As you might remember I’ve done the illustrations for Ghouls by Dan Harms, a sourcebook to be published by Sixtystone Press for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. For my last illustration Adam Crossingham, my editor, asked me to do a portrait of the “Magnificent Mythos Seven”, seven authors who influenced and shaped the so-called Cthulhu Mythos into the form we most recognize today. He sent me a bunch of reference photos and I found a few more on the good ol’ internet and then I sketched out the boys. From left to right we’ve got Arthur Machen, Robert Bloch, Robert Howard, HP Lovecraft, August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith and Frank Belknap Long.

Machen didn’t actually write Mythos stories. His writing was, however, a huge influence on Lovecraft’s and Sixtystone Press takes its name from his short story The Novel of the Black Seal in The Three Impostors.

I originally posted this sketch about a year ago so but I’m reposting now because I’m going to do a process series on how I took this piece from sketch to final illustration. I recently did a post on my process over at a Lovecraft illustrators forum that I’ve joined and I’m a big believer in multiple use of both writing and art so I’m sharing the process here as well 🙂