20060417

Crawling Chaos


Prompted by Julião I took up is suggestion of tackling my depiction of Nyarlathotep.

Talk about leaving it open to imagination! - Nyarlathotep is supposed to have 1000 shapes!

I read wikipedia´s entry on this Outer God and instead of following by letter some of the aspects of Nyarlathotep in the list I read it diagonally and till I had the gist of it.

This Dark, tentacled, multi-mouthed female was the end result, with which I was quite happy. I quite like the effect of the swirling Chaos in the backdrop - kind of looks like the veiny, translucid, inside of some organ.

Still, all done with GIMP, a mouse, and a hand I had to shake once in a while to avoid cramps :P

3 comments:

Juliao said...

Wonderful; impressive almost-fractal motif, amazing background.

Still don't know how you manage to draw with just a mouse... some people have it, some people don't...

torradas said...

Drawing with a mouse is hard work :P

To give you an idea, I start by drawing the major outlines at 60%-100% zoom. This I do with a large brush. When I´m happy with the disposition, I zoom to 200% and do some detail work with a medium brush (zooming back to 100% once in a while so as to not lose sight of the "major picture"). Then I zoom to 400% (in only some areas) if I want to do real detail (tiny 2 pixel, 3 pixel brushes). Then I go for the effects, like smudging and using the "burn/dodge" tools (This is how the background in this picture was done). Then it´s ready :D

I´d say about 5 - 10 minutes for major sketch, 30 - 45 minutes for the "phase 2 detailing" and another 10 - 20 minutes for the effects.

I wasn´t lying about wrist cramps though... :P Its PAINSTAKING mouse work this.

PAM said...

well it's been a while since you've bring something new. but the waiting has been well rewarded.

this piece is awesome!

just one critic though... you should start working in at least 10x15 (postal size) with a resolution of 300 dpi's. obviously don't post here the final product but a resized less quality copy just for showing. it would give you margin for printing your work later on. It really is a great satisfaction to see your work printed. You should try it someday.