Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The Witcher Parchment

Things like this give me goosebumps.

Ukrainian artist Valentin Kolontay brings us this medieval-style illumination of a Geralt of Rivia, professional Witcher, battling a striga.  What elevates this from cool to sheer awesomeness is that it's a true medieval-style illumination.  Mr. Kolontay produced everything that went into the final artwork, including iron gall ink, mineral pigments, egg emulsion, and the parchment itself, in the traditional way.


 

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

The Dunwich Horror

You've seen Joel Harlow's work as a makeup and creature designer in dozens of films.   That includes pretty much every genre blockbuster of the last ten years.  He also happens to be a fan of H.P. Lovecraft.  Among his many personal projects is this maquette of the elder Whately brother from "The Dunwich Horror".





 

Monday, September 28, 2020

Horned Knight of Chaos

Blood for the Blood God!  Skulls for the Skull Throne!  Brutal Forge Workshop brings us this insane horned Chaos Knight of Khorne armor set.


 

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Mytho Menagerie Cthulhu Idol

This week I picked up the Cthulhu Statuette from Mytho Menagerie.  It's a resin casting of a design from Eric Quick, which was then carved in wood by Nick Darmstaedter to produce the master.  The piece retails for $65.  It's produced on demand, so it took about two weeks from my order for the finished statuette to arrive at my door.

I absolutely adore this design.  It has great lines, and different aspects of the detail work come out as your perspective shifts around the sculpt.  I'm happy I picked it up, but I may repaint it.  There's nothing wrong with the "Innsmouth Gold" finish, but the sculpt would really come to life with a jade finish.


 

Friday, September 25, 2020

My Hollywood Debut

Over the years I've contributed to a couple dozen films.  And by "contributed" I mean an indy filmmaker asks if they can use some graphics and I say "Sure".  If it's just for incidental use I request a credit to Propnomicon.    In a few cases I've produced props for their film, usually some an artifact like a stone tablet or Cthulhu idol.  

In all this time not a single one of those films was actually finished...until now.

The Lovecraftian time travel movie "Intersect" is now available on Amazon Prime Video.  It's also apparently being streamed as part of this year's online incarnation of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.  

All this is news to me, since I thought the project fell apart way back in 2012.  The producers were documenting the making of the movie with a blog that showed off some really impressive production design.  That included my small contribution, the Miskatonic University logo.


Filming concluded in December of 2011 and then...nothing.  I'd actually forgotten about the whole thing until someone emailed me last night to point out the film was now up on Amazon.  That sent me back to the production blog, where it appears they've actually been doing sporadic updates over the years.  I'd finally get the IMDB credit I've lusted after!

Sadly, my happiness was not to last.

The good news is that my Miskatonic University logo reportedly gets a few seconds of screen time in Intersect.  The bad news is that I didn't get a credit.  My quest for IMDB fame has fizzled out once again.  Heh.

 Worse, if the reviews on Amazon are any guide the movie is terrible.

"I was so distracted by the nose that if the movie had a point I probably would've missed it."

 "Someone had a great idea for a movie and then they tried to get slick and artsy. Utterly horrible."

"Bought this because I was desperate for a good movie... any good movie. I am still desperate for a good movie."

 "I'm still not certain what I watched."

Oh, cruel fate, you mock me so.  One of the movies I've contributed to finally gets released, and it's a disaster.

 


Thursday, September 24, 2020

Mountains of Madness Project Update

Things are moving along on the Mountains of Madness project.  I've ordered the patches, lapel pins, and fieldbooks and they should all be in production by next week.  I'm conservatively expecting delivery in 2-3 weeks barring any unexpected misfortune.

Here's a look at the layout for the fieldbooks.  This should look familiar if you've used the pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks.  The finished versions will be 3.5" by 5" with a rolled chipboard cover and 32 pages of 70# lined paper.  The interior paper is fountain pen friendly.



Vampire Armor

Arthammer LARP Workshop returns to our pages with this ornately decorated set of armor based on the vampire armies of Warhammer. 




 

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

A Clutch of Cthulhus

One of the joys of trolling the internet for new Cthulhiana is stumbling across the work of an artist I've never encountered before.  Such is the case today.  These wonderful Cthulhu idols and plaques are the work of Turkish sculptor and illustrator Ebrahel Lurci.  Based on the Google translation of he'll apparently be making these available in the near future.




 

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Cthulhu Cult Sacrificial Blade

When you're sacrificing victims to Cthulhu the least you can do is use a bespoke blade.  Woodworker Victor Klunko crafted this sacrificial dagger to the specifications of an avid Cthulhu cultist. 

 


 

Monday, September 21, 2020

The Necronomicon

 Alex Libris returns to our pages with another masterful example of tomecraft.  This time it's a Necronomicon journal, bound in hand-tooled leather with custom Sigil of the Necronomicon embossment and brass hardware.


 

Friday, September 18, 2020

Cthulhu Dice Box

I normally wouldn't have any interest in a dice box, but this one is from George Tsougkouzidis.  Just look at the amazing texture work on this piece, particularly in the third photograph.  I'd kill to have a quarter of his talent.   




 

Thursday, September 17, 2020

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 It's a pretty safe bet you won't be finding this particular species of plant in your seed catalog.  This tentacled plant..thing comes to us from Arend Smith of Raven Dark Creations.


 

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

The Noble Wand

 Ornemaniste brings us Caoimhe, a wizard's wand hand carved from beech.


 

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Great Seal of the Sleeping God

 Francois Launet has been illustrating the Mythos for decades.  His latest piece is this awesome Great Seal of the Sleeping God.  Click through to check out some of the other amazing work in his gallery.


 

Monday, September 14, 2020

Altar of Cthulhu

 This gorgeous hand-carved wooden altar of Cthulhu comes to us from Ukrainian artist Andrey Kaukin of Voodoo Carving.  



 

Friday, September 11, 2020

Great Cthulhu

The gifted Maarten Verhoeven returns to our pages with this digital Cthulhu idol.  I can't wait to see the final version.


 

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Green

"The distance from our house to the forest is about 20 meters. My little brother and sister often play there with the neighbour's children, but they never go deep into the thicket.

Once I heard my sister screaming right from the forest, she called for help, because brother was mired in the swamp. It took me minutes to reach them, but when I got there, I found them both standing silent on the bank of the swamp. Brother was in mud up to his neck, breathing heavily. That evening I asked my sister what had she seen. Sister said only one word: "Green"

"Green?" I repeated. "What's Green?"

I asked her over and over, but it seemed like the little girl couldn't explain it. She simply covered her eyes with her hands, shook her head and repeated: "Green...Green...Green"

The fae are capricious and cruel, but when properly appeased their favor can be invaluable.  The gifted Alice Tochylovska returns to our pages with one such example, the wood spirit known simply as "Green".  Click through for more of the lore and a full gallery of photographs.



 

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Back to the Mountains of Madness

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the infamous Miskatonic University Antarctic expedition.  It's also, much to my surprise, eight years since I last offered up the prop package inspired by Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness".  I honestly had no idea so much time had passed.

That said, I'm finally going to do another run of the package in honor of the nonagintennial.  It will definitely include a new patch, lapel pin, postcards, stickers, and field notebooks.  I'm also leaning toward issuing a 90th Anniversary challenge coin, but haven't made a final decision about that just yet.  I'm aiming for 100 sets with a price point around $20-$25 before shipping.

I'll keep you updated as the project progresses.  As always, your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.


Dwemer Puzzle Cube

 The talented Valara Atran returns to our pages with this recreation of the Dwemer Puzzle Cube from the Elder Scrolls video game series.  It's pretty amazing how she was able to recreate the interior illumination effect from the games. 

 




 

Friday, September 4, 2020

Army of the Dead

This picture from photographer Veronica Mangal, posted by WarhammerLARP, sums up everything great about the Russian LARP scene.  Not just the high costuming standards, but the sheer number of participants meeting them.  That vampire army commander costume is insane, and the cast of characters in the background is right out of a Renaissance painting.


 

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Hail to the King

 Have you seen the Yellow Sign?  This excellent King in Yellow costume comes to us from Jonsimus Costumes.  I love that medallion.


 

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Post-Apocalyptic Backpack

Nuclear Snail Studios returns to our pages with this cool post-apocalyptic backpack prop.  They were kind enough to provide a YouTube video with an in-depth look at the layers of detail that went into creating it. 


 

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Cthulhu Fhtagn! Graham Edition.

 This nicely done Cthulhu idol comes to us from Joey and Colin Graham.  It's a digital sculpt rendered with a UV resin 3-D printer.  That helps avoid the terrible striation texture common to hot melt filament printers.