I KNEWwell in advance what the basic subject matter of the illustration would be - Cthulhu rising from the ocean and reaching out to a lifeboat of shipwrecked sailors. The first thing I did was a very rough thumbnail sketch just to get the main elements arranged and the basic layout and composition clear in my mind.
HERE Iconcentrated on tightening up the drawing of Cthulhu's limbs & his claws. I also had the first attempt at realising his wings.
USING CUTand paste on the computer in Paint I moved the wing upwards slightly so that Cthulhu's raised hand is contrasted against the dark shadow of the wing. This was much better. Now the figure of Cthulhu is ready to be realised in finished pencils.
NOW THATthe main figure of Cthulhu has beenfinalised I do a pencil sketch of the other elements of the picture; the towers of R'lyeh, the sinking ship and the life boat.
CREATURES OF CTHULHU
STAGE 1 - SKETCHES
I SCANNEDthis sketch on the computer and decided that the lifeboat was too big so I cut and pasted it and reduced it in size, making Cthulhu appear much larger and more menacing. I also moved the sinking ship slightly to the left.
THE EVOLUTION OF A PAINTING
I DECIDEDthat I didn't like the design of Cthulhu's wings so I re-designed them. I still wasn't happy with the design of Cthulhu's raised hand against the wing but I was reasonably happy with everything else .
THE COMPOSITIONof Cthulhu's body has been arrived at. here I concentrated on the design and position of his wings
NEXT Ibegan to work on the anatomy of Cthulhu, adding tonal elements to the limbs and body and working on the design of Cthulhu's face and main torso. The bat-like wings are suggested but not fully worked on yet
THE NEXTstep was to do a full size rough refining the layout and the objects in the composition. I wanted Cthulhu to be reaching out for the life boat with the sinking ship lost in the haze in the distance. The lifeboat also serves the purpose of giving some scale to Cthulhu. I also wanted some R’lyehian architecture visible.
THE FINISHEDcoverdesign drawn in pencil. This will be put onto the lightbox and traced onto Windsor & Newton 100% acid free canvas textured paper for acrylic paints.
ONCE Ihad established a rough cover design with all the elements in place I put together a mock up of the cover to see how the design would look with the text added.
NEXT THEsky is worked on in tones of green, yellow and blue. This isn't a very good scan and the sky appears much darker than it actually is - it's better on the next scan.
HERE THEsea has been worked on and, except for around the rocks below Cthulhu, is finished. The life boat is almost finished, though it needs shades of green/ yellow added to tie it in with the sea and sky.
THE TWO TOWERSof R'lyeh have been painted and just need a touch of mist to push them into the back-ground slightly. The rocks upon which Cthulhu sits have been given an underpainting.
THE ROCKS ANDthe waves have been finished. All that remains is to work on the figure of Cthulhu.
THE WINGS OFCthulhu have been worked on and are almost completed. Also the rocks in the foreground have been darkened slightly to bring them forward.
