Valuable Document Envelope

16sparrows, the proprietor of the "Behind the Curtain" blog, has a free pdf pattern for creating a valuable documents envelope.



This is the kind of paper prop that might as well have a big neon sign saying "Important plot information inside!" bolted onto it.

Limestone Cthulhu Statue

Michaelao has posted a Cthulhu idol made from real limestone on deviantART. I get frustrated working with malleable sculpting materials, so I can only imagine the work that goes into stone carving.



You can check out some of his other work in the gallery, including a leather Necronomicon cover and hand-tooled armor.

The Land Down Under: Part Deux

Following up on my earlier efforts, here are a couple more design iterations for a patch based on Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time".



This one makes a couple of minor changes from the last version. The font is a little cleaner and the Southern Cross design has been replaced by the stylized aboriginal journey/campsite glyphs.



Now we're cookin'. I really like how how this color scheme looks. Very evocative of the Australian desert, but the upper half of the design still seems a bit empty.



Oh, here we go. The sunburst really jazzes things up.



A little fiddling with the color scheme. Combine this with the sunburst design and we get...



I really like this. It has the clean geometric forms and color palette of a period design while incorporating some meaningful imagery. Ayer's Rock for Australia, the four parallel lines of the journey glyph running east to west, the concentric circles of the campsite glyph symbolizing both the destination of the expedition and it's actual rough location north of Ayer's rock, and the sunburst design recalls the sunburst in the Miskatonic University seal.

I'm going walk away from this for a couple of days and then see how it looks with fresh eyes, but I think this is pretty close to the final design.

Quick And Dirty Cthulhu Idol

Wesley Scoggins over at Indymogul has a tutorial up for creating a quick-and-dirty Cursed Idol using floral foam and paper clay.

"For your own creature you could do anything you want, and you don't have to follow my design at all, but I'm a Lovecraft nerd so it's pretty obvious why I picked this design. Any kind of simple design will do, very simple work could even be beneficial for a build like this since the simpler it is the older it can look, so don't doubt your sculpting skills here. I have terrible sculpting abilities and I put this together in about half an hour, so trust me when I say I know all you guys and gals out there can do better."

I think Wesley shows exactly the right kind of attitude, even if he's not totally happy with his work. It's better to actually make something than to continually put off the attempt because you're afraid of failing. Of course you'll make mistakes. That's the whole point. Doing is always superior to dreaming because it allows you to make mistakes and learn from them, and the more mistakes you make the better.

One of the most important lessons I've ever learned is something I was taught by a truly talented artist- there's a whole lotta suck before you get to the good stuff. Embrace the suck, and learn from it, because it's the only way you're ever going to get better at anything in life.

Speaking of which, I should probably get back to trying to come up with a halfway decent Australian expedition logo....

Lights! Camera! Action!

As part of his efforts to produce a Lovecraftian short film Jason Heath has created some great props, including this journal from "At the Mountains of Madness":



And a very impressive Cthulhu idol:



You can read more about his efforts at the "Rebel Café" indy filmmaking site, or at his blog.

The Land Down Under

I've been fooling around with some possible designs for another Miskatonic patch, this time for the 1935 expedition to Australia from "The Shadow Out of Time". So far, I haven't had much luck coming up with something I like. I know I don't want to use a silhouette of Australia, or, god forbid, a kangaroo, but beyond that I'm not feeling very inspired.



It's bright! The lines and concentric circles are a stylized version of the aboriginal symbols for a journey and campsite, while the stars are the Southern Cross found on the Australian flag. I think this depiction is a little too modern.



Same design, slightly different color scheme. A step up, but that's not saying much.



I like the colors, but I think the use of the rough version of the travel and campsite symbols doesn't quite work.



Now we're getting somewhere. Ayer's Rock is a natural symbol for Australia, and the two-color cutout presentation is consistent with period advertising graphics. The latin Ab Aeterno, "From the beginning of time", gives a nod to the expedition's mission to explore ancient ruins, as well as serving up a bit of meta-irony to anyone familiar with the story.



The lettering looks better thanks to a few tweaks, but I don't think using the "campsite" symbol in a rising sun motif works. I really like the buffed-up Ayer's Rock.



I'm liking this, although I have some doubts about the reverse-arch effect on the latin motto.

It still needs work, but I think I'm on the right track. In addition to figuring out the final graphics I also have to decide on the titling. Should it be the "Australian Expedition", or the "Peaslee-Boyle Expedition", or the "Great Sandy Desert Expedition"?

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

The Ravages Of Time

I'm probably one of the very few artists (and I use that term in reference to myself very loosely) who loves seeing his work used and abused. Brian Stillman did an excellent job of weathering one of my Miskatonic expedition patches, and was kind enough to send this before and after comparison along with detailed instructions.

"Aging it was pretty simple and straight forward. First, I attacked it with a small file, roughing up all the edges and just fraying the heck out of it. Then I took an X-acto knife and made light, quick slicing motions all over it. This loosened up all the threads, which I then just picked at until I had the right amount of wear. Through it all, I used some patches from my father's old army jacket as references.

I also used the knife to cut away some of the plastic backing -- this allows the patch to curl and warp a bit more.

Finally, I soaked it overnight in chai tea. It's a bit lighter than straight black tea, which was closer to the look I wanted. Plus, it gave the patch a nice cinnamon-y smell, which covers the stench of pure evil that had otherwise permeated it. :) "