The talented Jason McKittrick brings us this collection of items from the infamous raid on Innsmouth. The complete "Artifacts of Innsmouth" collection includes the Oracle of Dagon plaque, the Mother Hydra emblem, the Innsmouth Cthulhu idol, a Shoggoth Totem, and some nifty paper props. The entire package, and each individual item, goes on sale at 6 PM Eastern tonight.
It appears the Dwemer aren't gone after all. Amando of Geonhdrio Crafts brings us this complete Dwemer heavy armor set, shield, and sword from the Elder Scrolls video game series.
We've featured quite a few of James Ewing's outstanding occult artifacts over the years here on Propnomicon. His latest work is the mysterious Blythburgh Whistle, and example of both craftsmanship and incredibly creative worldbuilding.
"Nobody knows who summoned the beast or why. However, we are confident that we know how.
The Blythburgh Whistle, like any other dog whistle, makes no sound audible to the human ear. This makes playing it incredibly difficult, and also, incredibly dangerous. The whistle may summon the black dog, but only playing the right tune will allow you to control it. Woe betide the person who picks up the whistle without knowing its song, as Black Shuck is sure to drag them back to the world of nightmares whence it came."
Click through to see a complete gallery and the artifact's full backstory.
I'm old enough to remember when bopper weapons were the cutting edge of LARP combat technology. Now players get to wield arms like this Aurean sword from Broken Wand. The level of detail on the pommel and ricasso is insane.
Abraham Marsh has brought us some impressive Innsmouth-themed costumes in the past, but this one is on a whole different level. He brings us a high priest from the Esoteric Order of Dagon, complete with full vestments and an incredible mask featuring the infamous Deep One gills. Click through to see the full gallery.
McCormick Wands returns to our pages with these beautifully hand-carved spiral wands in wenge and shedua wood.
Much like Mr. Hanna, I've never completed the search for every Stone of Barenziah in Skyrim. While the reward is considerable, it's an incredibly frustrating side quest for a couple of reasons. The biggest being the fact money ceases to be an issue long before you're able to track down all 24 stones.
That said, the stones themselves are really cool. Luckily, that motivated Mr. Hanna to create his own and share this detailed tutorial on making your own.
I love how Ordacraft uses texture in their work. This owl shaman mask is a good example, with the scales and fabric of the actual mask serving as a foundation for the rough natural textures of the horns, primitive beading, and the braided dreads.
The Real Schlitzie returns to our pages with this fantasy trophy mount of a dog-bird-lizard-goblin shark..thing. Click through for a gallery of WIP shots.
Our latest Cthulhu idol comes to us from artist Camilo Aldana. I like how they reproduce the faceted look of chipped stone figure.
Jason Soles of Gods Below returns to our pages with this fetal skull cast in bronze. The perfect macabre paperweight.
After a too long absence, Chris from ChunkaNuke Props returns to our pages with his recreation of the transportalponder from the "Old World Blues" DLC for Fallout: New Vegas. I really appreciate his old school, trash-bashing approach to prop creation. Nothing wrong with 3D printing, of course, but there's something to be said for hand-crafting an item from found objects.
This barbarian shark armor from Arte sul Cuoio is just amazing. There's so much to like here. The layered elements, leather textured like real shark skin, shark's teeth adornments...the theming is perfect.
Artist and propmaker Alexei Andreev brings us...uh...this fleshy thing. It looks like something that should be floating in a jar of formaldehyde.
No, not the necessary acceptance that you're getting older and will
eventually die, but the thought process behind aging and distressing a
prop.
Professional designer George Ledo brings us this insightful discussion about antiquing props.
He's speaking to an audience of stage magicians, but his thoughts on
developing an aging treatment hand in hand with the item's backstory are
equally applicable to Lovecraftian artifacts.
Antiquing isn’t a formula; it’s a concept. That’s a phrase I learned a few years ago when Donna and I attended a class on how to make paella, which is a Spanish seafood dish. One of the first things the instructor said was that there’s no “classical authentic recipe” for paella. Paella is not a recipe: it’s a concept--a traditional way to use rice, and chicken, and chorizo, and locally available seafood, to make a one-course meal for several people.
An effective technique is to think of the object as having a history, and of each part of its history as being a “layer” that can be addressed separately. Although it’s impossible to create a “how to” list about antiquing props, I’m going to show a couple of hypothetical examples of how I would go about doing this, using standard theatrical techniques. This will of course delve into the actual design of the prop, but I’ll focus on the antiquing.
Vulture Productions showing off an amazing Halo ODST armor set, complete with a full load out of weapons.
Sergey Belov of Forest Totem Workshop brings us this patinated Cthulhu idol. Click through for a full gallery of pictures, including closer looks at the interesting detailing of the supporting column.
