SPN Eldritch - We are the Monsters art masterpost

[amberdreams]

Eldritch number two is a totally different flavour of strange - AndThatWasEnough's charming and quirky alternate vision of what the bunker could have been. You can read the story HERE on AO3



I had a wealth of interesting creatures and scenes to choose from, but in the end, I settled on this one, because who can resist Witchy Sam?
Sam's companion is one of this bunker's residents, Amenhotep.



So, to get from there to here, this is what I did.
I had a big list of ideas and research, and collected a bunch of references that I put into a sort of mood board. As you can see, not much of this material survived into the actual art!

Work in progress on both Eldritches - inking the Sam pic. Amenhotep is drawn from photos of the mummy of Amenhotep III. He really does have reddish dreadlocks in a kind of bun.

Starting to watercolour

Drawing for the head in the jar - coloured pencil and fine liner inking.

Digital magic - imported the above traditional paper-based pic into Affinity, layered on top of a gouache of the bunker tiled wall, splashed on textures and decorations, before adding the jar and text.

Comments

[blindswandive.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh I love this!! I was already really interested in this one but now I'm 👀 wondering who the jar creature is, how the mummy comes in. Sam looks amazing, the mummy is gorgeous and haunting, and the head looks so sad and fantastical. 🥺❤️

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Fantastical is the best way of describing the story too — hope you enjoy it when it's posted later today!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

The story's arrived!

[midnightsilvers.livejournal.com]

I love the head in the jar! The goblin-esq features are delightful and I love that you overlaid the design with geometric patterns and accents. I think it gives a really esoteric air to it! 😄
Ahhhh and witchy!Sam 🥰🥰🥰 I absolutely adore his bright green eyes! And I love that wonderful glow you captured around the candles💛 (I love lighting effects in traditional art, especially since I find them so hard to do 😂!)
And Amenhotep is so cool 😄 I love how you used the shadows to emphasise his dried and shrunken skin.
It’s really interesting to see the mood board too! We can definitely see where you have gathered inspiration for lighting and colours, shapes and atmosphere. It all comes through in the final piece 😄
I do love seeing the WIPs too. It is ALWAYS brilliant to get to see the magic coming together.
Love it! (Lol don’t count how many times I said ‘love’ in the comment😂 I’m not a writer!) Massive kudos on your second Eldritch 👍🏻😄. A real pleasure to see.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!
The pop in the candle flames and Sam's green eyes are digital enhancements — I used the colour dodge tool so that's a cheat (or fix it, depending how you look at it! 😂 )
The mood board came about because I had nothing to submit at check in time, just a bunch of research and references, so I had the bright idea of putting those together — and it was actually quite useful, so I might do it again on future bangs.

[midnightsilvers.livejournal.com]

I’m a big advocate for mixed media! I have huge respect for people who work in a single discipline, but I’m more of a ‘whatever gets me the effect I’m after’ type of person 😂 (I first started doing white highlights in tipex pen, then I graduated to white acrylic, the finally I found gel pens, but since I’ve started doing digital drawing too, I’m not averse to digital highlights if I need to 😄. I see it more as using all the tools available 🤷🏻‍♂️ It only becomes cheating when someone slaps a filter on a photo and goes round telling everyone they hand drew it in charcoal 🙄 but I digress 😂) — so all that to say I love the effects you achieved with the bright eyes and the soft flames. And the flames were already gorgeous in your watercolour whip, so you had already captured that soft feel that I love about them.
And definitely agree on the mood board! They are super helpful. For me it just depends on how organised my research is 😂🤷🏻‍♂️