because I was thinking that the gug wouldn't be able to hold food in a bear trap like mouth that was completely vertical- this gets solved in a moment. <span style="font-family: inherit;">What I ended up doing (D) was a variation on B, but by moving the eyes forward, the jaws could open and close and the gug could still see what it was biting into.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I made it so that the gug's jaw hinged on the top and bottom of its skull and didn't occupy the entire head. Solving the food spillage problem was simple: add a tongue. The gug's tongue attaches behind and below the lowest and furthest back teeth of both jaws and is massive, able to fill the entire mouth. It is triangular in shape, being flat on top, and is able push and maneuver food past itself, along both palettes, to the throat. Even with the tongue managing food, the gug still needs to throw its head back to properly engulf food.<br /><br /> Also here is the first drawing of the gug ear and the head looks kind of like a twisted bat's. It is noted that the gug's have excellent hearing, and living in an eternal twilight and in the vaults, that makes sense. I settled on something like the pointed ear of a dog or rodent, but I figure that they could be a variety of shapes in the species.<br /><br /> I also made the decision to give the gugs lips. I had sketched some heads where the jaws had the teeth on the outside, fangs projecting left and right, looking like a bottlecap folded in half, but decided to keep the teeth inside. This doesn't eliminate the possibility of other gugs amongst the species to have projecting fangs or tusks. In fact, I'd like to think that there would be some diversity in the appearances and builds of various gugs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">The Face Says It All:</u> Just as the night-gaunts communicated through gesture, the gugs communicate entirely through expression. It was therefore important to give them the means to do so. I gave them very fleshy heads, full of wrinkles and folds, and of course, the lips on their great mouths could be manipulated and skewed to provide a near limitless variety of shapes. </span><br /><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Double Forearm:</u> Aside from the vertical jaw, the other big thing about the gug is that it has two forearms extending from each upper arm.Throughout most of my sketches in the past week, I was drawing the gugs with an over-under style of arms. That is, as the forearms extend from the humerus, one elbow joint is above the other. Without giving it much thought, I decided that the gug humerus would divide like a Y, as opposed to having a massive joint that could accomodate two ulnas and two radii. I'm no expert on musculature, but it seems like having the Y-shaped humerus could allow more room for the muscle attachments of the two forearms. Again, I didn't give it a whole lot of thought. It just looked right. I thought I was so clever, though. BUT....</div>
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See, there's a basic problem with both of these designs. In order for the forearms to have any left to right movement at all, the humerus must rotate in the shoulder socket. With a Y-shaped humerus, neither forearm could move independently, outside of twisting and up and down. I think there has to be two humerus bones inside that upper arm, with both attached to an accommodating scapula. Like so:<br />
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Now, it'd get pretty crowded in that upper arm, what with two humeri and two complete sets of muscles- bicep and triceps, but...in a freakish way...I suppose it could work. I'm just not real sure that muscles could work, always sliding and rotating next to each other on their separate humeri inside one arm operated by a single deltoid, pectoralis major, teres minor and major, etc.<br />
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A hairless gug. Why? I was just trying to show a clearer view of how the double forearm(and hidden double humerus) might look. You can see that in the over-under arrangement that the bottom forearm gets screwed. Only way to fix that would be to make that arm's humerus longer, making its elbow further out than the top one's, allowing for up and down movement.<br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Further Thoughts:</u> I wonder just how the gugs exist as a society. Does the gug city contain a gug marketplace? A gug doctor? A gug tailor? Though they cannot speak, I imagine that they might have a written language- strange scrawls on the great monolithic tombstones in the gug graveyard. Perhaps just hieroglyphics, Do they even have names? They must. We still have cultures that exist today, like the Miao, in China, that historically have never had a written language, yet have built villages and have highly developed art and clothing (a written language was imposed upon them in the 1950's by the Chinese and the Thais and then later by Christian missionaries).<br />
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Are there lady gugs? Aside from the spore reproduction of the Elder Ones, Lovecraft never mentioned the reproductive processes of any of his creations. With their hair-covered anatomy, I suppose that the gugs are mammals, but I'm not going to speculate on this right now.<br />
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So that's my gug- for now. Next week will be the ghast and the ghoul. Being as the ghasts have this nasty relationship with the gug species, I'm sure there will be some more gug drawings in the near future. Maybe I'll have changed my design completely by then. I might veer away from Lovecraftian for a post or two after that. I want to tackle some of my favorite beasts from folklore and maybe some more creatures from other authors I love. As for Lovecraftian monsters...hmm. I <i>might</i> take on the Deep One, but my brother, Paul Komoda, has that one nailed. It'd be fun to draw them at their various sizes. Kind of done that already. Below is some artwork I did for a Lovecraftian wrestling card game. Yes! You read that correctly! <i>Wrestlenomicon</i> was created by game designer, Dennis Detwiller, and you can check out his page on it <a href="http://detwillerdesign.squarespace.com/wrestlenomicon/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. Not sure when it's coming out, but I did 120 cards for it. Here you see my cartoonish version of Cthulhu (I wouldn't dare try to take him on seriously just yet) dealing with an annoying batch of Deep Ones. It was fun stuff to work on.<br />
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Anyway, that's this week's post. It's been a really bad couple of months for freelance, so I've had plenty of time to do these things. Considering starting a Patreon account, but I'm not sure how that works. Stay tuned for more monster explorations! Follow me on Instagram...cuz.....that's a thing...I guess. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kurt_komoda/" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/kurt_komoda/</a></div>
Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984975646939983338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-72198809295223723992016-05-21T01:11:00.007-04:002022-08-23T01:06:04.592-04:00H.P. Lovecraft's Night-gaunt: The Tickling Terror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<i>"Suddenly, without a warning sound in the dark, Carter felt his curved scimitar drawn stealthily out of his belt by some unseen hand. Then he heard it clatter down over the rocks below. And between him and the Milky Way he thought he saw a very terrible outline of something noxiously thin and horned and tailed and bat-winged. Other things, too, had begun to blot out patches of stars west of him, as if a flock of vague entities were flapping thickly and silently out of that inaccessible cave in the face of the precipice. Then a sort of cold rubbery arm seized his neck and something else seized his feet, and he was lifted inconsiderately up and swung about in space. Another minute and the stars were gone, and Carter knew that the night-gaunts had got him."</i></div>
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<i> - H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, 1927</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrb0KYo2P9ujjiAaugwoJW5l3kM8pU4oA-5bfzMFsuaCsxQ08HKivlUCdh3R3q8pgqoGwLQaNUuQ4KyBil9ggtQ940FL2LFBzte8rEQ4bVrWt98gRakXjgejCWliQAUHSPxLN5kKPewPU/s1600/NightGaunt07sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrb0KYo2P9ujjiAaugwoJW5l3kM8pU4oA-5bfzMFsuaCsxQ08HKivlUCdh3R3q8pgqoGwLQaNUuQ4KyBil9ggtQ940FL2LFBzte8rEQ4bVrWt98gRakXjgejCWliQAUHSPxLN5kKPewPU/w482-h640/NightGaunt07sm.jpg" title="Night-gaunt in profile" width="482" /></a></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> H.P. Lovecraft wrote of the night-gaunts in his poem "<i>Night-Gaunts</i>" and in the story "<i>The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath</i>." He certainly had a vision of what they were and how they behaved because, as a child, he was tormented by them in his nightmares- which I'll talk about a bit later. They were later expanded upon in the writings of Brian Lumley, who hinted that they may have mouths with which to suckle Yibb-Tstll's black breasts.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The alternate title to this post could have been "Why I Hate Wings On the Backs of Humanoid Anatomy." For almost a quarter century I have struggled to come up with a feasible way that wings on a humanoid (while still retaining normal arms) could work and, for now, have concluded, like so many others, that it just doesn't- not with our bone structure and musculature, anyway. To carry the weight of the human body, the wings would have to cover an extremely large area, with a wing span of something like 25-30 feet. Now, the muscles needed to move such limbs would be immense, requiring additional bone area on the scapula and sternum- and these muscles and bones couldn't interfere with the existing arms. It just becomes ridiculous. Wings just growing out of shoulder blades always bothered me, even in the most beautiful depictions of angel or demon. For the purposes of fantasy, it really is best to ignore it and just plop those wings on there. What I am going to do, then, is take my very limited knowledge of physics and physiology and try my best to come up with a solution for a humanoid with wings while at the same time freely ignoring some of the complications.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> If we can change the anatomical structure of the organism we're dealing with, we're given some anatomical leeway. You see, we're not dealing with a human, or even an earthly lifeform. In fact, we're not even dealing with something that is absolutely confined to the physics of this universe. The night-gaunt is a denizen of the H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, and while it is a "real" place- just one separate from ours- it is fantastical, and while I won't be as lazy as to just say this or that happens or exists "because magic," I'm pretty sure it is exempt from at least some of the laws of physics. I mean, cats can jump to the moon- the Dreamlands moon with forests and oily seas on the dark side of it. The Dreamlands is a constantly changing world, formed by the dreams of the people of Earth. Other planets and realms have their own Dreamlands.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> So, in no way would the night-gaunts that I draw "work." Lovecraft described them as "noxiously thin," so I wanted no musculature. The night-gaunts are black and rubbery, with a skin texture akin to a whale's. I picture them like a skeleton or demonic armature covered in oily latex, but with a bit of weathering here and there. The only loose flesh they have is the membrane of their bat-like wings. Lovecraft, again with the bat-like wings. It leaves room for artistic liberty, but this time I decided to stick with almost exactly a bat wing. Problem is, a real bat's wings are comprised of its two arms and the membrane goes all the way down to the ankles and then across to the tail. Night-gaunts have to have those two arms in addition to those wings.</div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsINZlzO-oowW7snG-1PSffB9mXz1Kg2VjRTrKSMd2VZhslejRLWXeUYBwKely83HbDIvyCn_9471pyxHDZY7hPzSXIBpqSB7sO06nwigp0msBaXiLR0yczKwHmpSfNLeYFSUMuhAxkwk2Kgs85XfbtFeG91UXFi3XD0qwSaJeSEAMC1e43NrAtsW5LA/s811/NightGaunt06colorSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="night-gaunt crawling with wings folded" border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="548" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsINZlzO-oowW7snG-1PSffB9mXz1Kg2VjRTrKSMd2VZhslejRLWXeUYBwKely83HbDIvyCn_9471pyxHDZY7hPzSXIBpqSB7sO06nwigp0msBaXiLR0yczKwHmpSfNLeYFSUMuhAxkwk2Kgs85XfbtFeG91UXFi3XD0qwSaJeSEAMC1e43NrAtsW5LA/w432-h640/NightGaunt06colorSM.jpg" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption">Night-gaunt with its wings folded. In this design, the wing membrane only extends down to about the hip, something I later changed by extending it to the ankle.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><u style="text-align: left;"></u></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><b> Those Damned Wings</b>: The problem with just attaching wings so that they just stick out the back of the shoulder blades is that, because there is an existing set of shoulders in the way, they would lack the clearance for the down sweep in the flapping motion. Now, if you watch this slow motion footage of a bat in flight from the Smithsonian Channel, you can see that while the wings don't down sweep to steeply, they still can't be blocked by the previously existing shoulders, lats, and rib cage, so the attachment point (where the humerus attaches to the scapula) has to be wide enough to accommodate this range of motion. It's basically like wearing a "wing pack" on one's back. Notice that even the legs and the tail/tail membrane are involved in the flapping motion in the video below.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Upq7LyhCGXE" width="320" youtube-src-id="Upq7LyhCGXE"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> Speaking of flapping, I've watched bats flying around in my parents' backyard on many a summer night. We used to throw pebbles into the air and watch them chase them for a bit. One time, my brother and I even tried bits of bologna, and I know at least one of them caught the piece- don't know if it ate it or not. Anyway, a bat's flapping sound, though quiet, is still audible. Lovecraft made a point of saying that the night-gaunts were completely silent, even in flight. Now, owls have special serrated feathers along the back edge of their wings to allow for near-silent flight, and that just doesn't work for membranous wings. Basically, I'm just going to attribute this to being a supernatural Dreamlands...thing.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdDRnThu7HhInhMHOcTDLJjAr-2t3wb01JFsGzY74OudCCs2-2Q2HX3VRO_D5E41vfbfpXRbWb3BxlYhx9MevWJ7wKRZsAPCDvbuvY45jhWKbqcstUtT0tHb5fcdLvQVN2YzmhKslA16wqHGaGrH1eAZ5ZRmwhoQhBleq3bABkEeJ7xqvid38oErKpWQ/s1800/NightGaunt03sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Night-gaunt skeleton" border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1432" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdDRnThu7HhInhMHOcTDLJjAr-2t3wb01JFsGzY74OudCCs2-2Q2HX3VRO_D5E41vfbfpXRbWb3BxlYhx9MevWJ7wKRZsAPCDvbuvY45jhWKbqcstUtT0tHb5fcdLvQVN2YzmhKslA16wqHGaGrH1eAZ5ZRmwhoQhBleq3bABkEeJ7xqvid38oErKpWQ/w510-h640/NightGaunt03sm.jpg" width="510" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Night-gaunt skeleton showing "stacked" scapula. I'm not saying that this would work, but this is kind of what it would have to look like if we have have the ol'wings-popping-out-of-the-back type of demon.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzylmzwatRUOVkhtIh14ZgX_10C3bovhQINKFo_aMXTTa6mkPmnyTc4KQoTPhR89_E_jw0lCjvLOFEy3P359ScN4fAUGsifnXJC0X5dDRB3HoUUvbtrYhY9bGJBWZQza8sI73U9V1Clzs/s1600/NightGaunt02sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Night-gaunt wings" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzylmzwatRUOVkhtIh14ZgX_10C3bovhQINKFo_aMXTTa6mkPmnyTc4KQoTPhR89_E_jw0lCjvLOFEy3P359ScN4fAUGsifnXJC0X5dDRB3HoUUvbtrYhY9bGJBWZQza8sI73U9V1Clzs/w468-h640/NightGaunt02sm.jpg" width="468" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The forward shoulders (the "normal" shoulders, if you will) on these sketches are too broad. The shoulders of the wings would have to extend out a bit further to allow a full range of motion.</td></tr>
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<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> Assuming that the night-gaunt bone structure was light enough to allow for winged flight, it's still unlikely that they could carry the weight of a struggling human, but in the Dreamlands - and we might as well say in all of fiction- it is possible. I am confident we can all think of an instance where a winged man-thing has carried something about its own size aloft, so we're just going to have to let that go (even though I will not let the wings sticking out of shoulder blades thing go!). In <i>Dream Quest</i>, the night-gaunts were able to lift the toad-like moon beasts into the air. Now, the story never describes the size of the moon beasts, but I imagine them to be these heavy, blubbery things. It takes several night-gaunts to haul even one up into the air, and not always successfully: "<i>Sometimes a group of the black flutterers would drop a toadlike prisoner from aloft by mistake, and the manner in which the victim would burst was highly offensive to the sight and smell.</i>" I love that.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_k_yrblD_V0uhlqrJlK85J3cDzL4KDocEpagW1w2HNcVmJgRNiCujKQwXarmnQ89k3Vr4brKf2YJ0ALMQ0yIhI8EzuKlOaMJwuwx6m4BBqWZam8yqlZwqUFlr-7PtRyg2_T9bMVYQQNc/s1600/NightGaunt10color.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Two night-gaunts carrying a moon beast." border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_k_yrblD_V0uhlqrJlK85J3cDzL4KDocEpagW1w2HNcVmJgRNiCujKQwXarmnQ89k3Vr4brKf2YJ0ALMQ0yIhI8EzuKlOaMJwuwx6m4BBqWZam8yqlZwqUFlr-7PtRyg2_T9bMVYQQNc/w498-h640/NightGaunt10color.jpg" width="498" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Two night-gaunts carrying a moon beast. A rather small moon beast. Probably should have drawn it larger.</td></tr>
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</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> For some reason, once the night-gaunts are no longer these fearsome shadow entities and take on the role of loyal soldier and transportation, they fly in pairs to carry our hero Randolph Carter and his ghoul allies through the sky. I'm assuming that this was for some sort of comfort, but I cannot figure out how this would work. It's <i>really</i> hard, if not impossible, for a pair of winged things to carry a singular object- not talking about something spread out like a tarp or a ribbon- without their wings interfering with each other. Take a look at this illustration from The Wizard of Oz, drawn by W.W. Denslow:</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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Now, it looks wonderful as an illustration, but there's just no way those flying monkeys could flap their wings without hitting each other or Dorothy. Still, I bet that what we see in the drawing is exactly what Lovecraft was thinking.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi00ZacemlSo33ChcTqMCNebFiAwa3m-mk87J814aIZFstafzF12in7Oo3O-OwsrqWlOyRE3WSWmHjrGR9vgL6K7VUIJQLOLC0Mc0qzQ5phULOeQtFiJUinc0L74Rg0tv5BVGBs3wzMdgA/s1600/NightGauntTransportSM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Attempts to figure out how exactly night-gaunts carry someone." border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi00ZacemlSo33ChcTqMCNebFiAwa3m-mk87J814aIZFstafzF12in7Oo3O-OwsrqWlOyRE3WSWmHjrGR9vgL6K7VUIJQLOLC0Mc0qzQ5phULOeQtFiJUinc0L74Rg0tv5BVGBs3wzMdgA/w640-h217/NightGauntTransportSM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i> </i>Now, in the drawings above, we can see that it still would probably be best for just one night-gaunt to carry one man or ghoul, though, I doubt that there would be a comfortable way to do this. In the first drawing, it's like the man is being held in baby-swing position, with the hands grasping the thighs from below and the back being supported by the forearms. The second drawing shows a tandem carry- with one night-gaunt behind or below the other. This...I suppose could work, though I don't know how efficient it is and it doesn't look very comfortable the way I've drawn it. In the third drawing, the night-gaunts have these tiny Final Fantasty Moogle wings, so they can fly side by side and not bump into each other. Okay, I haven't solved this at all and I'm not going to. Let's move on.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I imagine that the wing membrane wouldn't be so saggy looking as this, but I was using a hairless bat as reference and loved how the membrane looked.</td></tr>
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<div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">The Basic Shape</u>: Lovecraft dreamed of the night-gaunts. Rather, he was tormented by them in dreadful nightmares, as described in a letter to friend: "<i>When I was 6 or 7 I used to be tormented constantly with a peculiar type of recurrent nightmare in which a monstrous race of entities (called by me 'night-gaunts'—I don't know where I got hold of the name) used to snatch me up by the stomach...and carry me off though infinite leagues of black air over the towers of dead and horrible cities...The "night-gaunts" were black, lean, rubbery things with bared, barbed tails, bat-wings and no faces at all. Undoubtedly I derived the image from the jumbled memory of Doré drawings (largely the illustrations to 'Paradise Lost') which fascinated me in waking hours.</i>"</div>
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And then "...<i>They had no voices & their only form of real torture was their habit of tickling my stomach...before snatching me up & swooping away with me. […] They seemed to come in flocks of 25 or 50, & would sometimes fling me one to the other.</i>" -I cannot find a copy of this letter or a complete transcript of it- only portions of it here and there. There are numerous books dedicated to the letters of Lovecraft to various friends.</div>
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I think that the silent, black, night-gaunts in Lovecraft's dreams were like winged nightmare shadows come to life. Of the tickling sensation, I can say that I have personally felt something like this- sort of an electrifying paralyzation that occurs in dreams- probably akin to dream paralysis (where certain motor functions have shut down during sleep but your mind is semi aware). It has happened to me while being attacked by some nondescript entity (a shadow or shape). I wonder if it's the same thing that Lovecraft was talking about.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7fX3a9L99QpY63U3YF5FOnTQMiN4hjIQeh9s6RdxBMIVWv_hYke28rnMzw1v-r8_-7bwhqExkcdifK88TjMWse9Pwx4ppKdFC74LLXSDlAzkh2bXkxxVieBTWwebftqQnw2YckZP0P0/s1600/nightGauntElements.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="What a night-gaunt is made of." border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7fX3a9L99QpY63U3YF5FOnTQMiN4hjIQeh9s6RdxBMIVWv_hYke28rnMzw1v-r8_-7bwhqExkcdifK88TjMWse9Pwx4ppKdFC74LLXSDlAzkh2bXkxxVieBTWwebftqQnw2YckZP0P0/w640-h348/nightGauntElements.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The elements of my night-gaunt design. The bat wing is from www.uksafari.com. The devil's purse, the black beetle (possibly blaps gigas), and the black wasp paralyzing a spider to be used as her future nursery (possibly Anoplius nigerrimus) are my own.</td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> When drawing the night-gaunt, I drew inspiration from a few things. Obviously, bats. The bat wing and the texture of the membrane was very important. Devil's purses, which I find on the beaches on the Jersey shore, have the perfect texture (when soaked) and these long, curly hooks on them, which made me think of claws adapted for tickling (I guess another design would be something that looked like a Koosh ball for a talon). I like the rubbery black texture of the beetle and I've always felt that the night-gaunts would have a wasp-like appearance with their elongated limbs, not to mention their behavior.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left; text-decoration-line: underline;">A Trip Down Night-gaunt Memory Lane</b><span style="text-align: left;">: Now, I've been drawing night-gaunts for years (and not real well, mind you!). So, let me show you some of my early designs from way back there in the closet full of sketchbooks.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyJprmnUnpsKsXNOuImGsbqMbcy137ZyrT_ggkcAbdvttpZJSlk_CDkTExaMQOp5gVdeaxZwmSGOAYssJx4QlzoGIuOr0O5313UkilmiMFS2d3btgCOpBdQWGd91jK6-YeD3glIc0rJ8/s1600/1992_0721_Nightgaunt01SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Early night-gaunt sketches" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyJprmnUnpsKsXNOuImGsbqMbcy137ZyrT_ggkcAbdvttpZJSlk_CDkTExaMQOp5gVdeaxZwmSGOAYssJx4QlzoGIuOr0O5313UkilmiMFS2d3btgCOpBdQWGd91jK6-YeD3glIc0rJ8/w307-h400/1992_0721_Nightgaunt01SM.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
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July, 1992: My first drawings of the night-gaunt were pretty typical. I think those horns would be considered outward pointing, so that's wrong. You can see by the bottom sketch that I'm already troubled with the wings on the back concept.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFr2vxMFvG0GfbASI8k4-xbeLFVUZQsQHWDICr0L83UKLlmEG9FA3-KrRDfAG4QXIWzIPb10vQVMvS6DEmLjB8aPf-f3yzkSodtk2r8gvm4BE_KE4zEg00S8OgEXx_p66I8TGCDp1Oew/s1600/1992_0721_Nightgaunt02-03SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Early night-gaunt sketches." border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFr2vxMFvG0GfbASI8k4-xbeLFVUZQsQHWDICr0L83UKLlmEG9FA3-KrRDfAG4QXIWzIPb10vQVMvS6DEmLjB8aPf-f3yzkSodtk2r8gvm4BE_KE4zEg00S8OgEXx_p66I8TGCDp1Oew/w400-h260/1992_0721_Nightgaunt02-03SM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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July, 1992: At this point, the head is just this ovoid shape. I'm starting to elongate the limbs, but the forms are still too thick, especially the tail. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6JnY5c3ftkOqPpFSGFCCqB2mrUOEqoi6i5Au-9XqGAnMxqU3tnNiLkkFEZXZmBMyWx3PGphebEYDPR_gGrwVxcJ3cl_NXixguGdMchk_yHcQ7z0FD2Noe1GkdlyFoCtcGSrqHb-zWka4/s1600/1992_0721_Nightgaunt04-05SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Early night-gaunt sketches." border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6JnY5c3ftkOqPpFSGFCCqB2mrUOEqoi6i5Au-9XqGAnMxqU3tnNiLkkFEZXZmBMyWx3PGphebEYDPR_gGrwVxcJ3cl_NXixguGdMchk_yHcQ7z0FD2Noe1GkdlyFoCtcGSrqHb-zWka4/w400-h255/1992_0721_Nightgaunt04-05SM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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First studies of bat wings and how they might apply to the night-gaunt. You can see that I basically just took the bat on the left and stuck it on the night-gaunt on the right. At this point, I even had a small set of pseudo legs extending from the hip so that the wing membrane could attach there.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_g0n5EhyphenhyphenySUlQHzaSwYT7EHjJV6w4SRuLILiFuZufuE1AItYKCJwygWqyBcHovaroz4qkKr1WZHOVRz8mKA5yQONW1JFru9CVvQ8JP23hp7d1uH1xjEF2jLDi5_64sNddqUh5nP3xfs/s1600/1993_0129_nightgaunt01-02SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Early night-gaunt sketches." border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_g0n5EhyphenhyphenySUlQHzaSwYT7EHjJV6w4SRuLILiFuZufuE1AItYKCJwygWqyBcHovaroz4qkKr1WZHOVRz8mKA5yQONW1JFru9CVvQ8JP23hp7d1uH1xjEF2jLDi5_64sNddqUh5nP3xfs/w400-h261/1993_0129_nightgaunt01-02SM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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January, 1993: I thought it might be interesting to add a bit of form to the head, but these camel-like designs are just funny looking. The two-thumbed design on the right is stolen directly- and badly- from Wayne Barlowe's Overlord design from <i>Barlowe's Guide to Extra Terrestrials</i>- one of my favorite books from my childhood.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqXHJJfcIxsmK1YkiLSruirUlnNCRpco9grniioOeinQQqcgAd2mVq-kR-vYshKWqEEtPSng61jRQL7o2UjdL8gGNQVv0nUow0_zG7wYteTPx5HPdhCq-tIQd7a27mxrOdOwBzOwF9z0/s1600/1994_0705_nightgauntSM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A crouched night-gaunt." border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJqXHJJfcIxsmK1YkiLSruirUlnNCRpco9grniioOeinQQqcgAd2mVq-kR-vYshKWqEEtPSng61jRQL7o2UjdL8gGNQVv0nUow0_zG7wYteTPx5HPdhCq-tIQd7a27mxrOdOwBzOwF9z0/w302-h400/1994_0705_nightgauntSM.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>
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1994: By this point, my night-gaunt designs began to take on more insectoid qualities. Wings have a barbed or serrated edge and the horns are still outward pointing. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> 1999: Introduction of the "x-faced" night-gaunt. Horns became larger and ridged. Was playing with the idea that the non-wing arms would be these arthropod limbs extending from either side of the chest which, when folded, would fit into the cavity under the sternum. I dunno.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifTbe9TGhtdKzox4vywx_3CHY8FlfdlGza0NjHYY6Y5JwYjdx7yroU32KbC9srM0Xs1tNuLErJGkKO5TfHbpDqLmxGlnVNufsm1VySLS48FaFHNYJld-3xvR5f5vWQ8vashvI7dlnyRq2CpXKlaOS6u0D_3zirl9z68_liv5u8DGFzykI_BcrVGpLtnQ/s1205/1999_A_Nightgaunt01-02SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Night-gaunt derivations." border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1205" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifTbe9TGhtdKzox4vywx_3CHY8FlfdlGza0NjHYY6Y5JwYjdx7yroU32KbC9srM0Xs1tNuLErJGkKO5TfHbpDqLmxGlnVNufsm1VySLS48FaFHNYJld-3xvR5f5vWQ8vashvI7dlnyRq2CpXKlaOS6u0D_3zirl9z68_liv5u8DGFzykI_BcrVGpLtnQ/w640-h410/1999_A_Nightgaunt01-02SM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> 1999: Okay, I have no real explanation for the one on the left, with its huge crustacean arm and muscular legs. The thing on the left side of the right page is just a doodle, but I kind of still like the night-gaunt on the right, although I could do without the massive hips/pelvis.</span></div><div><br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5uGeguSUTsjq98MgzjrR8EVzltDQlQ9oXgxP_nAL8frMvwbzMuqF6i1pHNkVxHar0Y4gsqhT3bA2R8o5_pRH6raCYjA1FK5bW07q9DC4ARmaajjNavziaD5hIlAZGlx1M5XoFh7YdxQ/s1600/2000_1212_Nightgaunt03-04SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="night-gaunt sketches" border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5uGeguSUTsjq98MgzjrR8EVzltDQlQ9oXgxP_nAL8frMvwbzMuqF6i1pHNkVxHar0Y4gsqhT3bA2R8o5_pRH6raCYjA1FK5bW07q9DC4ARmaajjNavziaD5hIlAZGlx1M5XoFh7YdxQ/w400-h261/2000_1212_Nightgaunt03-04SM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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2000: A really clumsy handling of the wing limbs on the left, with both pages looking more towards pterosaur anatomy, Still sticking with the "x-face" design.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwjzeozckq9wQIq_uZAllhoLrv_BFuQZF8UYw2WLeP-DWjLI8jYAJTc7JC1fW7egNCPDo75IFMDrT4CFHpjsVtreGS7-IhHS-lJ7mNHqulVDyW-UpykbWmXHRW71_V4fBHytZ0F5tx4yc/s1600/2000_1212_Nightgaunt04-05SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="bad night-gaunt sketches" border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwjzeozckq9wQIq_uZAllhoLrv_BFuQZF8UYw2WLeP-DWjLI8jYAJTc7JC1fW7egNCPDo75IFMDrT4CFHpjsVtreGS7-IhHS-lJ7mNHqulVDyW-UpykbWmXHRW71_V4fBHytZ0F5tx4yc/w400-h257/2000_1212_Nightgaunt04-05SM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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2000: Still pursuing the pterosaur wing design. The drawing on the right was supposed to be night-gaunts communicating through gesture, but I abandoned it on the grounds that it sucked.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyX7_RZyCRwqtB26eIP4ZjWtRKuMC0m8cU1oSiEiUdJ3B-Rp-z53li5wD87pDw4bpZaC_xwAHnRzNe2JyeYZrrel-HbrpFTpppF7xodok0th8ZFtZAjEpKkiRJi6BbioXrzO4XIhSq9Qo/s1600/2006_1207_Nightgaunt01-02SM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="night-gaunt sketches" border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyX7_RZyCRwqtB26eIP4ZjWtRKuMC0m8cU1oSiEiUdJ3B-Rp-z53li5wD87pDw4bpZaC_xwAHnRzNe2JyeYZrrel-HbrpFTpppF7xodok0th8ZFtZAjEpKkiRJi6BbioXrzO4XIhSq9Qo/w400-h261/2006_1207_Nightgaunt01-02SM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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2006: Doodles of the night-gaunt with the x-face becoming less pronounced. Also, studies for Baku, a Yokai from Japanese mythology. Yep, all those years later and the wing design was still no closer.</div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Head</u>: I don't have a real clear opinion of how the head should look. It seems like every time I draw one, the head is a bit different.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGc6RDXHXVj3d8A-ygL03xfVf4tVCKvDjfVdQ4STq8-ZfiSNHH90FkRtTYUcllrbrefouojh2H-WtdBDipuS04v2e9MywDIYND0Mk0Cs4oSbR9TSjoz4g0lKpkEvHp1wBUC56ObYFJa84/s1600/NightGaunt05sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="night-gaunt heads" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGc6RDXHXVj3d8A-ygL03xfVf4tVCKvDjfVdQ4STq8-ZfiSNHH90FkRtTYUcllrbrefouojh2H-WtdBDipuS04v2e9MywDIYND0Mk0Cs4oSbR9TSjoz4g0lKpkEvHp1wBUC56ObYFJa84/w464-h640/NightGaunt05sm.jpg" width="464" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> Various night-gaunt head designs, some with the hint of features. The one in the center that's just pencil line- not shaded with wash- was a design that occurred where there would be this mass of wrinkles that could form expressions. I thought this might be something, since they spoke entirely in gesture, but then realized that it would imply a definite feature on a featureless face, so I abandoned it. It was a silly idea. The lowermost one with the black wash is this "X-shaped" night-gaunt face that I was using for years. Also, you can see that I haven't settled on a horn shape, yet.</td></tr>
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The interesting thing about drawing the head and neck of the night-gaunt, and one that I was constantly forgetting, is that this is a creature with no features, which meant that it had no nasal passages, no need for any musculature on the face, no mandible, no throat, and -supposedly- they were mindless. I don't think that necessarily means that they have no brains, but it is interesting to think that they are these just dream constructs, without any need for such things.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCnGk4xVzTiO0403yAoNaN8afrIcwmFSwwy6uibXzxhLlOioJGg10wGYMqPmyXLwW9uSb05fahyphenhyphenNNyzWFVm5M0VZMSUea2ZnKWtIJigWVW_YnCEHfRQ-IUr7amqCjqYb_gn-BT85jBoU/s1600/NightGaunt04sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="night-gaunt skulls" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCnGk4xVzTiO0403yAoNaN8afrIcwmFSwwy6uibXzxhLlOioJGg10wGYMqPmyXLwW9uSb05fahyphenhyphenNNyzWFVm5M0VZMSUea2ZnKWtIJigWVW_YnCEHfRQ-IUr7amqCjqYb_gn-BT85jBoU/w512-h640/NightGaunt04sm.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Night-gaunt skulls.</td></tr>
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I began to think of what their skulls might look like. I'm guessing that they would be these solid masses of bone, but it's also interesting to think of a skull being nightmare twisted. Like if you took a human skull and smeared it flat like it was made of clay. The remnants of features and divisions in the bone might still be visible, but maybe don't transfer to the skin that encases it.</div>
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Looking at my old drawings, the description of the night-gaunts being faceless immediately made me think of this smooth surface where a face would be. As time went by, I began to add hints of features or even features that could contradict a face. In the end, I think a blankness, like a phantom's face in stark shadow, is more appropriate. Right now- and I say this because my opinion may change in an hour- I even want to avoid the hints of a brow or cheekbones, as I have done in the previous drawings. Maybe it all goes back to the x-face. I still like that one. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gCqdjSEFSrIkL4-n1kDICN4lZXReoR-dWllI0TTipeMGerxzuRiEAU0TglGy4jIXOgZRHeDLkAN6ME6AtdWj-JCHJEZVyoSO-rTtTURiKEaviRJAuah3mmXPiJ19BqBtFjgHL2YWn3M/s1600/NightGaunt15SM%2527.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="night-gaunt head shapes" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gCqdjSEFSrIkL4-n1kDICN4lZXReoR-dWllI0TTipeMGerxzuRiEAU0TglGy4jIXOgZRHeDLkAN6ME6AtdWj-JCHJEZVyoSO-rTtTURiKEaviRJAuah3mmXPiJ19BqBtFjgHL2YWn3M/w484-h640/NightGaunt15SM%2527.jpg" width="484" /></a></div>
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The night-gaunt head is just one of these things that keeps changing in my mind, and I'm not sure why. With the inward curving horns: again, there's a lot of leeway, but we can take note that no special attention was paid to them, so we know that they probably weren't immense or elaborate. Right now, I'm partial to the second one in the top row in the sketch above.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hands of a night-gaunt. Tips retracted.</td></tr>
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No matter what, long fingers and toes lend to the look of the night-gaunt, so I like them to be almost cartoonishly elongated.</div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Further Thoughts</u>: I was going to do a whole section about the night-gaunts form of communication through gesture, but I felt that it was pretty self-explanatory and I wanted to finish this within the week. I do wonder what they would talk about, unless it's just directions of how to get to this or that, similar to how bees communicate to other bees the location of a flower (by wiggling their butts).</div>
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Even though the night-gaunts are mindless, there must be some continued order throughout the species, as they have certain enemies and allies and seem to know where things are in the world. I'm not going to go into night-gaunt reproduction because I have no idea and I don't think that Lovecraft ever even thought about that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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I find it curious that Lovecraft was tormented by the very thought of these winged beasts, but that in <i>The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath</i> they are almost instantly made to be tame with the use of a secret password, which I bet Lovecraft himself had wished he had possessed when he was 6 years old. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984975646939983338noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-15085216888347352742016-05-10T14:58:00.006-04:002022-07-28T01:13:22.571-04:00The Mi-Go, the Official Lovecraftian Monster of Vermont<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirJdQO_H65ZFlk2am65zaVIESpouRZ0SYhRPPybQeVlGtfxhyphenhyphen-xvJR3vSMmEZ81X8-TLy-j9lav2tRrBbPTL8g3FCUPYGvlzkDOi27LwLjzS4v9yjRTj09gu-KY6eY7iULofCMytXemdY/s1600/MiGoSketchp14Color.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirJdQO_H65ZFlk2am65zaVIESpouRZ0SYhRPPybQeVlGtfxhyphenhyphen-xvJR3vSMmEZ81X8-TLy-j9lav2tRrBbPTL8g3FCUPYGvlzkDOi27LwLjzS4v9yjRTj09gu-KY6eY7iULofCMytXemdY/s640/MiGoSketchp14Color.jpg" width="528" /></a></div>
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What follows are my attempts to depict H.P. Lovecraft's Mi-Go, the Fungi From Yuggoth (probably Pluto) based on his descriptions in "The Whisperer in the Darkness." I make no claims as to their accuracy, but this was just a fun creative project to do in a week where not a lot of freelance work is coming in. Okay, let's dive in. <br />
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The Mi-Go are described as 5' pinkish, vaguely humanoid, crustaceans that were more vegetable than animal, having a fungoid structure- despite the presence of a chlorophyll-like substance. The had several pairs of limbs and great bat-like wings that extending from the middle of their backs.Their heads were a mass of ringed pyramids covered with short antennae, There were a few more descriptions throughout the story, but we'll get into those later.<br />
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<b>- Oh, I'm going to be going into spoilers for "The Whisperer in the Darkness, " so if you have not read it- do this now: <a href="http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/wid.aspx" target="_blank">The Whisperer in the Darkness</a></b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvQqjph26hfQdQpb5A5hrQL3TJdNS5Xm1sjwGsnaJHknCGFEhiOBldsg2asV9-NzgjfT8TFcOo4Axv92sKJzBT5BJzXdYf6IWpJyjU8jOyKlJhFse8gbw4Xxcb5PWfzJfohgivGjVGjc/s1600/MiGoDrownedSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvQqjph26hfQdQpb5A5hrQL3TJdNS5Xm1sjwGsnaJHknCGFEhiOBldsg2asV9-NzgjfT8TFcOo4Axv92sKJzBT5BJzXdYf6IWpJyjU8jOyKlJhFse8gbw4Xxcb5PWfzJfohgivGjVGjc/s640/MiGoDrownedSM.jpg" width="588" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The body of a dead Mi-Go seen in flood waters of the Passumpsic River, Vermont. </td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Right off the bat, the whole "fungus thing" trips me up a bit. I suppose it could mean that even their carapaces were made of some sort of fleshy, spongy substance, but for some reason I've always jumped to the conclusion that Lovecraft was referring to their heads and internals- or just their basic molecular structure was fungoid (there are some rather hard and tough fungi out there). I think my design may be a bit <i>too </i>lobster-like, but as I tried to design and re-design my Mi-Go, I kept coming back to it. Well, both fungi and crustaceans have chitin in common. It forms the cell walls of fungi and crustacean exoskeletons.</div>
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The second stumbling block was the whole vaguely humanoid outline. Now, Lovecraft wrote of this in such a way that it gives a bit of leeway. Walking upright on two hind legs with an ovoid head on top may be all he was suggesting. I did know that I wanted to give them larger hind legs, while the rest of the limbs would serve as arms.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6tGySvhPvn8fGJ0_6lGb-TmlWPJcyYFlEeO5T3H3d3d_OL99RyfsMSSjAkgqrGr13-gwN8XZ6iqXmfq_sHrUNjSoZfzh6nT9mIoBInCtiIlRA30r_Sr44qwwexi9zIeQQAchQG2r5cBY/s1600/MI-GoStandSm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6tGySvhPvn8fGJ0_6lGb-TmlWPJcyYFlEeO5T3H3d3d_OL99RyfsMSSjAkgqrGr13-gwN8XZ6iqXmfq_sHrUNjSoZfzh6nT9mIoBInCtiIlRA30r_Sr44qwwexi9zIeQQAchQG2r5cBY/s640/MI-GoStandSm.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vaguely humanoid? ehhhhhhh....kind of. Vaguely vague. </td></tr>
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Now, the vaguely humanoid outline comes into play late in the story- like real late, as in the very last sentence- when it is revealed that the strangely stiff and be-robed seated figure of Henry Akeley has been a Mi-Go in disguise, wearing what our narrator, Albert N. Wilmarth, prays to be just perfect facsimiles of Akeley's face and hands (it's more or less suggested that they are, in fact, Akeley's actual face and hands). So, apparently, all it takes is the mask of a face wrapped around the head and neck with a long yellow scarf, a dressing gown, a pair of human hand gloves, bandages wrapped about the feet, and a comfy chair in a dimly lit room to disguise a Mi-Go as a human being.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPVXsuY9ISPe-1Fg5whhHO2B04NqZm9H2L5fnyA7T1-f7v4zrqJYgk5mQs2WbR5raBp72FmuJFxkdxY0A2lFkiIBTaZPcOnVQ5fG4Qyx5lEVX0TKzH6wS2kGRatbqwzWiIMKf_ayZ1YPo/s1600/MiGoSketchp15shoehorn.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPVXsuY9ISPe-1Fg5whhHO2B04NqZm9H2L5fnyA7T1-f7v4zrqJYgk5mQs2WbR5raBp72FmuJFxkdxY0A2lFkiIBTaZPcOnVQ5fG4Qyx5lEVX0TKzH6wS2kGRatbqwzWiIMKf_ayZ1YPo/s640/MiGoSketchp15shoehorn.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Don’t bother that fresh, shiny cylinder joined to the two testing instruments—the one with my name on it." Okay, H.P. I'm sure that won't come back at some point.</td></tr>
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This complicated things, because all of my early designs were way too bulky to pull off this sort of ruse. I hadn't read the story for about 25 years and had somehow forgotten the bit about them fitting into the shape of a human. I figure the robe in a seated position could have been very bulky with odd shapes here and there and still pass without suspicion in a poorly lit room.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2b-O1-zjNiy1xTaA_Rz4rat4ucszWVkQAxziEO2SKqLmHZlW6fbbL5z6gr9HStopW7LkQAT5k18cA-iijwDBI-zMQDjAjYdyQTXTWm1_h8vHrtBhm8O9do_rYdD050DW6TlojlYsj_Es/s1600/Mi-Go_InkFailSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2b-O1-zjNiy1xTaA_Rz4rat4ucszWVkQAxziEO2SKqLmHZlW6fbbL5z6gr9HStopW7LkQAT5k18cA-iijwDBI-zMQDjAjYdyQTXTWm1_h8vHrtBhm8O9do_rYdD050DW6TlojlYsj_Es/s640/Mi-Go_InkFailSM.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here is a drawing I did earlier this year, before re-reading the story. There are multiple problems with it. First, the antennae on the head are too long. It lacks hind legs to walk on. Although it does have hands, I wanted more of the Mi-Go's limbs to be practical for an intelligent race capable of hyper advanced surgical procedures.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAGPPwoZmF2oNnc1s4K939IpGrUHKUiAvvgTiqJZgXFr62V_7a19InGM1yVaHJdItzbQzq3lmQ5Cjv4k7dwYC0M644J3w4QT5cM3w0CUtqP_Qauct4QYbmX696yogv8GyRXAlKeyf0uo/s1600/MiGoSketchp04sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAGPPwoZmF2oNnc1s4K939IpGrUHKUiAvvgTiqJZgXFr62V_7a19InGM1yVaHJdItzbQzq3lmQ5Cjv4k7dwYC0M644J3w4QT5cM3w0CUtqP_Qauct4QYbmX696yogv8GyRXAlKeyf0uo/s640/MiGoSketchp04sm.jpg" width="434" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early sketch done for this blog, when I was still in the early stages of trying to work out the wings. All of my early sketches (from last week) have this kind of bulky structure. As they go on, they become more streamlined.</td></tr>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Wings:</u> Wings always give me trouble. The Old Ones' wings gave me a lot of trouble. The wings of the next blog post's subject, the Night Gaunts (or any humanoid with wings apparently sticking out of their scapula), gave me trouble. The wings of the Mi-Go gave me trouble because you have these bat-like fleshy membranous body parts somehow attached to chitinous body parts. Yeah, they're beings from outside the known universe, but Lovecraft mentioned the parallel evolution with our crustaceans, and you can't just have membranous wing attaching to a chitinous carapace. I mean, you <i>could</i>, but it wouldn't look right.</div>
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The first sketches were just trying to figure out how to attach a bat-like wing to an exoskeleton. I was still pretty sure that the final result would definitely not just be a bat wing.</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"> I decided to try and base my wing design on an insect wing, but one that still looked "bat-like." The wings of larger beetles, like the Hercules Beetle, have this appearance. Toward the bottom of the page, you can see that I started to blend it with a bat wing, complete with a membrane that attached and stretched along the body, as opposed to tapering to a single point connection, like an insect's wing.</span></div>
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The final design- or, the one I've settled on for now- is combination bat-insect wing that somehow fold up real nice and tight like a real bat wing. Now, real bat wings have a huge wing surface because the membrane basically goes from the bat's shoulder down to its ankles,and then webbing on the tail forms more of a wing surface. Here, the wing surface only goes from the shoulder to about where the hip would be.It wouldn't work at all unless the Mi-Go's body structure was incredibly light -which it may very well be. Well, in the story it <i>does</i> say that the wings were meant to traverse the ether of interstellar space and were not very well suited for flight on Earth. The only one seen flying leapt from the top of a hill, and besides...their very atomic make up- their electron vibrations, it says- are wholly different from ours. There's a little leeway in the physics.<br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Limbs:</u> Of this, I am certain: that I really do not know how the limbs of actual crustacea work or fit together and that anyone with a passing expertise on the subject will recoil in disgust at what I've done, BUT...I will again resort to the fact that we're talking about outer beings from outside the known universe, wholly comprised of a different type of matter. I have, however tried my best to adhere to Lovecraft's "parallel evolution" and made these things try to make as much sense as is possible within my limited knowledge. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDuSw868ONcRPWKmY4YtH0rG2YB3YJdVTq10Y3CKD67tokqiRhJhY2y3gY67RauQVy7n6LpPmTFGCUElXU7cWXO29Z7JI5HyTcA3PW0tchWS4T-D3af-bN4MBjPkUXvumghU0DobF6fRQ/s1600/MiGoSketchp01sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDuSw868ONcRPWKmY4YtH0rG2YB3YJdVTq10Y3CKD67tokqiRhJhY2y3gY67RauQVy7n6LpPmTFGCUElXU7cWXO29Z7JI5HyTcA3PW0tchWS4T-D3af-bN4MBjPkUXvumghU0DobF6fRQ/s640/MiGoSketchp01sm.jpg" width="502" /></a></div>
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As you can see in the drawing and quotes from the source material above, dated April 27, 2016, the first thing I tried to tackle was the be-nippered claw of the hind leg, which left the footprints of ambiguous direction. The description says that there was a central pad and then pairs of nippers extending from that. I originally drew 3 pairs of claws, but later brought it down to 2 pairs, for no particular reason. I figure that the claws would lay flat when walking, but all four on each foot could be used like a 4-clawed hand. The multiple claws would become the basis for the other limbs, moving up the torso.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-EKaKeZTOlmMcz59dUYgJlPmR4l-M9PYEAEAjK1n5D3zGB4ONVt4JoDBINm0o0IL1sSwd-VnlYCKua6aKMhz7ZZpO2igrjHvFmareAFaaCL7kbuzV-5QbFN0QvbMbZ3RiN0gNNNZuMyxuE5Z5VHHTBzVi22bu1Zdquflg83viaRaIfkVWEdqsJ6Ueg/s1440/MiGoLegsSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1416" data-original-width="1440" height="630" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-EKaKeZTOlmMcz59dUYgJlPmR4l-M9PYEAEAjK1n5D3zGB4ONVt4JoDBINm0o0IL1sSwd-VnlYCKua6aKMhz7ZZpO2igrjHvFmareAFaaCL7kbuzV-5QbFN0QvbMbZ3RiN0gNNNZuMyxuE5Z5VHHTBzVi22bu1Zdquflg83viaRaIfkVWEdqsJ6Ueg/w640-h630/MiGoLegsSM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> So, starting with the hindmost pair of legs, we have 4 claws or nippers, as Lovecraft refers to them. The next 3 pairs are the primary hands. I figure that an exceedingly intelligent race that has been on earth for hundreds of millions of years (they came from space and waged war against the Old Ones at one time) capable of interstellar navigation and travel and miraculous surgery would need something more than claws. These hands have 3 segmented digits, one in the position as a thumb as opposed to being evenly distributed like a tripod. They would have softer, padded surfaces on the palms and undersides of the digits for gripping. The last two pairs of limbs (the topmost) are your basic pincered crab-like limbs.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz1hH8RZTFWD8J-87Krk8Bx9vLxb6GEOSaUxJ75d2PK9qDJgjb-U1qClzTUuA63EquEIWBzwdeFyRztQ948PnIaNnXqfivCancnIg5ESGo-7suAj8OLjy6woP_dobn31fO0RZ4whM5zSo/s1600/MiGoSketchp09sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz1hH8RZTFWD8J-87Krk8Bx9vLxb6GEOSaUxJ75d2PK9qDJgjb-U1qClzTUuA63EquEIWBzwdeFyRztQ948PnIaNnXqfivCancnIg5ESGo-7suAj8OLjy6woP_dobn31fO0RZ4whM5zSo/s640/MiGoSketchp09sm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Technology:</u> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmuk_POQq4xChPkEDoYGaLiyJYxvOkuLQ2y-TPNIz4BZ1RFRS3aCkw7BYyeaMG70Gz1rUo34tIACm7UtJ0VhRUgmLw7KWzkCYGxrUE7pxhNZoPGQZXh9WoBC6h2j_aEUyT48v1ikWdXE/s1600/MiGoSketchp13sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmuk_POQq4xChPkEDoYGaLiyJYxvOkuLQ2y-TPNIz4BZ1RFRS3aCkw7BYyeaMG70Gz1rUo34tIACm7UtJ0VhRUgmLw7KWzkCYGxrUE7pxhNZoPGQZXh9WoBC6h2j_aEUyT48v1ikWdXE/s640/MiGoSketchp13sm.jpg" width="490" /></a></div>
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Above is a drawing of, well, the latest in Yuggothian kitchen appliances, apparently. You all know very well that "Akeley" had Wilmarth plug wires from 3 devices into one of the metallic cylinders they use to store the live brains of other beings. One device gave the brain in the cylinder sight, the other a voice, and the third hearing....I think.</div>
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I didn't give the devices described in the story much attention, because I didn't really know where to go with them. It bothers me that such an advanced race, using metals not of this earth, would use dials, wires, plugs, and vacuum tubes. I *suppose* they could have, I dunno, just been efficient by using local hardware they had access to, but....would they really use that technology with beings from other planets during their space travels? This is obviously just a case of Lovecraft not being that keen of a futurist. I mean, with the right two-way brainwave translating software, one smart phone is probably more advanced than all 3 of the devices mentioned in the story.</div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Head:</u> For some reason, most artists tend to draw the head looking like a big exposed brain. The story describes the head as "<i>a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antennae</i>" and "<i>a lot of pyramided fleshy rings or knots of thick, ropy stuff covered with feelers</i>." Okay, so here we go:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSABzQqzs8b6Nat3i6I0IYSyWhxVTjp4kBpAxOsBd8V0O00pr7GIVzOzjEDGsbxfl94U6xgh8sGd6OvBV0mKzGGx0MPCUWWYSP9A9uFewAsplPIZ5kltcb5f2jDFFFa_GtTGH-7x_2Uvs/s1600/MiGoSketchp19sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSABzQqzs8b6Nat3i6I0IYSyWhxVTjp4kBpAxOsBd8V0O00pr7GIVzOzjEDGsbxfl94U6xgh8sGd6OvBV0mKzGGx0MPCUWWYSP9A9uFewAsplPIZ5kltcb5f2jDFFFa_GtTGH-7x_2Uvs/s640/MiGoSketchp19sm.jpg" width="520" /></a></div>
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Now, I don't know the dimensions of the pyramided ring structures or their distribution about the head, but I did want to evoke a fungus-like appearance. It didn't say that the numerous short antennae extended from the tips of the pyramid structures, but it just seemed like the thing to do. I mean, why would antennae be recessed? I took liberties with the mouth area and the modified palps that look like mantis shrimp chelipeds. I haven't drawn the mouth in detail, but I figure that they're similar to crab mouths, although capable of speech. </div>
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The Mi-Go communicated through 3 methods: telepathy, buzzing noises which could imitate speech in any language, and by changing the colors of its head. I figure that their heads have chromatophores like squid and cuttlefish and can communicate with elaborate color displays (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oycUF75ESUw" target="_blank">Video of squids communicating through flashing color changes</a>). Most useful in the vacuum of space, although...telepathy would seem to trump any other type of communication, but what do I know?</div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Molting:</u> As a kind of arthropod, it seems likely that the Mi-Go would have to shed their skin to grow. No mention is ever made of this in any of the stories, so this is just creative speculation. Now, again, they're outer world beings with a fungoid structure, so anything goes, but I like to think that they go through many instars before their final molt, when they finally grow their wings.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsjOj8YG2qyEUxFAeSy8OVkBKzuq0mfMESnU7qlQdMM42BbtR-1zH2Cb1zlgqwRX83GWYL1Dvp-KJY31lLWOC4wstipRDZ_9yjIaakfatFu7ZBU5P3oQCA3lN108IYVdBEvGS9z1WTJ7M/s1600/Mi-GoMolt01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsjOj8YG2qyEUxFAeSy8OVkBKzuq0mfMESnU7qlQdMM42BbtR-1zH2Cb1zlgqwRX83GWYL1Dvp-KJY31lLWOC4wstipRDZ_9yjIaakfatFu7ZBU5P3oQCA3lN108IYVdBEvGS9z1WTJ7M/s640/Mi-GoMolt01.jpg" width="324" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Molting Mi-Go</td></tr>
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Above, we see a Mi-Go undergoing its final molt, emerging from in between the first and second segments of the cephalothorax carapace, similar to how a lobster molts. Up to this point, the wings were underdeveloped wing buds, but upon shedding its skin, fluid is pumped into these buds and they grow into full wings.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieu8_ctKiPxqewmliYJa-d84sr4aZblERCQ_cpwPeOkBSH1Ek23SOh6Rdf3qnXkx426D7l-ZwpsJ-htsxiv9eee7pHAPKQ2VC1QB06Pvf1uxm3xhwCgSxET-i_46tq_Ri4JL0XR050zb0/s1600/MiGoSketchp17SketchRT_sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieu8_ctKiPxqewmliYJa-d84sr4aZblERCQ_cpwPeOkBSH1Ek23SOh6Rdf3qnXkx426D7l-ZwpsJ-htsxiv9eee7pHAPKQ2VC1QB06Pvf1uxm3xhwCgSxET-i_46tq_Ri4JL0XR050zb0/s640/MiGoSketchp17SketchRT_sm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Okay, the above is something no one would ever see, but not because the Mi-Go are a secretive species on our plant, but because the exuvia, the shed skin, would disintegrate hours later just as the dead bodies of the Mi-Go do. Being not of our part of the universe, their matter breaks down soon after death. Also, while I made a weak attempt to make it look like a vintage photo, the matter of which Mi-Go are made cannot be photographed (at least by cameras in 1928, when the story takes place). I was just messing around with a silly idea, since I had such a childhood fascination with cicadas.</div>
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<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwcmyrVnIE4-HDzYhYp-e1-esNy2sxRzovv5k831ok0KVMnynxTOfjvjPLm3Pp3QPWXAbgBOLTKWCR7ff5e3sPjcrDFjFpjssecFNCee_plqRS_pc9GCFH0QCubyrkicRB4yDqbFOTZpWYr8pc7wkzXFGor1Im_wFSxh1cdKk_DWUabsL6glUf6oE2A/s1800/Mi-Go_Tibetan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1694" data-original-width="1800" height="602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguwcmyrVnIE4-HDzYhYp-e1-esNy2sxRzovv5k831ok0KVMnynxTOfjvjPLm3Pp3QPWXAbgBOLTKWCR7ff5e3sPjcrDFjFpjssecFNCee_plqRS_pc9GCFH0QCubyrkicRB4yDqbFOTZpWYr8pc7wkzXFGor1Im_wFSxh1cdKk_DWUabsL6glUf6oE2A/w640-h602/Mi-Go_Tibetan.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Himilayan Mi-Go, aka Yeti</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Abominable Snowmen and Other Species:</u> Henry Akeley tells Wilmarth that the Vermont species of Mi-Go are one of the few that still have wings. The word Mi-Go comes from the Tibetan <i>Migou</i>- "wild man"- another name for the Yeti or Abominable Snowmen. Supposedly the legends of the Yeti or Migou come from the sightings of the Himalayan species of Mi-Go. Having been on Earth for hundreds of millions of years, they've had plenty of time to evolve into separate species or, I suppose, to surgically or genetically alter themselves to better suit their environments.</div>
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I originally drew the Himalayan Mi-Go covered in long wispy fur, being inspired by the <a href="http://i.imgur.com/DfcF5WZ.jpg" target="_blank">Yeti crab (Kiwa hirsuta)</a> until I realized that 1) the Mi-Go are perfectly fine traversing the cold vastness of space, and 2) that the Yeti crab's fur isn't used for warmth, but possibly for chemosythesis, using the filamentous bacteria to detoxify the water around the deep sea hydrothermal vents where it lives.Still, I wanted there to be some sort of white fur. Enough to possibly have evoked the legends of the Yeti. I also wanted them to be wingless and a bit sturdier; built less lobster-like and more like a <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Birgus_latro.jpg" target="_blank">coconut crab (Birgus latro)</a>. </div>
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Well, that's all I have for now, I hope to have another post next week. Bye! Follow me on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kurt_komoda/" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/kurt_komoda/</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTx8wr74SC_DDr0-qXSJEeoIfIirSgtr0LYERYGrjttvBAJiCFGrm2niCVILOY8Qx6zDFJWpNXCaqykolJE92lRAcV-92yTGNWkmCGAAD1d9D6iIrSnhhbnoy-8_Lpm2nKIjJ_mfToFEo/s1600/MiGoSketchp12detailSM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTx8wr74SC_DDr0-qXSJEeoIfIirSgtr0LYERYGrjttvBAJiCFGrm2niCVILOY8Qx6zDFJWpNXCaqykolJE92lRAcV-92yTGNWkmCGAAD1d9D6iIrSnhhbnoy-8_Lpm2nKIjJ_mfToFEo/s640/MiGoSketchp12detailSM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaILbvpPCYi6EXittomrC-1TvySrCTMhh5ti4e8Oj46QzmkjzOsBW7Nz2K71FNUAUHIWEL8PGDTvJ-r86uNlfyUMt--Eat7G1Yvi5homNjKQU27eURMrBxxmylg0Re9Rs0cU08Hup05xG0wvomI0lXB5rKtJrZs-6cYRyd7hPamYl2Jk6r_dPTBNDY4Q/s3000/MiGo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="3000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaILbvpPCYi6EXittomrC-1TvySrCTMhh5ti4e8Oj46QzmkjzOsBW7Nz2K71FNUAUHIWEL8PGDTvJ-r86uNlfyUMt--Eat7G1Yvi5homNjKQU27eURMrBxxmylg0Re9Rs0cU08Hup05xG0wvomI0lXB5rKtJrZs-6cYRyd7hPamYl2Jk6r_dPTBNDY4Q/w640-h640/MiGo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mi-Go Tessellation from 2022.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07984975646939983338noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-13685599840399971412016-04-25T16:25:00.005-04:002022-08-23T01:13:45.851-04:00A New Look At The Old Ones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJcWG_ovGpkrIlq6TT1WGoi_ZPdcdBgSLJQFWfcLOnzX3pDiVjwDi2AkwvGQfVSy5EzP-ZC8fLT68O19kehnzChZVqXvxr3rEJiwl0wJrt0yu-RAJSo3FqO1PES46o_PqfQ4xBUSw3ic6E6simbEX5Lgf1mOFXFMS2uz06fX2wBfyIm80sOcIQ7CP6g/s864/Elder%20Thing%20panel%20reddit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Elder Thing tessellation" border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="864" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJcWG_ovGpkrIlq6TT1WGoi_ZPdcdBgSLJQFWfcLOnzX3pDiVjwDi2AkwvGQfVSy5EzP-ZC8fLT68O19kehnzChZVqXvxr3rEJiwl0wJrt0yu-RAJSo3FqO1PES46o_PqfQ4xBUSw3ic6E6simbEX5Lgf1mOFXFMS2uz06fX2wBfyIm80sOcIQ7CP6g/w640-h640/Elder%20Thing%20panel%20reddit.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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H.P. Lovecraft's monsters, whether they be immense gods from the deepest fathoms of primordial space or something scurrying within the walls, have filled, perhaps even cursed, our imaginations ever since his first works were published. Lovecraft had a gift for implanting clear images of his lumbering, skittering, gibbering, creeping, lurking, flapping horrors within the minds of his readers with just the vaguest of descriptions. I believe that he described the Byakhee by listing just what it <i>wasn't</i> entirely.</div>
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There <i>was</i>, however, one time where Lovecraft described one of his creatures in precise detail. I am, of course, referring to the Old Ones, also called the Elder Ones or Elder Things. In <i>At the Mountains of Madness</i>, Lovecraft describes the findings of the Miskatonic Expedition to Antarctica, in 1930-31, where are found the remains of the Old Ones and the great city they once inhabited some 600 million years ago. We have the benefit of reading the descriptions of the partially and fully intact specimens extracted from a limestone cave as reported by Lake, a biologist. What we get is an end-to-end verbal depiction, complete with measurements, an autopsy, and theories of function. Later observations are written to us by Dyer, a geologist and the narrator of the report.</div>
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Yet, I'm surprised that so many artists, given such a thorough brief, get so many things wrong. Now, I'm not saying that mine are anywhere near perfect- oh, hell no! Why, in the drawing above, the head is too big, the body too short, and the extended wing too small- but we'll get into the dimensions in just a bit. Across the board, every artist seems to miss that the Old One has <b>5 wings</b>, one in each furrow between the 5 ridges of its torso. The number of wings is mentioned more than once. It's really odd that it's overlooked.</div>
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The first specimen found was thought to be the preserved remains of possibly some sort of vegetable or perhaps a species of marine radiata. The specimen was heavily damaged, missing the bulbous necks on either end of the five-staved barrel-shaped torso (which, I guess looks pretty much like a <b>star fruit</b>, but not as sharp-edged), the head and legs, and the crinoid-like arms. The wings were mostly damaged, but still intact:</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzkFQooofp4iaLf8Gmovpkz5DbCqNhgCHTFBvsk5yMp4U0BBAWNsur12Xohi6DUHA_0lmkVFHOy3GZRD5nsFoCzjsCOYiSyatND8-G6EnngQpEjAONX4mcyVWqiCNekIa__eo30kVNheoSaVuAH9Gs96NiO6kI2Mulp0mgMgtpZ3ei36fhsrqstUWuw/s1000/star_fruit_new.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="star fruit" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzkFQooofp4iaLf8Gmovpkz5DbCqNhgCHTFBvsk5yMp4U0BBAWNsur12Xohi6DUHA_0lmkVFHOy3GZRD5nsFoCzjsCOYiSyatND8-G6EnngQpEjAONX4mcyVWqiCNekIa__eo30kVNheoSaVuAH9Gs96NiO6kI2Mulp0mgMgtpZ3ei36fhsrqstUWuw/w320-h320/star_fruit_new.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Star fruit</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2ZP0K076KdPk2nI5t3zZbsc2ixt-s6PNnijqis60J8dwCP_dBtD8QVvVsrTbqB2tUFGGDU2vd9hc7cTv6WGkn__ERzOmaTBn74j7Vylu2PJf8aPZsHMNoh54h75wH6DNKAK8IGSzsLKg/s1600/ElderOne_DamagedTorso.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img alt="Old One/Elder Thing corpse torso" border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2ZP0K076KdPk2nI5t3zZbsc2ixt-s6PNnijqis60J8dwCP_dBtD8QVvVsrTbqB2tUFGGDU2vd9hc7cTv6WGkn__ERzOmaTBn74j7Vylu2PJf8aPZsHMNoh54h75wH6DNKAK8IGSzsLKg/w640-h520/ElderOne_DamagedTorso.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The wing is too small, again- but I'll fix that later. Okay, let's get down to the dimensions. The drawing below represents the later, intact specimens and has every measurement mentioned in the text:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTnByYKoiadOoMQo8vgVfVmWVno8Awg0X3mabdyAa-x415F7KhjTJmBr2rUzHPBu7x_gEczPjsHe4SwslPVUp9z9ogh9XTK8NYHB7z5ND2Rmi3ShxSbbxQh0xRiUYxfJ53ND3RuPa2q4/s1600/ElderOneBigMeasure.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Elder Thing measurements by Kurt Komoda" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTnByYKoiadOoMQo8vgVfVmWVno8Awg0X3mabdyAa-x415F7KhjTJmBr2rUzHPBu7x_gEczPjsHe4SwslPVUp9z9ogh9XTK8NYHB7z5ND2Rmi3ShxSbbxQh0xRiUYxfJ53ND3RuPa2q4/w488-h640/ElderOneBigMeasure.jpg" width="488" /></a></div>
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The overall height is 8', with the dark grey torso measuring 6' end to end. At each end, a lighter grey bulbous neck, with the top one having gills, which are not described in any detail. Atop this, there is a puffy star-shaped head of yellowish hue, 2' point to point (which is odd, since a 5-pointed star doesn't really have directly opposing points) and covered with 3" of wiry prismatic cilia. At the end of each point, are 3" yellowish stalks that end with a bulbous protrusion that, when folded back, reveals a glassy, red-irised eyeball. Protruding from the inner points of the star-shaped head are reddish tubes that end in sac-like swellings that, when squeezed, open up into a bell shape with a 2" diameter and are filled with sharp white teeth. In the center of the head on the top is a slit-like mouth.</div>
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Around the equator of the 6' star fruit-like torso on the outer ridges of the 5 staves are the crinoid-like arms. They start with a 6" stalk, 3" in diameter, which then divides into 5 arms 8" long, which then each subdivide into 5 tentacles for a total arm length of 3'.</div>
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In the 5 furrows of the torso are folded the 5 dark-grey membranous wings, which open into fan-like structures with a total extended reach of 7'. The wings are supported tubular or glandular structures of a lighter grey color with minute orifices at the wing tips. The formation of these tubules is not described. More on all of this in a bit.</div>
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At the bottom, below the bulbous light-grey "neck" is a star-shaped structure, similar to the head, but of a greenish color and with muscular legs extending from the points: 4' long, 7" diameter at the base, tapering to 2.5"and terminating in a triangular five-veined webbed foot 8" long and 6" wide at the "toes." Protruding from the inner points of the greenish star are 2' reddish tubes, 2" diameter at the base and tapering to 1" at the end, used for excretion.</div>
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A total of 14 Old One bodies were found, with 6 badly damaged and 8 in pristine condition. These intact specimens were apparently in a sort of Old One rigor mortis, with the eyes and mouths folded tightly down and the legs and excretory tubes folded tightly up:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGdDpkWSQdUCtwPY7W7q_bvU8iDC45kyEzlBTN5eImhcugLWz7TycSDr-pVAXw8Ozr_xkoNjPNsWZcWUtzR4vx-jOM-l4R8q4HZO9SO_h_mDvHQNNs8V1k5CwssmIGpHfSuZXQsA2LGw/s1600/ElderOneFoldedRT.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Elder thing body folded up" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGdDpkWSQdUCtwPY7W7q_bvU8iDC45kyEzlBTN5eImhcugLWz7TycSDr-pVAXw8Ozr_xkoNjPNsWZcWUtzR4vx-jOM-l4R8q4HZO9SO_h_mDvHQNNs8V1k5CwssmIGpHfSuZXQsA2LGw/w390-h640/ElderOneFoldedRT.jpg" width="390" /></a></div>
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Now, let's take a closer look at the Old One's star-shaped head. I wasn't really sure how to depict the eyes, except that they were described as glassy red globes. They might have been pupil-less, but I always draw them with this small, black pupil- and I think mostly because I am so inspired by <a href="https://waynebarlowe.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/bgte-old-one-copy1.jpg" target="_blank">Wayne Barlowe's beautiful depiction</a> . Though, he paints it with only two wings visible and the arms of the wrong proportions, it's still my favorite because he's just such an incredible and inspiring artist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ykgFOrVv67nGs2ZGq3hPSuvmBclEWEx149q6R3BqP-C_ys7zeXMrgpsTgI5TctFDtgQl4bJ7dUFVqVkLoTsPmL_s6QNyUNL5kYiOup04f0n4Nm36NIAxskdkClH5QtiAvud4eEnVZERW2I-bTluRVLQB2ZcOJf7Q2YqH2KrPw63pJLqRoy9BW6KPgQ/s864/ElderOneEyes.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Elder thing eyes" border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="864" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ykgFOrVv67nGs2ZGq3hPSuvmBclEWEx149q6R3BqP-C_ys7zeXMrgpsTgI5TctFDtgQl4bJ7dUFVqVkLoTsPmL_s6QNyUNL5kYiOup04f0n4Nm36NIAxskdkClH5QtiAvud4eEnVZERW2I-bTluRVLQB2ZcOJf7Q2YqH2KrPw63pJLqRoy9BW6KPgQ/w640-h280/ElderOneEyes.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder thing eyes</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh44IkHo2Xv4fLmymTRMVl2RGuv7CXXXRB5ZMQUtWMB8iVtxjwtDnGp0usFE5YtS9xM2bzC31aEAGC5jYjEiIScefysRvh1Hg-l0g1ZCjzVdGfxWz4iFRf9-CJEkMKyj2XaQ74FS3CLsKEb6aSLVxcer3Ob9T8ELcm2xMHsNUF0ahQ3cV4YW7CGKIz1Ew/s3928/ElderOneHeadRT.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing head" border="0" data-original-height="3928" data-original-width="3091" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh44IkHo2Xv4fLmymTRMVl2RGuv7CXXXRB5ZMQUtWMB8iVtxjwtDnGp0usFE5YtS9xM2bzC31aEAGC5jYjEiIScefysRvh1Hg-l0g1ZCjzVdGfxWz4iFRf9-CJEkMKyj2XaQ74FS3CLsKEb6aSLVxcer3Ob9T8ELcm2xMHsNUF0ahQ3cV4YW7CGKIz1Ew/w504-h640/ElderOneHeadRT.jpg" width="504" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elder thing head with dimensions</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span style="text-align: justify;"> Up until the drawing of the Old One's head with the white gouache highlights, above, I always drew the prismatic wiry cilia only growing in patch in the center, surrounding the slit mouth, as in the un-highlighted drawing below it, but I'm not really sure why. Lovecraft describes it as covering the head. For this drawing, I figured that maybe the cilia would be dispersed in kind of the same way that some starfish are covered with short spines or prominent nodules.</span></div>
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I used to draw the 5 reddish, bell-shaped mouths on much shorter stalks, but after seeing Lovecraft's own sketch of the Old One, along with his notes, which appear to be scribbled on an unfolded envelope, I now draw them at about equal length and size to the eye stalks. Just to the right side of the head, in between an eyestalk and a mouth, he has a line pointing to the extended tube of the mouth and the notation "1 ft"- a measurement that does not appear in the story.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrrii4lDPMU_RpB-Af4Vx3dsx0jFXm2_14Ph4sQUJRNXLA4e66hScXoScliCj4wNEbdHGkTL5nz8-95R2yAMizs0QOsRyLg3jaipk8DC4PJ1YZPai-XYOQvtOvqseAkHIvZ9QCjXYDi8/s1600/MadnessPlotOutlineFinal.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrrii4lDPMU_RpB-Af4Vx3dsx0jFXm2_14Ph4sQUJRNXLA4e66hScXoScliCj4wNEbdHGkTL5nz8-95R2yAMizs0QOsRyLg3jaipk8DC4PJ1YZPai-XYOQvtOvqseAkHIvZ9QCjXYDi8/s400/MadnessPlotOutlineFinal.jpg.CROP.article920-large.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lovecraft's notes for At the Mountains of Madness</td></tr>
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Moving down to the neck we have the gills. Unfortunately, Lovecraft does not go into any description of these except by saying that there are "gill-like suggestions." I only assume that there are 5, or 5 sets of gills. Here, I've drawn a neck that's supposed to have 5 sets of 3 gills each, but there's really no basis for this choice. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo88OIFL94ibPciCGSLgdcRhEDoob0GKJR77tICnykfX_9vLfybYx9ViSTSKkf5B31wERMUgiEtdpFPQFR7B15WaWJb78UivK2kMpLUxj31_jF5XHDRMjFojrajj1DkeU7N2-EtWDd4mE/s1600/ElderOneGills.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Elder thing gills" border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo88OIFL94ibPciCGSLgdcRhEDoob0GKJR77tICnykfX_9vLfybYx9ViSTSKkf5B31wERMUgiEtdpFPQFR7B15WaWJb78UivK2kMpLUxj31_jF5XHDRMjFojrajj1DkeU7N2-EtWDd4mE/w640-h520/ElderOneGills.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Of the arms, Lovecraft wrote that they were crinoid-like, which means that they may actually be more feathery and delicate than those I have drawn here. I imagine that they are extremely strong and can manipulate objects with surgical precision. Most everyone gets the proportions wrong on the arms which, repeated, are that they have a 6" stem which branches into 5 8" segments, which then each branch into 5 1' 10" arms, for a total of 25 arms. 125 arms all around.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh21N2pkFt0sUkqEB8dTdpHWHbWZr5ZX93F8_yNJsPpVxRdVgnyczTg87nIjndH0PH0q6C_4q5IEgR6wxrEYkuAtd6J0ZMpfM_AfWwQRdY_hKmAlIMlC1xqrJitVgCCHa8E-xiVakZ5UmM/s1600/ElderOneArms.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="elder thing working rubik's cubes" border="0" height="570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh21N2pkFt0sUkqEB8dTdpHWHbWZr5ZX93F8_yNJsPpVxRdVgnyczTg87nIjndH0PH0q6C_4q5IEgR6wxrEYkuAtd6J0ZMpfM_AfWwQRdY_hKmAlIMlC1xqrJitVgCCHa8E-xiVakZ5UmM/w640-h570/ElderOneArms.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now, the wings. The wings are a problem. Lovecraft describes them as "<i>combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans</i>." He does not say where they are attached, but I've always drawn them attached around the middle of the 5-staved torso.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzkJT88wCDogqoW8jmUxoTtjDwrPhJAuYavZHIqRyFeeA89ugvjPnD5BY2BYkt9O5lcOTWEryTMbIgZW0b4EfegbRMgaM4g3XV7XK1neT9fbJ9lngnmb9s9TvB3yBWLd8idVZPGS5gdU/s1600/ElderOneWingRT.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Elder thing wing and reproduction" border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzkJT88wCDogqoW8jmUxoTtjDwrPhJAuYavZHIqRyFeeA89ugvjPnD5BY2BYkt9O5lcOTWEryTMbIgZW0b4EfegbRMgaM4g3XV7XK1neT9fbJ9lngnmb9s9TvB3yBWLd8idVZPGS5gdU/w640-h352/ElderOneWingRT.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5-veined wing design with spore cases along the serrated edge. Inset is a photo of cryptogam spore cases.</td></tr>
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I've also always drawn them with five tubular veins- but "combs" would suggest more than just 5. That, and in Lake's report, he does not say that there are 5 veins in the wings, yet he seems to make note of the number 5 in so many other features. It seems like if there were just 5, he would have said so. As I continue to draw them for this blog, I've been going from the 5-veined wing to a wing that looks more like the pectoral fins of a Sea Robin.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUybkJKkoypN8D4czxR4ia5cER2n3jvliCZFpxURmkxYxbIHdb6sv9Mb9wn9M0L9uw2_k9C7HsBfECEPDPT_r3SvZ_Noqlp85IhW1DZMyr8yIbhidXdnZsOqLTtVLVZv85wuX0jvMNTCM/s1600/4-Juvenile-Blue-Searobin-Prionotus-punctatus-.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUybkJKkoypN8D4czxR4ia5cER2n3jvliCZFpxURmkxYxbIHdb6sv9Mb9wn9M0L9uw2_k9C7HsBfECEPDPT_r3SvZ_Noqlp85IhW1DZMyr8yIbhidXdnZsOqLTtVLVZv85wuX0jvMNTCM/s400/4-Juvenile-Blue-Searobin-Prionotus-punctatus-.jpg" width="377" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Ned DeLoach, marinelifeblog.com </td></tr>
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No matter where on the torso they are attached, I also have a problem trying to figure out how they fold up. They can't just open and close like a paper fan and still have a 7' wing spread- <i>unless</i> they attach near the top of the torso, below the gilled bulbous neck and then extend down to where the lower bulbous neck ends (<i>see figure A, below</i>). </div>
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Lovecraft's drawing and notes (above) confuse me because the sides of the torso have this jagged edge, like a pinecone or something. I <i>think</i> those are the wings folded up. On the left side, there is an arrow which points out to the note: (circled) "<i>Fan-like expansible to 7 foot spread.</i>" And then: "<i>veined</i> ?????<i>-membraned comb-</i>????<i>. At tips- ends of veins are spore cases.</i>" So, those could be the serrated edges of the comb-like wings somehow sticking out of the furrows, but....I don't see how those would unfold....unless the tubular veins extend each time, but I doubt it.</div>
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The way I have it, the wings spread open like a paper fan, but then when closing, are bent back into the body, folding once so that they fit into the furrows in between the staves (<i>figure B, below</i>). This would still allow for the more comb-like appearance alluded to, with more glandular tubing (<i>figure C, below</i>).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi70eZkBxQn1dKKNj_H8WjQ1InasE4iQ43WkG8mt6DidWiszjKDzAwZ8uBftqyXNruAXM9ScL4m3PBt3jyIg9NoaZhckI8UlyH5npgvKhUR3lWt-bo8I0KyCaq-kPqb8YZOH7t5s4G88IM/s1600/elderOneWingSamples.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="elder thing wing variations" border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi70eZkBxQn1dKKNj_H8WjQ1InasE4iQ43WkG8mt6DidWiszjKDzAwZ8uBftqyXNruAXM9ScL4m3PBt3jyIg9NoaZhckI8UlyH5npgvKhUR3lWt-bo8I0KyCaq-kPqb8YZOH7t5s4G88IM/w640-h294/elderOneWingSamples.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I like the idea of the Old Ones flying, using all 5 wings, perhaps even alternating pairs or triplets of wings. I imagine that they can fly horizontally, but can also turn their wings 90 degrees for vertical flight. Millions of years ago, they lost their interstellar flight ability through a loss of some sort of technology or chemical formulae, but also through an evolutionary change in structure. Lake noted that they seemed most adapted to a marine environment.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-XRdvVF2EQO5ufG-2E6iNt7irwxhU0Fnlh61tji4c8wgIhGxyajXQA60PqALe76MssFwMeVdO_cbXxbLP6ykcyV7x3iRm1hXANci0b919A17efDpSmNTI9Nr_wsjbp-jomfLrCf-YSs/s1600/elderOneFly.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing flying with all 5 wings" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-XRdvVF2EQO5ufG-2E6iNt7irwxhU0Fnlh61tji4c8wgIhGxyajXQA60PqALe76MssFwMeVdO_cbXxbLP6ykcyV7x3iRm1hXANci0b919A17efDpSmNTI9Nr_wsjbp-jomfLrCf-YSs/w552-h640/elderOneFly.jpg" width="552" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old One in flight, using all 5 wings.</td></tr>
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The legs: "Tough, muscular arms four feet long and tapering from seven inches diameter at base to about two and five-tenths at point. To each point is attached small end of a greenish five-veined membranous triangle eight inches long and six wide at farther end." Well, right off the bat, Lake describes them as "arms." Probably more appropriate, since I imagine them being used as such when not being used for locomotion. I suppose that the triangular flippers could be as powerful and dextrous as a hand. I drew some quick illustrations to show how the Old Ones might use these appendages.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68NW4sctRZ4Jj_l3cP_Fs2WcjLBHcgmmff3Z30l8UrERcdLE88GqgsnGUaNntH54S8hzHP8wRG8He46JjtVzyOZFlux76Lggm2WzxupoAiHyS6UghEnR7Hgtb0izmuujQBaZddEhZw6k/s1600/OldOne_QuadrupedSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing running" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68NW4sctRZ4Jj_l3cP_Fs2WcjLBHcgmmff3Z30l8UrERcdLE88GqgsnGUaNntH54S8hzHP8wRG8He46JjtVzyOZFlux76Lggm2WzxupoAiHyS6UghEnR7Hgtb0izmuujQBaZddEhZw6k/w531-h640/OldOne_QuadrupedSM.jpg" width="531" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quadrupedal Gallop</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV1KGizhXR7Xw4jpX7vKiBwYKJahkq3uiB3v9E3qT_XNT0We5HW00CKepGpqDBIZaU4jRutEBXt_VpPL36hcfJx_s-s5KyTOoUvAegertKFgtxenyrx50j7gddH10nxxge_YNh1Lm9BLI/s1600/OldOne_Biped.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing standing tall" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV1KGizhXR7Xw4jpX7vKiBwYKJahkq3uiB3v9E3qT_XNT0We5HW00CKepGpqDBIZaU4jRutEBXt_VpPL36hcfJx_s-s5KyTOoUvAegertKFgtxenyrx50j7gddH10nxxge_YNh1Lm9BLI/w363-h640/OldOne_Biped.jpg" width="363" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Bipedal." By bringing pairs of legs together, the Old One could stand upright and imitate a biped, using the fifth leg as a tail. No, I don't know why this would ever happen.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6lchOpnvXO-02ITKR8aCbGdcwvrMYTPg0BBLU-uTwDe5pQonG3QiRNq6naEwBo5qeAtxdNIM3yCeLESHblB8CBBRXaJhXs9xKfQ9J3JfWgE9Ryv7wXe7GnSwpc66jS7oiaWznVlmOmw/s1600/OldOne_CrawlSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing crawling" border="0" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6lchOpnvXO-02ITKR8aCbGdcwvrMYTPg0BBLU-uTwDe5pQonG3QiRNq6naEwBo5qeAtxdNIM3yCeLESHblB8CBBRXaJhXs9xKfQ9J3JfWgE9Ryv7wXe7GnSwpc66jS7oiaWznVlmOmw/w640-h470/OldOne_CrawlSM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One One crawling with the help of its crinoid-like arms.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmflvlEn0m8nAe4J1EDUCpNNl7srB3PRZHbz7nP93bswBS4y_rL-_5QgsTShpquN9gZP5y-074mJAmsj3WScmUD16MMpvKJ2fKTplmTUHRsfnFKwoGJYVfw0LSV8r4J-ryTOYQ_EqPobE/s1600/OldOne_SpiderSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing walking with footprints" border="0" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmflvlEn0m8nAe4J1EDUCpNNl7srB3PRZHbz7nP93bswBS4y_rL-_5QgsTShpquN9gZP5y-074mJAmsj3WScmUD16MMpvKJ2fKTplmTUHRsfnFKwoGJYVfw0LSV8r4J-ryTOYQ_EqPobE/w640-h536/OldOne_SpiderSM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"5-Legged Spider Walk." Probably the main method of getting around on land.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOd5BbgM9aa9ALe8u1MUpKQcm2PBWNWFCASELvSJ227rubwPp-9Y4wvlUOZ1rxnLZPRRN_rM7YYxq9FtCpdHwAyM8hMMZH8ik576HGdi_eyQnIGGd2VZvMhwPWGuBhSHSsLvlyXdeOPM/s1600/OldOne_ClimbingSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing climbing" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOd5BbgM9aa9ALe8u1MUpKQcm2PBWNWFCASELvSJ227rubwPp-9Y4wvlUOZ1rxnLZPRRN_rM7YYxq9FtCpdHwAyM8hMMZH8ik576HGdi_eyQnIGGd2VZvMhwPWGuBhSHSsLvlyXdeOPM/w344-h640/OldOne_ClimbingSM.jpg" width="344" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old One climbing.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhastBgeE_9WHIYdP1TKhBe43RY3mbg6ZUo1pWAPB0DPa2kc_L3dUcnKymDR2SowUYqdtlbNqgiErpNKXjVid247xHAGhReXAoxwBgwr3piVdn5pi66j2oWKhnZ-0y9wDqFH88gs96fEMQ/s1600/OldOne_AllOutRunSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing sprinting" border="0" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhastBgeE_9WHIYdP1TKhBe43RY3mbg6ZUo1pWAPB0DPa2kc_L3dUcnKymDR2SowUYqdtlbNqgiErpNKXjVid247xHAGhReXAoxwBgwr3piVdn5pi66j2oWKhnZ-0y9wDqFH88gs96fEMQ/w640-h378/OldOne_AllOutRunSM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All out run, using all five legs and occasionally one or more pairs of wings.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE_VnAvjLUXjYtL4Dx9GFx97TCwp2KQYZTcBy1XyYWyd0jtxCzIcMe5VA9suqaWzYaxLxXFdTb8e23cTU4G4ConOyHWSQub8kp52VzJC6VCNMBSvzVOwCda7E6dVVQvb1QmMOz7x1A0Ik/s1600/OldOne_SwimSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing swimming" border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE_VnAvjLUXjYtL4Dx9GFx97TCwp2KQYZTcBy1XyYWyd0jtxCzIcMe5VA9suqaWzYaxLxXFdTb8e23cTU4G4ConOyHWSQub8kp52VzJC6VCNMBSvzVOwCda7E6dVVQvb1QmMOz7x1A0Ik/w640-h236/OldOne_SwimSM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inspired by cephalopod movement, here we see an Old One using all five of its wings, as well as its legs and arms, to propel itself quickly through the water.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGrurShJCJ37g-sdk-gJIi2tCKvYLHUlNWe8yOZey2C5ESrM2pCARRve0wv1WO_dn80ObAy7X8kTRofK8M6RMco6MgMoiiXnoCbD8HCBUWZhsi-2-S3CnFy1SdoFOHQxMMk7h5VzlOB0/s1600/OldOne_SwimmingBottomSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing swimming" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGrurShJCJ37g-sdk-gJIi2tCKvYLHUlNWe8yOZey2C5ESrM2pCARRve0wv1WO_dn80ObAy7X8kTRofK8M6RMco6MgMoiiXnoCbD8HCBUWZhsi-2-S3CnFy1SdoFOHQxMMk7h5VzlOB0/w618-h640/OldOne_SwimmingBottomSM.jpg" width="618" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Old One under water, skimming along the sea floor, using the legs as flippers and one pair of undulating wings, like a ray or skate. </td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"> In the story, the Old Ones are found to have dug vertical pits, in which they buried their dead, covering them with a 5-pointed star-shaped mound. Now, I first thought that maybe they had dug these graves by using their legs and just burrowing down. Problem is, this was in Antarctica, and they'd surely be digging through 8 or 9 feet of permafrost. Perhaps, the five veins of the triangular feet could be pinched together to form a sharp tool and then expanded and used like a spade or shovel. In conjunction with the crinoid arms, which could also be clustered together to form various tool-like shapes, these could be used to carry soil up and out as they burrow down. More simply, they could have used the tools of the expedition team. After waking up, the surviving Old Ones appeared to have made use of a gasoline stove, which they later took with them, and Lake's anatomical instruments to dissect one man and one dog on the same table where he had performed dissections on what he thought were cadavers. So, the Old Ones had quickly learned to make use of human tools and devices, as well as apparently leafing through many of the illustrated texts available.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VEiBeYUSEUnfFA0xNxv06ZjciGs35BKl181uwZnVEk8AJNAB5WJwS7AMHC4hnH2vV62S_j7D1-d6OwizCwwSAuPRhNiUAaSLbSJHjE1FvSNK_F4VLGc3bJDoHu_UcdQ5Uz9n0E30kH4/s1600/OldOne_autopsyHL_RT.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="elder thing dissecting a human" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VEiBeYUSEUnfFA0xNxv06ZjciGs35BKl181uwZnVEk8AJNAB5WJwS7AMHC4hnH2vV62S_j7D1-d6OwizCwwSAuPRhNiUAaSLbSJHjE1FvSNK_F4VLGc3bJDoHu_UcdQ5Uz9n0E30kH4/w502-h640/OldOne_autopsyHL_RT.jpg" width="502" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Old One dissecting a human.</td></tr>
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All of this is just a creative exercise and an excuse to draw a monster that I got a little carried away with. It was supposed to be this one day thing, with just a few drawings, but then I kept seeing gaps. I still see gaps (didn't get into the mouths or five anuses, which seem strangely and humorously excessive), but I have to put a lid on it. I'm already in over my head and I've probably gotten a dozen things wrong. I've been neglecting this blog for some time, so I intend to return to it soon with another creative exploration of some other beasty.<br />
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BYE! - Kurt Komoda<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMvzyfBuEHWLGYRHsE3SgHTg-XDVY_vddmw5ptErEVhJ6sPkMjRGWdoVmhdYSQujNrZekpHKbaFejAJ7SQaEZutPx2dJc791q7_xn0UZvBNI1iQaR-c4p0s8FKzdgYPh4CyLdhPAvHQM/s1600/ElderOneColorRT.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMvzyfBuEHWLGYRHsE3SgHTg-XDVY_vddmw5ptErEVhJ6sPkMjRGWdoVmhdYSQujNrZekpHKbaFejAJ7SQaEZutPx2dJc791q7_xn0UZvBNI1iQaR-c4p0s8FKzdgYPh4CyLdhPAvHQM/s640/ElderOneColorRT.jpg" width="552" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A drawing of an Old One with incorrect proportions. Maybe it's a juvenile Old One (a Young Old).</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqaesscjtCuqYsxM8ZvXXwK1uShK_qyg9nzeD83gtni09anf3LLDpczQZ7ZCzaHbEWvuQNO-SOoGqsYFM3kCA4ob_R6Awyg3-DC3OWvmFAmOJ-zDhFHyTBsict2x2xek_2pSSJbfLYt_Q/s1600/busyElderOneFloorSM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="an industrious elder thing" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqaesscjtCuqYsxM8ZvXXwK1uShK_qyg9nzeD83gtni09anf3LLDpczQZ7ZCzaHbEWvuQNO-SOoGqsYFM3kCA4ob_R6Awyg3-DC3OWvmFAmOJ-zDhFHyTBsict2x2xek_2pSSJbfLYt_Q/w596-h640/busyElderOneFloorSM.jpg" width="596" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">An older drawing, from 2012, of a rather industrious Old One. With their advanced 5-lobed brains, I figure that they can multi-task pretty well.</span></td></tr>
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Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-90031086309494392552014-03-14T08:08:00.002-04:002022-07-28T00:10:54.824-04:00Demonic Tarot Cards From Fire City<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIk7HsO_0pJ1wzZd9uAAA10XQX4XWenuYjv09R_XchzsQ2MjZky2tjsCgL8JxLrF-0CWnrI4HA3NK5_VX4OCQwqxKiarcVM4ALIKu3ac79dSmNXLL22tLcS85HKEZTImNI6DcWyqT_QvMf/s1600/Catalyst_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIk7HsO_0pJ1wzZd9uAAA10XQX4XWenuYjv09R_XchzsQ2MjZky2tjsCgL8JxLrF-0CWnrI4HA3NK5_VX4OCQwqxKiarcVM4ALIKu3ac79dSmNXLL22tLcS85HKEZTImNI6DcWyqT_QvMf/s1600/Catalyst_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Catalyst</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl40KG-9yH9ixZoFSrSZx7L2bK-NMdF3qf6yE8ww251YkbHWPE0BDD7QNxOdcGaqQsBQY6h1_zAdtEFa56zF5qgZXWxBzNQIxo8HD5q_Rhf47ps0iMp3HHiHKF7q8t2hrkZf6yaKNWf4A6/s1600/KoM_02_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl40KG-9yH9ixZoFSrSZx7L2bK-NMdF3qf6yE8ww251YkbHWPE0BDD7QNxOdcGaqQsBQY6h1_zAdtEFa56zF5qgZXWxBzNQIxo8HD5q_Rhf47ps0iMp3HHiHKF7q8t2hrkZf6yaKNWf4A6/s1600/KoM_02_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The King of Miseries</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Qtyx4Tsg69IsD8XacGmbUxq7ijS8TeC_lvysJRTQ5KgbEindc47ilbw-gVSwoqod5m8w14Qu4zw2lnVfWwrofNwE1Zmt_oVrY14oXwAfP9igPTOFPyz-E2nsyE4hjhna_3yPy_bsDZlk/s1600/NineOfKn_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Qtyx4Tsg69IsD8XacGmbUxq7ijS8TeC_lvysJRTQ5KgbEindc47ilbw-gVSwoqod5m8w14Qu4zw2lnVfWwrofNwE1Zmt_oVrY14oXwAfP9igPTOFPyz-E2nsyE4hjhna_3yPy_bsDZlk/s1600/NineOfKn_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 9 of Knives</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JB-Z1jvc8CBG_HdloxXdx5aAeMJ9Uxmub_AC0tHqn06evuupNiQezqRWmyPbzLTLkMA4REvBY0nQ9FgtZ_Q5rkFO3an0H09WoUeKmY1p_8q7Ra204cqUBeWlsKK-RoANjY7suAV8fJjv/s1600/PoS01_rev01_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JB-Z1jvc8CBG_HdloxXdx5aAeMJ9Uxmub_AC0tHqn06evuupNiQezqRWmyPbzLTLkMA4REvBY0nQ9FgtZ_Q5rkFO3an0H09WoUeKmY1p_8q7Ra204cqUBeWlsKK-RoANjY7suAV8fJjv/s1600/PoS01_rev01_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Princess of Stones- this is a toned down version. The original was a bit more graphic and she was a bit more exposed.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi09tJ6qPO_EQmO-2UVwx4Xj7G-plBwHmP8xIJj8R1q4mIhp4PZzG8oFBXwjdTRgWXU_7jAcbp2yCApHz6PtoqbPqgK3CcAE6fK1dXhIJsc0CySLp-U1kcQapq-6mtlw-mCgBfY0Vfml3kE/s1600/ScrOB01_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi09tJ6qPO_EQmO-2UVwx4Xj7G-plBwHmP8xIJj8R1q4mIhp4PZzG8oFBXwjdTRgWXU_7jAcbp2yCApHz6PtoqbPqgK3CcAE6fK1dXhIJsc0CySLp-U1kcQapq-6mtlw-mCgBfY0Vfml3kE/s1600/ScrOB01_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Scribe of Blood</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6nGN7l_aYy3G-_buloQ5x69HCeHBqM7I6lFcmKRIe9SAeGQKEhlgMDUWPoJZuwB0tw0Y98qpt69vjWcULYNnhkRYK8arWh-vTVNjNAUSOFEsH-DxMbOl6W5qsB9T3psuYdzu-Uibl6vzQTWkqW5uBC9VmLDFkrtWqdgL_DmHwHa3iiYgVuKXM8c-CWA/s936/2ofKn_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="570" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6nGN7l_aYy3G-_buloQ5x69HCeHBqM7I6lFcmKRIe9SAeGQKEhlgMDUWPoJZuwB0tw0Y98qpt69vjWcULYNnhkRYK8arWh-vTVNjNAUSOFEsH-DxMbOl6W5qsB9T3psuYdzu-Uibl6vzQTWkqW5uBC9VmLDFkrtWqdgL_DmHwHa3iiYgVuKXM8c-CWA/w390-h640/2ofKn_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Two of Knives</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvfpevaQTwBNJKgo0MoZDb5h5STQejP_u0M4D227CiUnrMK57pQWlLVx2sMtgnpEyuZ9N92Fbr-HEUYzTS7biFQQTajj0BghqnxucUYDyQMulprLE4Iv1hxL5Oy-mMv934wiT03FzyYXnf/s1600/Time_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvfpevaQTwBNJKgo0MoZDb5h5STQejP_u0M4D227CiUnrMK57pQWlLVx2sMtgnpEyuZ9N92Fbr-HEUYzTS7biFQQTajj0BghqnxucUYDyQMulprLE4Iv1hxL5Oy-mMv934wiT03FzyYXnf/s1600/Time_RESIZE_Fsm.jpg" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> These were commissioned for the film short, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2973032/" target="_blank">Fire City: King of Miseries</a>, directed by Tom Woodruff Jr. Written by Brian Lubocki and Michael Hayes, Fire City postulates that we live among demons who feed off of our suffering. The entire world we see is shrouded in an illusion of normalcy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> They're currently working on their feature length film, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3383214/" target="_blank">Fire City: The Interpreter of Signs</a>, for which I was commissioned to draw an additional three cards. I can't show you those yet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br />Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-86250202557318974082014-03-14T07:26:00.002-04:002022-07-28T02:22:43.640-04:00Flower Girl in Felt Tip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjWiE81-tabNBqt6NYP5eH-1wzRiS3ULYrNopR3LK_QqtGhhaO1jwJJIh3Ny_BHw8QziePB7VndRjXdI0SPzl4L67mHtFnZ3PDEnHjiR5WxA-Sr7cUE15YrSwQaq6zpSCUNTnnb4ctjqC/s1600/FlowerGirlInkSM.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjWiE81-tabNBqt6NYP5eH-1wzRiS3ULYrNopR3LK_QqtGhhaO1jwJJIh3Ny_BHw8QziePB7VndRjXdI0SPzl4L67mHtFnZ3PDEnHjiR5WxA-Sr7cUE15YrSwQaq6zpSCUNTnnb4ctjqC/s1600/FlowerGirlInkSM.jpg" width="528" /></a></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> I grew up drawing with felt tip pens. It was just what my parents gave us as kids. I still love drawing with a felt tip. Pilot used to make a felt tip with a full conical nib, which gave you a lot of versatility in line width. They don't make them anymore, and I haven't found anything like them since. Someone suggested the Pigma Graphic series of pens. The Microns are nice, because they give a consistent line and are permanent, but they have a dry, hard feel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Anyway, I want to do a bunch of doodles with a felt tip. Permanent, water-proof ink would be nice, but for now, I'll stick to my Flair M.</div>Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-50954198094494064022012-05-10T17:45:00.000-04:002016-04-27T15:43:05.999-04:00I went to Sandy Hook the other day and found something horrible. I made a movie of it! Here it is:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jr5mJgDg-Y4" width="560"></iframe></div>
Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-33120287935119155262011-09-08T17:08:00.001-04:002022-07-28T02:40:38.713-04:00Re-Drawing Childhood DrawingsI had a better imagination when I was a child. It wasn't limited by my adult need to argue and crunch everything into the confines of plausibility. A monster consisting of a giant mouth the size of its body becomes the internal discussion: "Where is it's stomach? How does the jaw work? How does something with teeth so massive even close its mouth?" And so on. <br />
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I find that I can't even sit down and draw a monster, because I find myself going, "What is this for? A story? A movie? How does it work? Where did it come from?," and to a certain extent, such questioning is good. It's nice to have some secret lore, some depth to the characters you're creating, even if they'll never be drawn again. My mind, however, has just been overly critical, and not in a constructive manner. I'm not producing stories or even neat characters that are the part of some untold story. I'm getting stuck before the pen or pencil can even begin to flesh out something new. <br />
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A few years back, I tried looking at my old childhood drawings, done back in 1973 or 74, when I was 3 or 4, to see if I could recapture some of that youthful creativity. Did I succeed? Ehhhh....nope.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyYFRWAydWkaUHxscALETS3Vb6FPh1CIUeWZ2zssoSVZnIRjG3SXSkSOnO1ec74ChWvti6UQ8g9G5dk_fr1FamDLdLQVmkktGGGawazTIg-KOLeSOnLBdlGEKoOExh6hsGV0uphRCz5gVqWRRJWgrim-4OvAhHrWD7kMhwmjeC37PLZ2T_bI8rS9Jc/s2388/monsterflamebrain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Flame Brain, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="1544" data-original-width="2388" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyYFRWAydWkaUHxscALETS3Vb6FPh1CIUeWZ2zssoSVZnIRjG3SXSkSOnO1ec74ChWvti6UQ8g9G5dk_fr1FamDLdLQVmkktGGGawazTIg-KOLeSOnLBdlGEKoOExh6hsGV0uphRCz5gVqWRRJWgrim-4OvAhHrWD7kMhwmjeC37PLZ2T_bI8rS9Jc/w640-h414/monsterflamebrain.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b><u>Flame Brain!</u></b> I'm not even sure I drew it correctly. Are those flames on its head....or horns? The "brain" part likely comes from seeing a photo of the Mutant character from <i>This Island Earth</i>. I should try painting a version that makes him look giant, maybe even in the ocean, attacking the ship, like in the original.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHBIA1Np0MJ34Mx3ZD7j6veOAqOknmtLWkebWhBYb0CyYuT3EB4d16obx2pjvoeMyjdFCn4hfNz8d5O5jYL9n2rKmLGm46wMAQPxOh19fiIGdLOVpSH9mEk-xtQjWS0kMOiUcahC8-F9ovfy6TTRaCAdTw-EWT8dFnxnVAKnqXgk-lHxzeTp2rhL1/s2055/monsterblackbeak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Black Beak, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="1332" data-original-width="2055" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHBIA1Np0MJ34Mx3ZD7j6veOAqOknmtLWkebWhBYb0CyYuT3EB4d16obx2pjvoeMyjdFCn4hfNz8d5O5jYL9n2rKmLGm46wMAQPxOh19fiIGdLOVpSH9mEk-xtQjWS0kMOiUcahC8-F9ovfy6TTRaCAdTw-EWT8dFnxnVAKnqXgk-lHxzeTp2rhL1/w640-h414/monsterblackbeak.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><b>Black Beak!</b></u> I'm not sure why I made him black in the new version. I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that the chest design was inspired by the Ultraman monster <a href="http://webzoom.freewebs.com/godzilla_2000/gango.jpg">Gyango, or Gango</a>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhScybHqWWV2TP002xab_P6XSKbagaNaA44SsNafZ9dbbTaV0xspIOOtlOQH7h_EptKKvRj1df7LK2xgnKV8N0XyWmtMFNq5RnsCxG_QkY0CFrhZDlVfEzVsxZc1YvoNm-iZFjayHS2Cpi3P1H12yCcQ2eV8H1oEdbggBA-AhkWt7cmlGUtTTl92z-c/s1926/monsterredface.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Puffy Red Face Monster, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="1568" data-original-width="1926" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhScybHqWWV2TP002xab_P6XSKbagaNaA44SsNafZ9dbbTaV0xspIOOtlOQH7h_EptKKvRj1df7LK2xgnKV8N0XyWmtMFNq5RnsCxG_QkY0CFrhZDlVfEzVsxZc1YvoNm-iZFjayHS2Cpi3P1H12yCcQ2eV8H1oEdbggBA-AhkWt7cmlGUtTTl92z-c/w640-h522/monsterredface.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHhu5Vl37eEqkHE7rESQFlcMsP2syKHoZ-WuQRUlg7svcp1_hjWfk-e8u0kP99OqEjLSmVN17Uz19IQ6u3K8l7k__VV1HX6Pd9ji30RfS2d5-RT8Wc6XeBefzICqv1D6lBhVrYv0C_xpVr1CanmNjdKyD--51RDQdXGok8wKkZr7SIuzDpficBGFsZ/s750/puffyredjsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Puffy Red Face Monster, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="550" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHhu5Vl37eEqkHE7rESQFlcMsP2syKHoZ-WuQRUlg7svcp1_hjWfk-e8u0kP99OqEjLSmVN17Uz19IQ6u3K8l7k__VV1HX6Pd9ji30RfS2d5-RT8Wc6XeBefzICqv1D6lBhVrYv0C_xpVr1CanmNjdKyD--51RDQdXGok8wKkZr7SIuzDpficBGFsZ/w470-h640/puffyredjsm.jpg" width="470" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u><b>Puffy Red Face!</b></u> Not much to go off of in the original drawing. Pretty sure he has a train car in his mouth, a la Godzilla. The full color Photoshop drawing was done in a rush, but I think it's cute. It shows absolutely no sense of scale, though. May as well be 5' tall.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Recently, I went back in and tried a couple more re-draws:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ9N9d_h51ffpCsd-UHKpWI4gpIS_9c9r3UzpWxracLUVCFegyi1shDcOox9SeKyiALOr5LQYpnhY-I6KKqPEJGdFOKNEP7uH6tU0JK1aIYjl8BAw2t7Fe12mrYkuBxYrL64ArzBCvmOWVU3nqhouwqq_XYxGHZdIbWiggEoUPVqHMhXLg_fvrq0p5/s2655/monsters2_09%20combo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Headless nightmare monster, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="2655" data-original-width="2655" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ9N9d_h51ffpCsd-UHKpWI4gpIS_9c9r3UzpWxracLUVCFegyi1shDcOox9SeKyiALOr5LQYpnhY-I6KKqPEJGdFOKNEP7uH6tU0JK1aIYjl8BAw2t7Fe12mrYkuBxYrL64ArzBCvmOWVU3nqhouwqq_XYxGHZdIbWiggEoUPVqHMhXLg_fvrq0p5/w640-h640/monsters2_09%20combo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><u style="text-align: left;"><b>Nightmare Monster:</b></u><span style="text-align: left;"> This headless- or faceless- creature appeared in a nightmare back in 1974. It appeared for only a second. I was standing in my doorway, looking out into the lit hall when it just flashed into existence. I woke up right away. So, I drew it the size of Godzilla, but it was actually about my size at the time, since I remember seeing it straight on. I drew it all wrong in the original- it was much more squat, like an H.P. Lovecraft moon beast- but I've re-drawn it here to match it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhr18detq77vVLfDoDf2qTyDPKGoKRaDs6ve7ouhUlg1AvfgRNstcT9kRZX4Qq82x9p_ABS4CTp-wh4u04Rf1lCqHcRSADOAqQ9K0QGebtEi5v0l9O30nhBJgkvo5LyF7CE_4srf_u8MID1Y27b_pQN0-Z7ck-POOp6Cg9Dx4tCgnzDoPkqIIVkPj/s1740/nightmareMonster2Page1974IG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Headless nightmare monster, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="1740" data-original-width="1740" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhr18detq77vVLfDoDf2qTyDPKGoKRaDs6ve7ouhUlg1AvfgRNstcT9kRZX4Qq82x9p_ABS4CTp-wh4u04Rf1lCqHcRSADOAqQ9K0QGebtEi5v0l9O30nhBJgkvo5LyF7CE_4srf_u8MID1Y27b_pQN0-Z7ck-POOp6Cg9Dx4tCgnzDoPkqIIVkPj/w640-h640/nightmareMonster2Page1974IG.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The drawing on the left, above, is more like it was in the dream. It didn't move at all. It's skin was green, and the "cut off" area was red- but not from blood. The puffy, ringed look comes from these monsters from a Japanese series called <i>Red Baron</i>. They were these plant-like monsters that had hands that looked like the cut-off head, here. The fat T-Rex version on the right....well, I don't know where I was going with that.. Above it, cropped off, is a dream I had recently about my brother, Paul, but that's another story.</div><div style="text-align: left;">My nephew, 5 and a half years old, inspired by my brother, Paul, has been drawing monsters. Here, though, is one he drew after seeing my drawings of the yokai <i>Dodomeki and Hyakume</i>:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNsniYwUolsTPcVmKxNcTnYC_zmdhHEPAzFcZcJN_M5ro2v7Ucm4V-ryk3B26uS-ks-jEMMLu2VB8wILDDV-a-_a-zqOGYnqPGHwPwMr3Q3Oy2XguGBPqLYImU3I2QqkwNzERuimsJom-mM4dKqy3IW3WfdbelpNx6eAa0AqED8J0rCDRs53pzFTJ/s2688/dodomekiArm1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Arm of a Dodomeki, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="2688" data-original-width="1916" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNsniYwUolsTPcVmKxNcTnYC_zmdhHEPAzFcZcJN_M5ro2v7Ucm4V-ryk3B26uS-ks-jEMMLu2VB8wILDDV-a-_a-zqOGYnqPGHwPwMr3Q3Oy2XguGBPqLYImU3I2QqkwNzERuimsJom-mM4dKqy3IW3WfdbelpNx6eAa0AqED8J0rCDRs53pzFTJ/w456-h640/dodomekiArm1.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzWq1leww8reQdtwreT1kUkZqqBiA-wBQPtOaq67vSMhwHdhb86gyo6hEd4gp6Wn5YbJwZb-67xpI80H-GDvcloN8cGNVwGIDkTt7nbXOeRlDGj2We2jTFXuCY2hCuwJK0oD-I6Ocbb2DWnKFLFh5JxejEY9AuVGybeqBPpwqmhfog-OEbhcYyRp3A/s2860/dodomeki01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hyakume , by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="2860" data-original-width="2272" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzWq1leww8reQdtwreT1kUkZqqBiA-wBQPtOaq67vSMhwHdhb86gyo6hEd4gp6Wn5YbJwZb-67xpI80H-GDvcloN8cGNVwGIDkTt7nbXOeRlDGj2We2jTFXuCY2hCuwJK0oD-I6Ocbb2DWnKFLFh5JxejEY9AuVGybeqBPpwqmhfog-OEbhcYyRp3A/w508-h640/dodomeki01.jpg" width="508" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And here is his version:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqhiId_zUL6c9YJjPcccNQBW0r_8OeUEWpBpTVLeK_9MceraROONvZ9FyFvMrwQfVsvllbzHq_nFpc7SkanIRerMyl4zxwusGlc9lL4bZU9jexnMjx_eD6goHZnjbEJTy6-rP1CLXuJaX/s1600/IMG_3637.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Dodomeki/Hyakume by Gavin Komoda, 2011" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqhiId_zUL6c9YJjPcccNQBW0r_8OeUEWpBpTVLeK_9MceraROONvZ9FyFvMrwQfVsvllbzHq_nFpc7SkanIRerMyl4zxwusGlc9lL4bZU9jexnMjx_eD6goHZnjbEJTy6-rP1CLXuJaX/w483-h640/IMG_3637.jpg" width="483" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> So, that was a child's interpretation of my interpretation of a Japanese Yokai. Naturally, I had to do MY interpretation of the interpretation of my original interpretation:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJRAkGAMa4AQRxB149JxKHV7xR6PYXj9Ov134ejiNF5d3QOAdOI_-ZVGRZiAf8pUfEJJ1kEY5wDQNdhlb3Q2ABodFVUFFbvlBHES6nzVWkX4eu1m5Z5Sf40twqglB9xifkYiPcKFk-1N5/s1600/EyeMonster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="My version of Gavin's Dodomeki/Hyakume, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJRAkGAMa4AQRxB149JxKHV7xR6PYXj9Ov134ejiNF5d3QOAdOI_-ZVGRZiAf8pUfEJJ1kEY5wDQNdhlb3Q2ABodFVUFFbvlBHES6nzVWkX4eu1m5Z5Sf40twqglB9xifkYiPcKFk-1N5/w467-h640/EyeMonster.jpg" width="467" /></a><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It kind of has the body of a horned toad. The way I drew it, this is a top view, and it lies on it's belly, like a horned toad. Upon reconsideration, I doubt that that was what my nephew intended.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Finally, we have <i>Gearis</i>. An original creation by my nephew- and my version, based on his drawing: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndNbEYq8BEbUyLR-ED8aGDhuuEzAwHdQ2eMwy43vGW1faaEDF0ZbsRX9mO6XgWR54HWcTb21Le88uM3UDWKgT1qr-7t_y4jw8SOTWe_OxXETJii2nryISCv7bVxahc4R1af6T7GuZrufjYNUH4ZuqTrGlgHimjw5ms0bLi9bMU_jeXYZW6nxZiMUy/s4871/20110625_GearisCombo%20blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3402" data-original-width="4871" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndNbEYq8BEbUyLR-ED8aGDhuuEzAwHdQ2eMwy43vGW1faaEDF0ZbsRX9mO6XgWR54HWcTb21Le88uM3UDWKgT1qr-7t_y4jw8SOTWe_OxXETJii2nryISCv7bVxahc4R1af6T7GuZrufjYNUH4ZuqTrGlgHimjw5ms0bLi9bMU_jeXYZW6nxZiMUy/w640-h446/20110625_GearisCombo%20blog.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">I think I should have drawn the legs to be more like his. A friend saw this and, from the thumbnail, thought that Gearis was holding a saxophone in one hand.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
I intend to re-draw more of my childhood drawings, but I really hope I can get out of this damned slump and start producing some work of my own for something good.</div></div></div>Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-7187990628251638492011-06-02T15:18:00.000-04:002011-06-11T23:27:57.476-04:00Freelance Art and Macro Madness! May is over. That's sad. My birthday was last month. I'm 42, now. That's sad, too. All things considered, though, I'm feeling good. I enjoy doing work for the RPG community- and they're good at recommending me to eachother. The subject matter has consistently been within my interests, and I get to experiment with a variety of styles. I've done work for <a href="http://www.burningwheel.org/">Burning Wheel</a>, <a href="http://galileogames.com/how-we-came-to-live-here/">How We Came to Live Here</a>, <a href="http://galileogames.com/bulldogs-fate/">Bulldogs</a>, and now I've just finished a bunch of illustrations for <a href="http://www.herogames.com/productsStarHero.htm">Star Hero</a>. Here are a few examples:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5778474475_7a086af7ce_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5778474475_7a086af7ce_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> The mechanic, above, didn't turn out as whimsical or gawky as I had originally envisioned, but the quick painting technique seemed to work out alright. I knew I wasn't going to do the entire job in this style, but I felt like playing around.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2751/5779018580_95d54b0d6a_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2751/5779018580_95d54b0d6a_b.jpg" width="249" /></a></div> A character depiction, based heavily on a Komodo Dragon. I decided to follow the more colorful specimens, to add some more distinctiveness.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2783/5791098224_f3ce8d8233_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2783/5791098224_f3ce8d8233_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> This came out pretty much exactly as I had first envisioned it when reading the brief, except that I think I overdid the colors. Maybe I just don't like the day-glo looking palette. I guess I could easily fix this in photoshop, since everything is on layers. I find that I really enjoy drawing plantlife.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3107/5791219824_1f359ba8b3_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3107/5791219824_1f359ba8b3_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Some whimsical spaceship designs. I haven't drawn spaceships since I was a kid, so this was interesting. The client chose the middle ship on the left for an ion storm illustration. When sketching it, I wanted it to be reminiscent of a skull and bones. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> Okay, the other thing I've been doing- and this has been my main drive for the past month- is macro photography. I picked up a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for my Canon 40D, and have been having a ball with it, despite the lack of good specimens at this time of year in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2120/5702622778_7ce966c48d_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2120/5702622778_7ce966c48d_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> I couldn't believe just how close I was able to get to my subjects right out of the box. Above is the head of a carpenter ant. Here, I was using my 580 EXII flash with a diffuser attachment. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2796/5778971228_8144c9d583_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2796/5778971228_8144c9d583_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> At the request of my brother, I went on a special mission just to find good centipede specimens. This first one, 14 segments long(adults are 15), was very small, but did me the favor of hanging out in the open. Something it's larger, redder brothers and sisters wouldn't do. here, I am using a Ray Flash ring flash adaptor- not the expensive LED types, but an imitation that uses mirrors and gets very, very good results. I highly recommend it!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5026/5778446695_eef0ecc6a0_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5026/5778446695_eef0ecc6a0_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> This is an adult garden centipede- very fast mover. I just had to grab it by its hind legs and drop it into a glass ashtray with smooth sides. The smooth sides worked on insects, but this guy just ran round and round until it built up enough speed to literally leap over the edge of the ashtray. Still, I got a few good shots of it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5067/5778993374_e98477b671_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5067/5778993374_e98477b671_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> A small jumping spider called "Metacryba taeniola." I got a whole bunch of shots of this jumper, and I think they're better than all the other shots of this breed I came across when trying to identify it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> I can't wait for the summer or travel to bring bigger and better subjects to shoot. Please check out all of my macro shots on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/komoda/collections/72157626679780524/">my Flickr page.</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-59154484563294263702010-10-20T11:22:00.001-04:002022-07-28T02:16:18.112-04:00I'm on Covered!Yay! My cover for Beanworld 8 got put up on "Covered!"<br />
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<a href="http://coveredblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/kurt-komoda-covers-tales-of-beanworld-8.html">Kurt Komoda covers Tales of Beanworld 8</a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv85wUIUoJsss6XcVXAeQvw4Juw07XbB31ab0noRdjSdfNsPA-iJdQ9gJ2S_xe5XqK58K6QigKm9JRtdPHhPe9ox4DfFcAljOmqQnUn7wCMz6-Muj5c7CANVLeSdZL9bEAYKtdFVK4_tEF/s1600/BeanWorld8_Komoda2_Flat.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv85wUIUoJsss6XcVXAeQvw4Juw07XbB31ab0noRdjSdfNsPA-iJdQ9gJ2S_xe5XqK58K6QigKm9JRtdPHhPe9ox4DfFcAljOmqQnUn7wCMz6-Muj5c7CANVLeSdZL9bEAYKtdFVK4_tEF/w412-h640/BeanWorld8_Komoda2_Flat.jpg" width="412" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tales of Beanworld No. 8 rendition by Kurt Komoda<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIp1qpLHxlR9XZ_nCb3wEV-MYolN9f8QyUPqrMpBsvrXKel1GKRVzYMMFTZLFTVGErnhpNTj5xO_ynxMKnwNDvff-mBAn3PXq1JL07qWYCY3hQOwaOxien_mhEiFFCda35XD5D-r2pubjWdqM2ncNL73CrFq6-Dz9btCtW8R6t44uKKcezZMeqZ_-9gA/s621/beanworld8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIp1qpLHxlR9XZ_nCb3wEV-MYolN9f8QyUPqrMpBsvrXKel1GKRVzYMMFTZLFTVGErnhpNTj5xO_ynxMKnwNDvff-mBAn3PXq1JL07qWYCY3hQOwaOxien_mhEiFFCda35XD5D-r2pubjWdqM2ncNL73CrFq6-Dz9btCtW8R6t44uKKcezZMeqZ_-9gA/w412-h640/beanworld8.jpg" width="412" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original Tales of Beanworld No. 8</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />
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I definitely need to participate in more art activites like this.<br />Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-57521397124538459472010-09-04T03:03:00.001-04:002022-07-28T02:13:19.929-04:00<div style="text-align: justify;"> A long time ago, there was something called "MySpace." It might still be there, but my account has long since been deleted after realizing that Facebook was a much better way of keeping in touch with friends around the globe. One of the only things that kept me interested in MySpace was the whole "Top 8" concept- you know, those 8 friends that you selected that were better than all others(called the "Less Than 8" or <8). Every once in a while, I would come up with ways to customize my Top 8(called, at least on my page, <a href="http://www.agonyagogo.com/photos/ms8st.html">The Mega Super 8 Strike Team</a>) in artistic ways. It was a neat way to give myself something to do- which is something I need to do all the time, before I'm nothing but a commercial artist doing other people's work. My favorite Mega Super 8 Strike Team(MS8ST) project was when I decided I would draw each one in the style of one of my favorite comic book artists with each illustration done in the style of the artist's comic.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Right off the bat, I had trouble picking the 8 artists. I knew I wanted Moebius and Hergé, for sure. I had a bunch of other artists floating around in my mind, but then the trick was to match the style with the person, and what they'd be doing on the fake comic book cover. Some people's faces were a better natural match for the artist in question. First off was <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2571/3876370697_b2a289e117.jpg">Judy</a>, because I thought she'd look good as a Hergé character:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJm3S8A2N9Sb-ZIM5iQMhJqY9huFyFZ-FnM0H9hQo3db5zF5gkks_RBzDMj6aF9F5QTeLNLy3bnhjjpBxt_arXujV9eNTFgwSELd8ys_2ZXQxmV3su_Eua8NW_ZrlbO_ZRAgCt9rx6iX8cRCGf2hUMS_W1dOlAJGp9jdDpvuljhsvbZiyzW7r-bTCIEQ/s1080/judyhergesmflickr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="799" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJm3S8A2N9Sb-ZIM5iQMhJqY9huFyFZ-FnM0H9hQo3db5zF5gkks_RBzDMj6aF9F5QTeLNLy3bnhjjpBxt_arXujV9eNTFgwSELd8ys_2ZXQxmV3su_Eua8NW_ZrlbO_ZRAgCt9rx6iX8cRCGf2hUMS_W1dOlAJGp9jdDpvuljhsvbZiyzW7r-bTCIEQ/w474-h640/judyhergesmflickr.jpg" width="474" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> I grew up reading the full-sized Tintin comics and I knew I wanted to match the style as close as I could. I think I got the fonts spot on. I drew the background from a photo of a square in Prague, I think- but, I drew it without thinking about the cover as a whole. I did a bit of work on the clock tower, thinking it was such a nice composition before realizing that it would all be hidden behind the title scroll.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/4955691147_af245eb5a8_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" ox="true" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/4955691147_af245eb5a8_o.jpg" width="472" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Though it looked right at the time, I think the black line work is a bit softer than the ink line that Hergé used.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Next up was my friend, <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4129087202_6f43a44c73.jpg">Daniel</a>, done in the style of Katsuhiro Otomo and his original Japanese printings of Akira. Now, the thing is, Otomo's covers for the Akira books always used his painted illustrations, but that's not the style of Otomo that I wanted to try, so I cheated a bit:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2O2RJywmaEeIVADzReiMk_WI8yFAHmhwpvrLvaA3wjxPGcBQUyBiH0f7eolcqGiIxrBo2UIR9KfOZaVTWWI0LHKsKPX688QAHCOnDGwAeHvxrA4It0p78wCn6AM4uEmTKBCzKaszVc6g7_UIl-qpwoAHWdFwI6mBnUMpZ15yoXg3gaAn1qNOLmYfLSw/s3000/danielotomosm1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2109" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2O2RJywmaEeIVADzReiMk_WI8yFAHmhwpvrLvaA3wjxPGcBQUyBiH0f7eolcqGiIxrBo2UIR9KfOZaVTWWI0LHKsKPX688QAHCOnDGwAeHvxrA4It0p78wCn6AM4uEmTKBCzKaszVc6g7_UIl-qpwoAHWdFwI6mBnUMpZ15yoXg3gaAn1qNOLmYfLSw/w450-h640/danielotomosm1.jpg" width="450" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> I knew I really wanted to experiment with his incredible depictions of vehicles and mechanical devices, as well as his master use of zipatone. If there's one thing I hate drawing, and those who work with me know this: it's wheeled things. Especially bicycles or motorcycles. And when I say "hate," I'm only saying that because I can't do it well at all. It's the wheels- all those perfect ellipses- the fine work on the frame, and the relation of the rider to the bike itself. To me, it's very challenging, even when I have exact reference, so I knew that this would be fun. Daniel is a sales manager at Soho Vespa, in NYC, and he's an avid rider of both scooters and motorcycles, so I matching him with Otomo was a no-brainer.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> To complete the drawing, I created a whole folder of fake zipatone(which I called zipaClone), with a wide variety of tones and gradients. I applied them pretty much the way real zipatone is applied, but did it digitally: I cut out a selection of zipaClone and placed it over the area, applied a hide-all mask, and then just brushed it in with the paintbrush tool. I think it worked out pretty well.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2495/4028673380_8a79f08d8f.jpg">Anthony</a> was next, and he's a lover of the old Peanuts strip and cartoons, so I didn't have to think very hard to come up with this one. He also has this round face and a high forehead, so he translates well into the style of Charles M. Schultz.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifoYODL_GBDvjv1t2JCbtNrlsU785Lv35acWaTDzZYfDWIUEGYANuJrpNvklwvU4JwtCpPDJTaoskWesVC2aCgJkAHauREDU--n9eM1toXJF7RYujR2n38PTBST_QkCZSl5-7Aqvtki5D53L6wCgcZHH295e5AqXoePJ1wEZLsAfgi2jXNKmCnfsmRLw/s792/leoneshultzflickr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="470" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifoYODL_GBDvjv1t2JCbtNrlsU785Lv35acWaTDzZYfDWIUEGYANuJrpNvklwvU4JwtCpPDJTaoskWesVC2aCgJkAHauREDU--n9eM1toXJF7RYujR2n38PTBST_QkCZSl5-7Aqvtki5D53L6wCgcZHH295e5AqXoePJ1wEZLsAfgi2jXNKmCnfsmRLw/w380-h640/leoneshultzflickr.jpg" width="380" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Even before I started looking up reference, I knew there would be a problem: Peanuts was never really a comic book with a regular format and a recognizable cover style, so I had to cheat again. There was a series of Peanuts books that had this exact format. Well, almost exact- I couldn't find the font they used, so I had to modify an existing one. Originally, I was going to have all the characters on the cover be original- either mine or my brother, Paul's- so that Snoopy would have been some character of ours, or maybe another person I know. It just wouldn't have worked. It HAS to be Snoopy to really sell it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> I absolutely had to try and do one in homage to the master, Winsor McCay and his Little Nemo in Slumberland strip. My friend, <a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4306336905_d76a6b6607.jpg">Sarah</a>, has a face that works well with McCay's clean style.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsfUUA1RSlV4pVQ-GxEufSvkfz34RLyso_-s0Yl6yLEjBG7DI09crXkbnq2GPAK_LtoUBHx_MGHamaBuJN2bMlUfz8SW1LaK7yNv_u9xrCC7BF5b4uEWuRmk2CgZtCcwIXJkizhh-6omWrmRNUSkV9kg0Aw_Qge-uW5KIHV1eBGwfImrgeCGTnlsOHg/s3300/sarahmccay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsfUUA1RSlV4pVQ-GxEufSvkfz34RLyso_-s0Yl6yLEjBG7DI09crXkbnq2GPAK_LtoUBHx_MGHamaBuJN2bMlUfz8SW1LaK7yNv_u9xrCC7BF5b4uEWuRmk2CgZtCcwIXJkizhh-6omWrmRNUSkV9kg0Aw_Qge-uW5KIHV1eBGwfImrgeCGTnlsOHg/w494-h640/sarahmccay.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Now, be warned, the linked image is a HUGE file, but I wanted to, well, show off the work I did to replicate the style of color printing from the old strips. I laid in each color separately and then applied a Half-Tone filter in Photoshop, but then purposely offset the orange-red color up and to the right by several pixels to simulate an often inconsistent printing process. Again, I ran into the same problem I had with the Peanuts project: Little Nemo didn't come in comic book form. The style I chose was from a McCay collection book that had a nice cover layout. This project also gave me the chance to put a number of other friends in supporting roles. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> I was going to do my friend, <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2570/4128315843_3ea998b334.jpg">Jerry</a>, in the style of Moebius(Jean Giraud), but eventually went with Geof Darrow and his Hard Boiled comic. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvzxxQSYoozVN1hTXi_FWf2sp8kwAJgi_fWRI39iQUeNbTSI53F77P0CnmiGv0DSDxVKVrFu5_YRhQ_Q-B-7InzsTgSwFcnhrUgEDPTgE54vXt4fqLCquckLpRU0ymnEHPZDubKWcltHl4r4oMYsq6LkavrIooJhj57JiZwo2AmfKAhohrshfk1qWtQ/s1080/jerrydarrowsmflcikr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="810" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvzxxQSYoozVN1hTXi_FWf2sp8kwAJgi_fWRI39iQUeNbTSI53F77P0CnmiGv0DSDxVKVrFu5_YRhQ_Q-B-7InzsTgSwFcnhrUgEDPTgE54vXt4fqLCquckLpRU0ymnEHPZDubKWcltHl4r4oMYsq6LkavrIooJhj57JiZwo2AmfKAhohrshfk1qWtQ/w480-h640/jerrydarrowsmflcikr.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> I figured, from the start, that there would be a car crash. Or a plane crash. Or a huge locomotive crash. Some sort of crash. Something sure as hell would have to be crashing into something else, and there would be a lot of flying glass pebbles and crinkled metal and human bodies all crushed up in there. The guns I drew are actually a lot more streamlined and based on real models than what Darrow probably would have drawn. I remember having a real problem trying to come up with an appropriately pulpy line of dialogue for Jerry to say as he lept between to colliding vehicles. One was "This is a school zone: the school of PAIN!" I'm not crazy about the line I chose, but it functions for what it is, I suppose. I think I should have made the vehicles bigger, or Jerry smaller.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Frank Miller was not an artist I had originally thought would be in my top comic book artists list, but then I was looking through a Miller comic my friend had and was reminded of just how clever he was with the play of white and black.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vsPi8hG15poGu9vsJ5L2AL1PgW4n2pJHlihaTVP2pkeE-EZSUN1XIw0rvQs-OL6iNC_XeOPGdtUBQot1QgCNhelli1MZWF0oFqSpDKS-PEHClxc-7c0yu7Tn2CQB0uYXlk3wJI74FhZAs90JcQGnzbRA8o2KG31GWKSgeZ3LuvwkzaJ-QbPMuksh1Q/s3300/pawleemiller%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2118" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vsPi8hG15poGu9vsJ5L2AL1PgW4n2pJHlihaTVP2pkeE-EZSUN1XIw0rvQs-OL6iNC_XeOPGdtUBQot1QgCNhelli1MZWF0oFqSpDKS-PEHClxc-7c0yu7Tn2CQB0uYXlk3wJI74FhZAs90JcQGnzbRA8o2KG31GWKSgeZ3LuvwkzaJ-QbPMuksh1Q/w410-h640/pawleemiller%20copy.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> I showed no such mastery in my rendition. I think I made a lot of choices that Frank Miller would never have made. The whole process of creating this one was kind of painful- a lot in part, I think, due to the fact that I was relatively new to Miller's style. I kept considering changing to another, more familiar style, but Paul had seen the sketches I had done and was excited to see the finished "Sin City" result. <a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/4661087039_0bc617b063.jpg">Paul</a> has this huge, Judge Death-like grimace, and I knew I really wanted to play that up in the Miller drawing- maybe just showing the huge teeth and eyes over an immense shadow, but I just couldn't get it to look right.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> The <a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1270/4666692561_193bbc4301.jpg">Robyn</a> "Jamie Hewlett/Tank Girl" cover was the last one I did, because she was pretty late in coming to my Top 8. I was going to use my friend <a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/4831549423_6fba544b70.jpg">Ken</a>, who is Japanese and has this great Hewlett-like mop of hair with a bang that covers one eye, but I went with Robyn, instead. I was hoping to use <a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/4831549423_6fba544b70.jpg">Ken</a> in a rendition of Shigeru Mizuki's "Graveyard Kitaro," but that never got done.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRE6xEn7nc_Tao_bKdjaxGMTlxSvfZw2uTvWrC_a5IUOHgLVgNo_58zu_FWltHffo0qo3HmQquK8M17blQgJ1lRWQw9ZaHp6GltDq5SpBGusxPrhp4FaV4h8tKlV0rnC3U2672sJGwiue6GV6DfboPXygxS04j0hhm2BwRmkwhAhuPukS43b782Q5qA/s604/robyn_hewlett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="467" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRE6xEn7nc_Tao_bKdjaxGMTlxSvfZw2uTvWrC_a5IUOHgLVgNo_58zu_FWltHffo0qo3HmQquK8M17blQgJ1lRWQw9ZaHp6GltDq5SpBGusxPrhp4FaV4h8tKlV0rnC3U2672sJGwiue6GV6DfboPXygxS04j0hhm2BwRmkwhAhuPukS43b782Q5qA/w494-h640/robyn_hewlett.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1270/4666692561_193bbc4301.jpg">Robyn</a> doesn't really have a face suitable for Hewlett's style, but I knew I wanted to do a Hewlett cover. My friend, <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2519/3727547039_7c5de0f767.jpg">Sabrina</a>, would have been perfect for this. She doesn't look like Tank Girl, but she does look like she could be a Hewlett character. I'm not crazy about the fact that I so closely followed an existing cover, with the super-deformed tank and all, but I am relatively satisfied with the end result.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> So, that's as far as I got, and I never got to do a Moebius cover. Because My Top 8 had one or two slots that kept changing, I had 3 more covers planned- I may still do them. Someday. </div></div>Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-48221173319265654532010-05-26T18:39:00.002-04:002022-07-28T01:27:03.724-04:00TESSELATIONS, by Kurt Komoda- Taken From an Agony a Go-Go Article Which Was Taken From My Former MySpace Blog<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"></span></span><br />
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<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"> Tessellations. It's what M.C. Escher referred to as "Regular Division of the Plane." Basically, it is filling a surface with the same exact shape or shapes. At it's simplest, a checkerboard is a tessellation. The earliest of complex tessellations can be found in the Alhambra. Unfortunately, the Moors, who built the palace, were forbidden to depict living things in their works of art. Today, tessellation is mostly relegated to mathematicians and crystallographers. Escher took it further than anyone before or after. His creative mind, eye and hand were like no other, and I have always been in awe of his work.</div>
<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllvMBCzJ3x--yR18dMmiweFLu3mnswAx0vNgzRqLBRerGpirizJpf6-VWa_68ScW_gfe6PGq1rhIGzVmmXj6H5J6qleGt3vkTJrmAtClM-BpV_O3vJcTskZNN9yQHaTystZLdx-1TU23oJmN7BRjvNL2a6XhtW3GAstiKSr9POlqgamsmrM_3XK_LvQ/s420/alhambra01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="420" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgllvMBCzJ3x--yR18dMmiweFLu3mnswAx0vNgzRqLBRerGpirizJpf6-VWa_68ScW_gfe6PGq1rhIGzVmmXj6H5J6qleGt3vkTJrmAtClM-BpV_O3vJcTskZNN9yQHaTystZLdx-1TU23oJmN7BRjvNL2a6XhtW3GAstiKSr9POlqgamsmrM_3XK_LvQ/w320-h240/alhambra01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alhambra tiles</td></tr></tbody></table></div>
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In 1995, a man named Kevin D. Lee, of Sandpiper Software, created a program called "Tesselmania" that allowed even children or people who like Wolfsheim to create their own tessellations. As the story goes, Tesselmania was a product of "The Learning Company" and was later bought by a toy company and effectively buried forever. I have never been able to find a fully functional copy, although I have it for both Mac and PC. It's an extremely limited program. It runs in 256 color mode, has only one undo level, and draws like the earliest paint programs(no blending or mixing). The tessellations, themselves, can only be comprised of straight lines between a limited number of points. The PC demo version lacks a save function- so you'd have to take screen grabs and paste them into Photoshop or something. The Mac demo version only stays on for 30 minutes at a time. I've provided links for both versions below.<br />
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Nevertheless, it is an extremely useful program. I wish someone would update it. It would be perfect for Illustrator. I've seen other programs, including an Illustrator plug-in, but none are as useful as Tesselmania. In the division of the plane, there are 3 main principles at work: glide reflection, translation, and axles(or rotation). A system of labelling the 28 known types of asymmetric tiling- using combinations of the 3 principles- was created by German mathematician, Heinrich Heesch, and is known as the Heesch Type. Tesselmania allows you to create using 15 of the 28 types. I won't drown you in the details of the types. Below are some of my efforts. You'll immediately notice the aforementioned primitive graphic style of the images.I would say that Tesselmania is only a starting point for identifying one's tiles. Further work could be done in another program to create a finished product, but I have so far found such an effort unnecessary. When creating these tiles, I have tried to adhere to the 3 rules laid out by M.C. Escher, concerning the shape of the tiles:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<li>Tiles must have a closed form. That is, the entire object must be represented. A tile cannot be part of something that trails off, but is not shown.</li>
<li>The outline of the object must be as recognizable as possible. Simply making some wobbly shape and cramming the image of, say, a dog all rolled up into it doesn't count. I've seen this rule broken again and again. Another way of breaking this rule is the most common travesty performed by aspiring tessellators: the filling of empty space within the tile, or the creation of space-filling tiles around your tile- the purpose of which is to make the tiles "work." If we were to allow this, then any shape could be fit inside a tile of any shape or be surrounded with additional tiles until they make a combined shape that tessellates. I have done this in the image below. You see, I created this tile, but it didn't really work; I still had that little square space where the bottoms of the wings meet. So, I just left it there. Very lazy. Years ago, I patted myself on the back for this little creation. Today, I am disgusted by it. </li><li><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFNDDQnNaUNK495kTuf6AitczMloMzqDbi34hb-qfpGGjRSbsn9b7yc-OoZMKJXSZQ_Slb8Qnvtn1_Chexs9irk02LUVsSvkbvmJ0N5Vs06REfAWO1HJOAfslpsp_UfYuEc3nZtEK6BQ/s1600/babytessel.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFNDDQnNaUNK495kTuf6AitczMloMzqDbi34hb-qfpGGjRSbsn9b7yc-OoZMKJXSZQ_Slb8Qnvtn1_Chexs9irk02LUVsSvkbvmJ0N5Vs06REfAWO1HJOAfslpsp_UfYuEc3nZtEK6BQ/s400/babytessel.jpg" width="366" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conjoined twins tile (a travesty).</td></tr>
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<li>Finally, the outline must have no indentations and bulges that are too shallow or too deep. This is simply for the matter of distinguishing one tile from an adjacent tile. Long, spindly spikes, for example, and their complementary crevaces(for there must be equal-sized indentations for the tiles to fit together) become confusing to the eye.</li>
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Anyway, here are my experiments. The colors in some are just horrible, so just try to ignore that, for now.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1yr8HIZeJR4UD7hPJtchyphenhyphenynSS00IlyNuxSVNMeXINr7rn1RgcR6jmOJyUlteoEdytmMIdlYZ-SXRXnwEYGD7DKH4GexJ9ohSCRVWfErp8JVLN1MDaz0Oy2yGCsoa_-SYs9rAdeyorro/s1600/girl01.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1yr8HIZeJR4UD7hPJtchyphenhyphenynSS00IlyNuxSVNMeXINr7rn1RgcR6jmOJyUlteoEdytmMIdlYZ-SXRXnwEYGD7DKH4GexJ9ohSCRVWfErp8JVLN1MDaz0Oy2yGCsoa_-SYs9rAdeyorro/s400/girl01.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><align center="" style="text-align: left;">Girl in a Gi. People seem to like this one. I think it has a pleasant look to it.</align><br style="text-align: left;" /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMvdq3m6_JqYp-Y0UzCkHDseTOzJ8lt898jzRdK19i8Mlepu0fOwjMwF8Vaame-HyuvwDjyC9fqulHHSm1_nLaSAMdOdJeWAlrht_Y3VAiwLhW5uRC6uKkvlqOkLXhBsjeBW8gkDewFc/s1600/lizardguys.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMvdq3m6_JqYp-Y0UzCkHDseTOzJ8lt898jzRdK19i8Mlepu0fOwjMwF8Vaame-HyuvwDjyC9fqulHHSm1_nLaSAMdOdJeWAlrht_Y3VAiwLhW5uRC6uKkvlqOkLXhBsjeBW8gkDewFc/s400/lizardguys.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Lizard Guys. When drawing the borders for your tiles in Tesselmania, you can only use straight lines, and this is very apparent here.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCSaayhlTYgQZr3HtecBm9TMxd7W9EIQGJxUREo2GERQG9VEVoe1WMgnC1drVD1EkWJQtDE_nlvOfjtJ0oNTdlK4_mb7IDbIR4n6nFq45UOuhaVyJwWKZEsIc5wTvHaKJtVzzsz3Y_7AY/s1600/2birds2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCSaayhlTYgQZr3HtecBm9TMxd7W9EIQGJxUREo2GERQG9VEVoe1WMgnC1drVD1EkWJQtDE_nlvOfjtJ0oNTdlK4_mb7IDbIR4n6nFq45UOuhaVyJwWKZEsIc5wTvHaKJtVzzsz3Y_7AY/s400/2birds2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Two Birds. The two birds are actually one shape divided into two forms. This is one of the last tessellations that I did, and I really think that a lot can be done using this method of dividing an already tessellated shape into any number of other forms that fit into it. I hate the colors that I chose.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdefVfXVuRsKKAeUUFASz6KeFjR7b6m96DgLz-VlPo5c4cEkhVTD9McHSXr9h1LvuOeW0M6i8duIh-MchnmnfO04wtIK-1PersHf8aP2hdaSRyuLMdvwaozZfVOTMqsOVp3EnR4_kq3Vc/s1600/nikkipuppy02.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdefVfXVuRsKKAeUUFASz6KeFjR7b6m96DgLz-VlPo5c4cEkhVTD9McHSXr9h1LvuOeW0M6i8duIh-MchnmnfO04wtIK-1PersHf8aP2hdaSRyuLMdvwaozZfVOTMqsOVp3EnR4_kq3Vc/s400/nikkipuppy02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Little Nik. This is supposed to be one of my dogs- or I should say "former dogs"- Nikita, as a puppy.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEXDEbxtrM-mQ5h8SMlMWFzIV8nmCiYCy7LnzdL1ecjdB8DfIxTNGwGY7-iWvyTxSDVM3ipECLbrA8p1V4FaH6r-9lwLS-6Sldq-wVUc4pecZAg-pXidGs3OiwqhkUlYSuC3FOA_oJYYA/s1600/ninjabland.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEXDEbxtrM-mQ5h8SMlMWFzIV8nmCiYCy7LnzdL1ecjdB8DfIxTNGwGY7-iWvyTxSDVM3ipECLbrA8p1V4FaH6r-9lwLS-6Sldq-wVUc4pecZAg-pXidGs3OiwqhkUlYSuC3FOA_oJYYA/s400/ninjabland.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Ninja w/Kama and Head. I was just playing with shapes, and that's what it looked like to me.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You guys should download the program and try it out for yourself. In Windows, you have to right click on it, and in properties, set it to open in 256-color mode. For the Mac download, I don't think you have to do anything but put the appropriate tesselmania folder on your desktop, or wherever. You might have to do something so it opens in OS9(Classic). Remember, though- you only have 30 minutes at a time with the Mac version, and no save function on both. Take screen shots(command+4, on the Mac...PrntScrn on the PC).</div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.agonyagogo.com/photos/mecc.zip">Tesselmania for PC</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.agonyagogo.com/photos/tesselmania.zip">Tesselmania for Mac</a></li>
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Have fun, and be sure and share your creations!</div>
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- Kurt Komoda</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Follow me on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kurt_komoda/" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/kurt_komoda/</a></div>
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Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-31785347738191612922010-04-27T17:39:00.003-04:002022-07-28T02:04:41.985-04:00The Penanggalan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: auto;">
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<a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4553843360_4a848cb6ec_b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Yellow penanggalan on red background, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" height="640" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4553843360_4a848cb6ec_b.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Hello! I just posted some of my Penanggalan drawings over at <a href="http://eatenbyducks.blogspot.com/">Eaten By Ducks</a>, but I was concerned with keeping it brief and not hogging up the page. Here, however, I can do whatever I want. So, let's begin.</div>
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<br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPhtRRzHozTsmOZYooL5hc7gR-Rd6KDc27rRsNFU_VfiGav4enYmuggUf6SzD7hK1c2MtnMP0Mu0mSqq7vhCPu6dd28DHTRldgkMuM-sZZOa3RJfwauenoLmolHF77AEuXcEpn-IuKOS6mdlKbtINKDsMSXm0z-xz9N97sYi8fgV0M7G5Y895Yyd9Aw/s946/19940705_PenanggalanFeedingSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="a penanggalan lifts an infant from an altar with her intestines, by Kurt Komoda." border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="721" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPhtRRzHozTsmOZYooL5hc7gR-Rd6KDc27rRsNFU_VfiGav4enYmuggUf6SzD7hK1c2MtnMP0Mu0mSqq7vhCPu6dd28DHTRldgkMuM-sZZOa3RJfwauenoLmolHF77AEuXcEpn-IuKOS6mdlKbtINKDsMSXm0z-xz9N97sYi8fgV0M7G5Y895Yyd9Aw/w488-h640/19940705_PenanggalanFeedingSM.jpg" width="488" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A penanggalan lifts an infant from an altar with her intestines.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXATtC0mTXQgWHbBs-G1ROyxg9uoTln2c4giWjTQ1p_5VyL2snZTM16EVkwFXlqdMktJuuI8egqz68J_M1hFM1aGF6fZXssU9yPqDywDa1d3BW4ovj6CnDc2FhZAbFAhMF3xO1VLXQMJSt0_nCq40TDP9TzqcgYSsCgs7r4M5bCjrxhcY1M2sBR2TIg/s1841/penanggalanbiteRT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="penanggalan eating a baby, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="1841" data-original-width="1529" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXATtC0mTXQgWHbBs-G1ROyxg9uoTln2c4giWjTQ1p_5VyL2snZTM16EVkwFXlqdMktJuuI8egqz68J_M1hFM1aGF6fZXssU9yPqDywDa1d3BW4ovj6CnDc2FhZAbFAhMF3xO1VLXQMJSt0_nCq40TDP9TzqcgYSsCgs7r4M5bCjrxhcY1M2sBR2TIg/w532-h640/penanggalanbiteRT.jpg" width="532" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Penanggalan devouring a baby.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> My fascination with the Penanggalan began back in the 80's, when I first saw her mentioned in The Fiend Folio, an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons monster compendium. Essentially, the Penanggalan is a female vampire from Malaysian folklore, consisting only of her floating head and a complete set of organs dangling from her torn neck. Though no folklore source specifically states this, she uses her long hair and innards as tentacles. Her innards are swollen- for some reason- and glow slightly from a slimy fluid that surrounds them and drips to the ground constantly. She embodies absolute foulness. </span></div>
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<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWW-AF3_ctcZMOiyJNzwXrQ5ZLgqRayZ6u2ImoY4G5z2t8U0Bq4RtH-HnEZCH2IViju2mHUaWiYBF-JXNXaFkDqApwt-Q1y9YG1cDBaKHnE0u6nRfGefEZyQcvTHmcBbMPO8A_LpBnPUy1Th3VfkLOiGo1MUK0cweBprXuMZ3kkXXKIwUlD5dFEMd8kA/s1510/penanggalan%20jar%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kurt Komoda's illustration of a penanggalan in a specimen jar" border="0" data-original-height="1510" data-original-width="1510" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWW-AF3_ctcZMOiyJNzwXrQ5ZLgqRayZ6u2ImoY4G5z2t8U0Bq4RtH-HnEZCH2IViju2mHUaWiYBF-JXNXaFkDqApwt-Q1y9YG1cDBaKHnE0u6nRfGefEZyQcvTHmcBbMPO8A_LpBnPUy1Th3VfkLOiGo1MUK0cweBprXuMZ3kkXXKIwUlD5dFEMd8kA/w640-h640/penanggalan%20jar%20copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A penanggalan in a specimen jar. Part of an illustration for Evil Hat's <i>Fate of Cthulhu </i>rpg.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span>According to legend, the Penanggalan was created thusly : a woman, while seated in a large wooden vat, used for holding vinegar distilled from the sap of the thatch palm (menyadap nipah) performing a religious penance (dudok bertrapa), is interupted by a man who asks what she is doing. She is so utterly startled that she jumps up, her head literally popping off of her body. The severed head, along with the entrails, which follow it through the neck opening, flies up into a nearby tree, shreiking. Ever since then, she existed as the Penanggalan, an evil spirit that has a certain weakness for newborn blood. You could protect your house by surrounding it with a thistle called Jeruju, which could ensnare the Penanggalan, trapping her until the morning when she was more vulnerable. It's not a very good story. It could use some elaboration. Ohhh, I did I ever elaborate on this. Examine these two pages from a 1994 sketchbook:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4558204618_8cd439bd41_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Kurt Komoda's notes on the penanggalan" border="0" height="402" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4558204618_8cd439bd41_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My notes on the penanggalan from a 1993 sketchbook.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;">
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> In Malaysian folklore, the Penanggalan, hungry for the flesh of young children and babies, would separate from her body and fly over to her victim's house, go under it, and then come up through the floor to eat the child. Upon returning to her hidden torso, she would need to soak her swollen innards in a vat of vinegar (likely the same vat described in the origin story) to shrink them down enough to fit back into the neck hole and abdomen. I always wondered just how much of her insides she would actually take along with her. Obviously, lungs, heart, stomach, liver, kidneys, intestines- you know, the big ones. But what about her circulatory system? What about parts that lead to outside orifices, like the anus and vagina? In my drawings, I included those, but omitted most of the circulatory system- including only those embedded into the organs. I never went into enough detail to figure out at what point the arteries from the heart just simply cut off. If we are to accept the concept of a floating head and entrails, then I think it's okay to dispense with most other biological necessities. </div>
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<a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4558204152_e987d8039c_b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A penanggalan is born, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" height="640" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4558204152_e987d8039c_b.jpg" width="490" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> I my story, which was somehow going to be interwoven into my <a href="http://www.agonyagogo.com/">Agony a Go-Go</a> story, the Penanggalan live in a hidden lair, protected by servants of the Mother Penanggalan, both human and otherwise. In my version, it is Penanggalan's own glowing slime secretion upon the earth that creates the special thorny plant that can ensnare her entrails and hair. Since this plant would grow in abundance around the lair, there are special servants which must constantly destroy it.</div>
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<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDvsmN3LHBD77NBFReSwd0vnXv4ixIoieLR2A6bJOrXhx91zPPznXyAocA8dHthgbqaXSqv404C21LQaKYkhCzMVV_AfhFiGuopA1xIxDGZ8tYiEVkTYEj0Iy0-GfW2GQf5sirkHWt9BXQMGErlLUSgfwfLdwIIfQ1cD2zshc8xy3CXEpCow_o0Q8fQ/s2250/Mother%20Penanggalan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Mother Penanggalan, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="2250" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDvsmN3LHBD77NBFReSwd0vnXv4ixIoieLR2A6bJOrXhx91zPPznXyAocA8dHthgbqaXSqv404C21LQaKYkhCzMVV_AfhFiGuopA1xIxDGZ8tYiEVkTYEj0Iy0-GfW2GQf5sirkHWt9BXQMGErlLUSgfwfLdwIIfQ1cD2zshc8xy3CXEpCow_o0Q8fQ/w470-h640/Mother%20Penanggalan.jpg" width="470" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mother Penanggalan</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> So, above is the Mother Penanggalan. I forgot to scan in any of my old sketches, so I quickly drew this in Photoshop. I guess it's a tad bit ridiculous, but my original thought was that the Mother was the original Penanggalan, from Malaysia. Her body has long since been discarded and her Penanggalan form has grown and mutated. She has incorporated lesser Penanggalan into her form. At one point, I even had the snarling heads of tigers and wolves floating and snapping about, connected to the bottom of the Mother. Another idea was that she had no more working organs of her own, and used her "guests" life systems to support her own.</div>
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<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9IdUGlpguWyIxquR86gghfaqTPurvO-jBP2_OzLBrDsvqwa6Es0nyTDN_w6qP2eCWQgsPz8QC3GrT1JrbNq_zHKxvdIbgtkHq8eWt3Ph0t863nZ9mZv1LeUIeZUt_CzM4r4hUnKQDupPIwo3TeEDjNCXdAxtJWo0UPJ2bOtgk9mPmk3Dq0gXjsoQ7wQ/s3668/penanggalan%20cleanup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Penanggalan with flowing hair, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="3668" data-original-width="3668" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9IdUGlpguWyIxquR86gghfaqTPurvO-jBP2_OzLBrDsvqwa6Es0nyTDN_w6qP2eCWQgsPz8QC3GrT1JrbNq_zHKxvdIbgtkHq8eWt3Ph0t863nZ9mZv1LeUIeZUt_CzM4r4hUnKQDupPIwo3TeEDjNCXdAxtJWo0UPJ2bOtgk9mPmk3Dq0gXjsoQ7wQ/w640-h640/penanggalan%20cleanup.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> I imagine that the Penanggalan's hair is very much alive with motion, as if under turbulent water. The patterns and whorls created by the strands and locks would reflect the Penanggalan's emotional state. When she is calm, the hair would drift about like veils. As she becomes more agitated, the hair would coil and knot.</span></div>
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<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTeTMfRRwNbLFsklsEyYB9dKGaGnkxJkew2V2pjRPZU4dg7mflWd9sBOwTKQykgDmNfwrlbOTkbA9jwN3DBQy6MuaIzJgt6sMrTqINa9u7mqsP2kGV3F10RvhGTkdINkO1P6eE7ELkzeD9xpv_ZoB61r9Jtb6DA1qJXbINsrgN1JU5E1ntNkNhYjkgA/s2042/penanggalanMouth93Retouch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Penanggalan extending mouth proboscis, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="2042" data-original-width="1563" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTeTMfRRwNbLFsklsEyYB9dKGaGnkxJkew2V2pjRPZU4dg7mflWd9sBOwTKQykgDmNfwrlbOTkbA9jwN3DBQy6MuaIzJgt6sMrTqINa9u7mqsP2kGV3F10RvhGTkdINkO1P6eE7ELkzeD9xpv_ZoB61r9Jtb6DA1qJXbINsrgN1JU5E1ntNkNhYjkgA/w490-h640/penanggalanMouth93Retouch.jpg" width="490" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Penanggalan extending her mouth proboscis.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> The mouth proboscis was something my brother, Paul Komoda, came up with. I don't know if he ever drew it, but he talked about it. It was inspired by the bloodworms we used to use for bait, whose black fanged mouths shot out of them with ferocious speed, like the guts of something soft being crushed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0hHeQWZOVuzY5nXGhf-8DmOFtYZYVhfk39RKN_CfNPL46K2yC9HxwY7iFvKgtm7iwIG3aa9Xep92LjdEVLLD0czuO998CkymfSTFNszLXUi0-_KiHrf2zP-NJ1BDBphLbgm9O6AuHdQH9yezAgzD-jJ8TdGzJCtmp8nUsNwpLIcEzRzDLHz4IsNCmQ/s2058/penanggalanFloorBoardsRetouch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A penanggalan pushes her way up through the floorboards, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="1216" data-original-width="2058" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0hHeQWZOVuzY5nXGhf-8DmOFtYZYVhfk39RKN_CfNPL46K2yC9HxwY7iFvKgtm7iwIG3aa9Xep92LjdEVLLD0czuO998CkymfSTFNszLXUi0-_KiHrf2zP-NJ1BDBphLbgm9O6AuHdQH9yezAgzD-jJ8TdGzJCtmp8nUsNwpLIcEzRzDLHz4IsNCmQ/w640-h378/penanggalanFloorBoardsRetouch.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A penanggalan pushing her way up through the floorboards.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> According to folklore, the Penanggalan would attack her sleeping child victims by going under the house and coming up through the floor. The above sketch doesn't show a South East Asian abode, but does depict the power of the Penanggalan.</div>
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<br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4m1xpO-b5dQpSiw7oTWCVehcvraa40mNf5gn10c957YQV0sAwzHd8whAYkuPVtkO3qPRs9D5hygUGgEKPmSyu4jfdhIYiNBzN1pN6MzVGyNpK0QvjK7ZsVZYGTYMBUM5CE-8Ltvnk47iFBTRn3jrduNZYWI8DP2mNk4KKZpn17oiLVoTiEsAFtXW-Q/s2667/hangingWomanPenanggalan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Penanggalan with flame-like hair, by Kurt Komoda" border="0" data-original-height="2667" data-original-width="1910" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4m1xpO-b5dQpSiw7oTWCVehcvraa40mNf5gn10c957YQV0sAwzHd8whAYkuPVtkO3qPRs9D5hygUGgEKPmSyu4jfdhIYiNBzN1pN6MzVGyNpK0QvjK7ZsVZYGTYMBUM5CE-8Ltvnk47iFBTRn3jrduNZYWI8DP2mNk4KKZpn17oiLVoTiEsAFtXW-Q/w458-h640/hangingWomanPenanggalan.jpg" width="458" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Penanggalan with flame like hair.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> Concerning the sketch above, I don't know what the thing at the top is. I was just doodling. Here, the Penanggalan has uncharacteristic flame-like hair.</div>
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</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> Above is Penina- one of the Agony Goddesses from <a href="http://www.agonyagogo.com/">Agony a Go-Go</a>, drawn with a mouse, in Photoshop. There was a time when I drew everything with nothing but a mouse. I got fairly decent at it, but as soon as I bought a drawing tablet, I was spoiled and could no longer draw with the mouse. Once I bought a Wacom flatscreen tablet, I was spoiled again, and could no longer draw on the drawing tablet. </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWDpL_8hGuKj8RfK4tyNR80VuKVo5P0JDsTNnqwi0D4dWi-df5P0qbaARTktM4fMUdf8fy87-7LZ5sBlTpYqg86PU6n6HcBr0uuVjY83T526FKmjm6PvynqoqwFkjvomj-QHVVG0w5jxuRz4DnslwhoRocf0iug4gog4CKYi_pQjdoOoOdNFRBNVOEFQ/s1576/penanggalan%20profile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1576" data-original-width="1171" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWDpL_8hGuKj8RfK4tyNR80VuKVo5P0JDsTNnqwi0D4dWi-df5P0qbaARTktM4fMUdf8fy87-7LZ5sBlTpYqg86PU6n6HcBr0uuVjY83T526FKmjm6PvynqoqwFkjvomj-QHVVG0w5jxuRz4DnslwhoRocf0iug4gog4CKYi_pQjdoOoOdNFRBNVOEFQ/w476-h640/penanggalan%20profile.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sketch for a newer version of Penina that was never used.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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Well, this was just a sampling of the many drawings of the Penanggalan I have done. Maybe someday I'll actually produce a finished piece of the subject.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Follow me on Instagram! <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kurt_komoda/" target="_blank">Kurt Komoda's Instagram</a></div>
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<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Kurt Komodahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12439029476128023455noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753570555880140860.post-29133862161630843142010-03-31T11:41:00.000-04:002010-04-27T17:55:40.253-04:00Rooms Through Windows<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0000ee;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOpalveTnx03cy6ojYKShHUkBRrJVeDKvnjrqDK99KsXu5v088srQaljy9rkBV8UQaOweAtTG3YVOnhXp-LNO9USXd_gs-T97Fax-Yv20mwemILOGdfWgFmb76v63JD43djQg-8ZL2hFkw/s1600/window01.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454897346514283010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOpalveTnx03cy6ojYKShHUkBRrJVeDKvnjrqDK99KsXu5v088srQaljy9rkBV8UQaOweAtTG3YVOnhXp-LNO9USXd_gs-T97Fax-Yv20mwemILOGdfWgFmb76v63JD43djQg-8ZL2hFkw/s400/window01.jpg" style="float: right; height: 295px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"> Let's get all this started. So, I've had this blog space for months and months, now, and I've gotten disgusted with myself for not using it. My website (<a href="http://www.agonyagogo.com/">Agony a Go-Go</a>) has been, with the exception of some <a href="http://www.agonyagogo.com/updates/workshop.html">tutorials I've written</a>, stagnant for much longer than I think any fans of the site were willing to stay on the hook for. So, it comes to this blog; and easy way, I would think, to commit my thoughts to the web for anyone, or everyone, or no one, without the hassle of tending to the overwhelming overhaul of an outdated website.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> I thought I'd start this off by confessing that I have this strange passion for windows. Rather, looking into windows. Wait! Stay with me, here. Rather, looking at the rooms that can be seen through windows- but not up close. Nay, that would be spoiling it. If I can be up close to the glass and see right into the room inside, ignoring the window, why even have the window? It is essential that the window be somewhat distant, perhaps across a street, and the view to the inside be somewhat obscured, both by light and object. Most often, the window is above me, not at eye level.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Rooms within rooms, that is, rooms that can be seen through an archway or down a hall from the room to which the viewing window is attached, are especially intriguing. Stairs leading to other spaces. Those are nice, too. Curious lamps. Colored lighting. The current room dark but with light emanating from a room far on the opposite wall or around a corner, hidden. These add to the effect.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> A voyeur, you say? Not really. I don't want to see people in the rooms. The spaces must be unoccupied. There is a mystery and a serenity to the still room. A place that I can only see in passing. A place I will never set foot in. It's like seeing a little bit of some other life. Someone had to put this room together, had to decide to place just that statue by the window. People use this room or these stairs or this hallway day to day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> As far as looking through windows, it's not something I stand there and do. It's just something I see in passing, and then I hold the image in my head as I walk or drive along. In the photo below, which is a building on the corner of 19<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span> Street and 6<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">th</span> Avenue, in New York, I love the massive staircase and how you can see another flight just beyond it. I don't normally photograph the windows, but needed some photos for this article.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> It's just something that I somewhat fancy. It's not like I obsess over looking at windows. I certainly don't go out of my way to do it. I just adore these little glimpses into that other world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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