Next I create a fourth layer, also set to multiply, in which I add solid grays of varying percentages. Mostly I use grays to give depth and interest to the image. I rarely use digital grays for shadows. If all goes well I’ve already put in all my shadows before the image went into the computer.

Standing next to Lovecraft, third from the right is August Derleth. Poor August is figure of both praise and scorn among Lovecraft fans. He’s praised because he’s the guy who collected Lovecraft’s stories and published them as books. He could be credited with rescuing Lovecraft’s work from the obscurity. He’s scorned for, among other things, writing posthumous “collaborations” with Lovecraft – collaborations that often were no more than a few sentences or an idea from Lovecraft’s notes that Derleth spun off into a full fledged story. This might have been forgivable if Derleth’s stories were really good and expanded on Lovecraft’s ideas but that’s not considered to be the case. Derleth took Lovecraft’s organically created world of alien entities and dimensions and codified it into a Mythos where a pantheon of evil gods struggled with benevolent ones.

I’ve read a few of Derleth’s stories. They were entertaining in a pulp action way. I don’t begrudge him his version of the Mythos. I’m just less interested in it than other, more freeform and bizarre ones.