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Enshohma — Cthulhu Looks Out To Sea
Published: 2009-07-14 08:28:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 3596; Favourites: 78; Downloads: 78
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Description
Don't you love it when you try to get into a new genre of interest, only to have the so-called 'veteran fans', being more antagonistic then playful, treat you like James Mason's character at the end of "The Man Between"?To the miserable idiots who kept mentioning multiple eyes on Cthulhu, without even explaining why he should have them to begin with, especially since such a tidbit is never mentioned IN LOVECRAFT'S ORIGINAL STORY...this is my revenge to you, for this picture and text is a public service...or so I desperately hope.
Contrary to popular belief (and the tight lips of the abovementioned buffoons), H.P. Lovecraft himself actually did a sketch of the monster who would become his trademark, Cthulhu. HPL scholars believe the author drew it shortly after "Call of Cthulhu" was first rejected for the magazine "Weird Tales", in one of the letters written to convince editor Farnsworth Wright to give it a second chance. Though it may have been fellow writer and Lovecraft's friend Donald Wandrei who helped win the argument in Lovecraft's favor.
I first came across the infamous sketch on this wonderfully bizarre blog:
[link]
And when I decided to do my own Cthulhu illustration based on the 'original design', fellow DA member Zombiequadrille's related entry, which seems to feature ANOTHER illustration from Lovecraft, was most welcomed in the reference department.
[link]
HOWEVER, despite being a fairly accurate attempt on the famous alien deity, Zombiequadrille brings up a very good point that the infamous sketch isn't supposed to be the REAL Cthulhu, as its true form would be too extreme for the comprehension of mere human beings (or at least the schmucks still living on Earth). And the fact that the surprisingly bloated Great Old One is sitting on a stone block (no toilet jokes please), further suggests its really the small man-made sculpture mentioned throughout the story.
Hence, it's the Human-Safe Cthulhu for everyday worshipping.
And although I incorporated the multiple-eyes, I have to say, how do we know that wasn't just ink-stains left by Lovecraft on accident? That or the author just couldn't decide where he wanted to put the eyes, and what we're really seeing is drawing mistakes and / or sketch tests.
Still, I'm very happy with the way this picture came out, so much so that I wrestled with the idea of adding it to the Kaiju Portraits, given its rather official background. But it's better I hold off on adding anymore Lovecraft characters to that series, as I'll admit I screwed up on the Gug's hair color...But I'm not adding the multiple arms because that tidbit is even more controversial (or obscure) then the spider-eyes of Ol' R'lyeh Sleeper here...so back off!
****
As for what Cthulhu himself is all about, for those unfamiliar with the original Mythos;
At its most BASIC explanation, Cthulhu and his Great Old One brethren are ancient cosmic monsters immense in both power and size. With Cthulhu himself being water-based and among their more powerful members (or at least the most well known to us lowly humans).
Cthulhu sleeps in a 'death-like' state, in the mysterious stone city of R'lyeh, which surfaces from the ocean's depths on rare occasion. It's also mentioned in Lovecraft's stories that if Cthulhu ever did decide to fully awake, the world and all the civilizations upon it would fall, as he would usher in a new dominion of the Great Old Ones.
Again, VERY basic.
More information can be found here:
[link]
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Comments: 47
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Are you going to use THIS Cthulhu for Godzilla vs. Cthulhu?
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I would IF I was going to do such a piece, but this is again based on Lovecraft's own sketches of Cthulhu...and because of which, almost every horror fan I've dealt with at conventions hated it.
Or at the very least was indifferent.
If you really want to see my 'Custom Cthulhu', send me your e-mail address by private message.
Or better yet, if you have LiveTrace, Illustrator, or Vector Art, and willing to clean up a bunch of stuff for me, than the sky's the limit there.
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1. I'm sorry to hear that
2. How do I do the private message?
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The 'Send the Note' button on my front DA page.
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I'll have to think about it.
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I like it. Take a look at the image of Cthulhu I posted.. I tried to get away from the conventional, commonly seen interpretation of the great old one. Who are we mortals to know his true form after all
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I checked out your version of our constantly sleeping lord and destroyer (the tentacle bum), and enjoyed it very much! And thanks for the compliment on my version, though I plan to revisit this piece (update it) soon, by at least re-doing the background and add some atmospheric effects.
I have to admit that drawing the Great Old Ones is sort of a pain, and threw my arms in the air, declaring just to do their designs my way, and be honest that accuracy is nearly impossible for many of these overwhelming monsters. If all goes well, I hope to get my own custom versions of Glaaki and Vulthoom inked, colored and uploaded.
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I look forward to seeing your other monsters. I wouldn't go too crazy on the background of this one, the deliberate graphic quality suits the piece.
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Belated reply time!
Based on your thoughts, I'm going to hold off on my re-do of Cthuhlu for now, and if I do revisit it, I might end up doing two versions, the basic one like seen above, and the background effects heavy one.
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I like the style you used, feels like it could be moved into an awesome animation really easily. As for your issues with some of the more... enthusiastic fans, I'm sorry you've been treated so! I feel that as long as you capture the essence of Lovecraft's motive, that is good enough!
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Why thank you so very much!
True, most of the Lovecraft monsters are better left alone visually, but some basic communication on the subject would be nice every once in a while. Its like being in those SNL sketches with the elitist computer programmer, or my uneasy time at the Power Ranger convention
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Heh, nice examples!
But yeah, Lovecraft left the descriptions rather vague. But I think that enhances the literary aspect of the horror. Our imaginations are far scarier than anything he could come up with!
The way I see it it's open to interpretation and each person should be allowed to make the creatures, monsters and demi-god the way it sent shivers down their spine the first time they read about... or fell prey to nightmares...
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Sadly whenever I draw the Great Old Ones and the rest of HPL's menagerie, I always end up with super monsters that both Eiji Tsuburaya and Steve Ditko would have enjoyed more so...But I do agree, that Lovecraft's purposely leaving the appearances of most of his monsters vague, and instead focusing on just the horror brought from how indescribable they were works beautifully, even if only truly for him and him alone.
When other, more modern writers try to go down the Lovecraft route by not showing their monsters, it feels more like a copout most the time!
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Yeah Lovecraft was a master... There are some that walk in his footsteps well, but they're usually rare and far between!
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Stephen King kind of fits in that role; he can sometimes do wonderful stories and creatures very much in tune with Lovecraft, like "The Mist" and that oddly touching story about the old woman and her male friend discover backwoods short-cuts (and slowly gained youth) through alternate realities. But most of the time he seems like a weak imitation, and worse, a lot of the adaptations of his works leave out a lot of the truly fantastical elements, like the Yellow Coat Men (right?) in "Hearts of Atlantis".
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Yeah King is a little all over the place being as mainstream as he is... I enjoy some of his work others not so much. There are a good number of writers who have sort of accepted the Lovecraft mantle, continuing to look into some of the ideas he wrote about, and obviously exploring the cthulhu mythos. as with everything there are hit and misses in that too... some of the authors write like Lovecraft but have no flavor, others are far more modern but pull out wonderfully chilling tales and of course everything that falls in between! There are a couple of good collections out there... uh... the Children of Cthulhu is a pretty popular one, you might give it a look if you haven't already!
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Thanks for the recommendation there!
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sure thing! 
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The whole "you go mad if you so much as look at it" idea really gets under my skin, personally. I was always under the impression madness stemmed, not from its appearance, but by the idea that this cosmic horror is here, in plain sight, where you can see it and it can easily get to you. There is nothing so ghastly in appearance that its simple image will drive you insane. It's not that it's beyond human comprehension, it's the simple fact that the human brain doesn't have an insanity on/off switch like that. And something like that with a supernatural insanity power just seems really cheap and non-menacing.
I think it's more in the spirit of the idea that Cthulhu is so overwhelming in power that being in his presence can drive one insane.
Or it could be closer to Pennywise or Galactus, in that the form shown is just what we perceive because, being a pillar of the universe, the entity doesn't have a physical form. I dunno, I've never read Lovecraft's work. Been looking for it, but so far nothing.
Either way, I think Cthulhu's ability to instill madness has been vastly flanderized into something outside its original intent.
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I'm not too sure about the actual forms of the Great Old Ones myself, wither they are just giant alien monsters of mistakenly God-like power, or something even more abstract, 'reality metamorphors' like Pennywise and Galactus, who too suffer similar ambiguity. Although to be honest, I've always seen Galactus as an awesome 1960's science fiction take on the Titans of Greek mythology, cutesy of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby!
And besides, that kind of wild concept works better for the Outer Gods than the Great Old Ones (no doubt you know the difference between the two types).
But I agree the insanity inducing powers due cheapen everything that Lovecraft origianlly intended for his works, and I always saw the insanity aspect similar to what you stated; its not the monster that drives men mad, its the whole situation of the thing.
Kind of like how when there are major natural disasters, some people effected by them generally blame or outright attack the rescue workers and their fellow survivors, because they can't comprehend nor admit that it was an act of God that negatively affected them personally, or even more realistically and sinister, random unfortunate circumstance that no human has any control over.
Its a terrible, if not harsh comparison, I know that, but its the only situation in real life history that I can compare to the Great Old Ones and how most people simply can't handle their mere presence.
I also can't stand that people dismiss the silver-lining in Lovecrafts own works; yes, our world is a lie, resting on the backs of indifferent beasts from beyond who we foolishly call Gods and Devils, but while they're asleep, we can enjoy our time in this dimension. And not everyone goes insane, or remains so when encountering this sad truth.
And then of course you have the Dreamlands, which is heavenly compared to our realm of reality...sure, that world has the meddling Outer Gods to contend with, but only one somewhat 'decent' Old One in the form of Bokrag the Great Water Lizard!
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the combination between the outline and the coloring is awesome.. i always want to give my stuff great color like this, but unfortunately.. the inspiration never come!
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Well, I've been curious as to coloring other people's works recently, but have some long overdue commissions and real life to take care of first. But keep that in mind for the future...*wink*
Thanks for the comments on this piece, and no idea my coloring was that decent!
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It's like those eyes are staring into my soul... 0_o
Very cool, and I'm not just talking about the chill that just went up my spine. XD
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Thank you for the nifty comment, and although my Lovecraft art is far and few between, I'll keep you updated if I do more of which; at the very least I got a Deep One coming up.
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BTW, its not a very good piece, but here's a Gug for your viewing pleasure:
[link]
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Well, like a lot of folks here, I seem to like the extra eyes. They add in a little extra depth, y'know?
And those links to the "official" Lovecraft illustrations were so informative and cool! Thanks for showing us those, even if it was just to keep criticism-monkeys from harassing you.
I know only the most basic tenets of Lovecraftian lore, so even the bare bones stuff you added at the bottom was educational to me. Keep up the good work!
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Thanks man, that was a very encouraging reply.
The added eyes do give Cthulhu some greater mass then the more 'normal' pair that he's usually drawn with.
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i never understood what Cthulhu is or what it's origin is. if you know, i'd appreciate it if you told me ^^ anyway, that's a good portrayal of the monster, especially the tendrils on the face
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I'm going to send you a (hopefully) informative PM on the subject, but basically Cthulhu and his Great Old One brethren are ancient cosmic monsters immense power and size. With Cthulhu himself being water-based and among their more powerful members (or at least the most well known to humans).
Cthulhu sleeps in a 'death-like' state, in the mysterious stone city of R'lyeh, which surfaces from the oceans' depths on rare occasion. Its also mentioned in Lovecraft's stories that if Cthulhu ever did decide to fully awake, the world and all the civilizations upon it would fall, as he would usher in a new dominion of the Great Old Ones.
Hoped that helped?
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cool i like the three eyes it makes him seem more inhuman than he is
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And a very belated thanks to you too!
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