Cthulhu III, first steps

Hey there,

Somehow, this guy doesn't leave me alone. After the dramatic depictions in the first two paintings, I'm going for a slightly different look this time: the uniform of evil, a well-taylored suit.
This here is a preparatory drawing I made in charcoal, already on the canvas. I fixed it with some fixative spray and am currently applying color. nice unhealthy green for the skin, a bright, cool light from above and a gloomy red one from below.



Later that evening I found this myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/cthulhu2008
I'll definitely send them a jpg of the finished piece, and now I think of giving him a star spangled banner-pin :) He'll also get a signet ring, and I'm thinking about a monocle. But that might be too much.
Cthulhu is a republican, or isn't he?

Digital stuff!

yo world! today i've got something digital for you. these are parts of the artwork to my awesome band's first full length album, which will be be released on may 22nd all across europe. check out our music: myspace.com/parityboot
you can also find the video to the title track in one of the first posts in this blog (and on the myspace profile). all the visuals for the band are supposed to stick to the topic of decayed, abandoned places, so textures of rust and mold make up most of these images. i took many of the billions of photos worked in here by myself, in hamburg, the rest come from this site, a great place for every digital artist.


the front cover. the band logo and name were made in cinema 4d, with textures later applied in photoshop. the background is composed from pictures of some kind of tar container that stood in front of my house for a while, some broken concrete and loads of dirt photos.




these two were made almost entirely from photos i took on a sunny day in hamburg. locals might recognize some places :)


that lamp thing in the foreground is from one of dozens of german tanks that stand and rot on a field near the band's hometown as a reminder of war time. it's a famous place for local metal bands' photo sessions.


this last one is the tray card, the inside of the cd case. it's supposed to look like one surface with a hole in it, although it consists of countless seperate images.

when working in this manner, you find out what photoshop is actually capable of: everything. big thanks to my teacher anthony who taught me this stuff, and to travis smith, whose artwork for devin townsend's terria album is a gorgeous example of what can be done this way (and was probably my biggest inspiration).

there's another painting in the making right now. after the flying elephants, it features a rificulously large flying whale. might be finished toward the weekend.