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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The KingOvRats Abyss, Monsters Number I to IV - The Living Hindu Idol, the Arabesque Creature, the Abyssal Centipede, and the Octopoid Creature

Note - This post took a while to put together. Also, check out this Lair of Filth Dreams in the Witch House autographed LP contest! - B.

KingOvRats on DeviantART is designing creatures for the abyss scene, along with others. Here is a quote from the story - "All the objects—organic and inorganic alike—were totally beyond description or even comprehension. Gilman sometimes compared the inorganic masses to prisms, labyrinths, clusters of cubes and planes, and Cyclopean buildings; and the organic things struck him variously as groups of bubbles, octopi, centipedes, living Hindoo idols, and intricate Arabesques roused into a kind of ophidian animation." This series consists of the monsters he designed.

KingOvRats has sent me a couple of design sketches and something else very special I'd rather not talk 
about.

LIVING HINDU IDOL


I already posted about this, but I decided to delete it and put it here instead. I must say he's really outdone himself here. I really like how he applied a Mythos twist to a traditional Hindu god. This is a stop-motion puppet for sure!

Michal talks about it in the two quotes that follow. I made some grammatical edits, though.
I inspired with statues of elephant-headed, obese Ganesha and some multi-handed deities trying to give it as alien look as possible, while retaining the basic likeness of those idols.
The last one so far. And possibly the creepiest. I actually tried to make it seem as alien as possible while retaining visual similarity to multi-handed dancing  statues of Hindu deities. Can't wait to see this guy in stop motion! ... And I was obviously inspired with Harryhausen's classic Kali stop-motion scene. :)
Here is the Kali sequence he was talking about.


ARABESQUE CREATURE

...violet text by yours truly.

That is a nice Arabesque monster! The Arabian feel is a contributing factor. It's really a throwback to One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). Lovecraft really loved that book. So do I. This is one of my favorites, and we'll use some computer imagery for this feller guy dude thing.

Says Michal of the Arabesque Monster (with one grammatical edit by me) - 
The first of the creatures that Gilman  encounters in the abyss. I was inspired by actual arabesque ornaments as well as flatworm anatomy. Note some (intended) similarity to Hound of Tindalos.
ABYSSAL CENTIPEDE

...again, violet text by moi.

This is a nice and creepy character that we will DEFINITELY be doing in stop-motion. It really has that shuddery bug feel to it. We quote Michal - 
Another creature Gilman mentions. It was supposed to be centipede-like.
I think Michal was very good in evoking that bug-like sense.

 OCTOPOID MONSTER


This is such a good interpretation of an alien octopoid monster that I feel its one of the better Lovecraft drawings (like all mentioned on this site). The back actually appears to have a dorsal fin and a swordfish head (gimme a second...). I really like this semi-fish semi-octopoid bent. We're probably gonna have this somewhere in between computer imagery and stop-motion, although that approach may change.

Says Michal (with grammar and spelling edits by me) - 
Yet another one of monsters briefly seen by Gilman. I decided to give it a pointed snout (as, what you might have noticed, that's the feature I am rather fond of, often appearing in my creations and I'd love to include it in this project :D). Anyway I picture it as a predatory animal, using that serrated, pointed head to impale it's victim and drain away blood with holes on the side.
Well, that wraps up today's edition. Stay tuned!

BRIAN

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