Another spot illustration intended for The Black Seal #1 should there be any unsightly blank spaces. This one didn’t see print.
Author Archives: skook
Do Not Open ‘Til … well … EVER
Another spot illustration done for The Black Seal #1. I’d need to check the issue to be sure but I don’t think this one ever saw print.
Old (ancient!) books of evil lore are a staple of Lovecraft’s stories. The Necronomicon is the most famous but many other authors have contributed their own dreaded tomes to Library-of-Books-it’s-a-BAD-Idea-to-Read.
In the Dark
Another spot illustration for The Black Seal #1. I did all the spot illustrations with pen and ink. The first illustration I did, the one that I was first assigned, was mostly done in Photoshop and it took forever. I hadn’t used Photoshop for illustrations much at that point and so I was learning as I worked. I fell back on pen (and brush) and ink for the rest of the illustrations in order to get them done more quickly.
Smoke and Empty Space
In the first issue of The Black Seal I was assigned three illustrations. I was also asked to come up with some spot illustrations that could be used to fill any unsightly empty spaces. This is one of those spot illustrations.
Tumor, Removed
Another illustration for The Black Seal #1.
Glaaki Zombie
This is the pre-Photoshopped version of an illustration I did for The Black Seal #1 back in 2003. For some reason I decided to add the blacks digitally on this one. Perhaps I thought it would speed up the work? I doubt if I would do that today. I enjoy laying down brushloads of black ink. It’s relaxing.
Fungi From Yuggoth
This is another image from 2000 that I intended to use a portfolio piece. Ultimately I guess I did – the finished illustration is in my Epilogue.net gallery – I just didn’t get it completed until 2003.
This is a Mi-Go, a so-called Fungi from Yuggoth, one of H.P. Lovecraft’s alien species. They’re featured prominently in The Whisperer in the Darkness. I don’t think many of authors have used them. They’ve gained most of their prominence and personality by their use in the Call of Cthulhu role playing games.
Unfinished Deep Ones
Another unfinished intended-for-portfolio illustration from 2000, this one of a pair of Deep Ones. H.P. Lovecraft introduced the Deep Ones in Shadow Over Innsmouth. The Deep Ones are a species of fish/frog/simians who are, for some reason, inclined to mate with human beings. The results of those matings look human at first but develop the “Innsmouth Look” as they age. Eventually they transform into a fully amphibious creature and return to the sea.
Yithian
I wrote an earlier post about the challenges of illustrating Lovecraft’s Great Race of Yith. They’re the featured creatures in Shadow out of Time. They are a race of beings whose minds are immortal. Those minds inhabit the bodies of different species at different times on different worlds. In Shadow those minds are inhabiting the bodies of some sort of giant land dwelling mollusk during the age of the dinosaurs.
This is one of my more successful attempts at drawing the Great Race. It was done in 2000 as part of the portfolio series but, unlike the others I’ve posted I eventually finished it and it can be found in my Epilogue.net gallery.
Unfinished Ghoul
Another of the unfinished illustrations from the year 2000 intended as a portfolio piece. This handsome fellow is a ghoul. And his lunch. Or maybe his leftovers.
