Weekend laziness!

Look, it's Sunday!

Have a Cthulhu drawing.

Recreated Field Tent

So, I'm an enormous nerd.  "What?"  I hear you saying, "You?  A nerd?"  Despite what many of you must think, I am, indeed, a nerd.  To prove it, here's my thesis showing from my graduating year.

Pretty, I know.  The entire idea behind it was an exploration of digital space and video games as a medium of narrative.  I was very interested in the storytelling behind a lot of games (for example: Half-Life, Portal, Warcraft, Diablo 2, Fallout 3...).  The trend among the ones I found most interesting was the inclusion of story in the game play.  That as one progressed, they were exposed to the story, and the more things made sense in the digital world.  So, I collaborated with my illustrating friend Zach Fischer and we came up with this room.  We examined some Joseph Campbell ideas on the hero's journey and settled on World of Warcraft as a world with which to work.  I wrote up some story, made the props, we scribed in journals, he did some portraits and a map, and we presented it as a recreation of a real digital-space.

While the presentation of the room would have been more effective had it been delivered in character as a member of WoW's archeological society "The Explorer's League" but, c'est la vive.  I still got to make a ton of props for it.

Mandelbrot, no not that one.

There is, traveling around the globe, a man who only calls himself The Professor.  When prompted for a name, he usually gives a pseudonym such as Douglas N. Asimov or Charles D. Clarke.  While he does boast some unusual credentials, he is nonetheless a top-shelf biologist, zoologist and crypto-zoologist.  Today, I present for you, the Mandelbrot, one of his many zoological samples.

The Mandelbrot is a winged reptilian of questionable origins.  The Professor writes: "A specimen from October's spacial and temporal incident in Massachusetts...The Mandelbrot, I hypothesize, is a creature of "outer space" a void between worlds.  As far as occult matters are concerned they are one of the (hypothetically) Thousand children of the Black Goat of a Thousand Young."

I'll, of course, be posting more of the Professor's samples and (should he grant me the permission) pages from his journal.

Who doesn't love alchemy?

Today on the block is one alchemystic drawing. That's right alchemystic, not alchemic. The process of finding the secrets of the universe to find self-beyond self. It's actually quite Zen-Buddhist in ideals. It just uses proto-chemistry instead of meditation.
I attempted to combine some of the core alchemystic icons in this. First off, we have the ouroboros: the serpent devouring its tail. While there is very often a single serpent, it is used to represent a cycle, a return to the beginning. We also have, rather hidden, the Sephiroth. A gnostic symbol for the tree of knowledge. And of course fire, fire is a basic alchemystic tool and is often considered humanity's first step towards being the brainy monkeys we are today. Also, it's a simple metaphor for energy.

Ultimately this was supposed to represent, alchemystically, the constant pursuit for knowledge. As Johnny-Five may say: "Input!"

Gods I love masks.

Of the many masks I've constructed (or attempted to construct) this one is the most popular. Designed after the plague masks from the 1350s (the black death world tour eras), done in a faux-linen with green glass lenses.

Origins around the plague masks were from the common belief that the plague was spread by demons. To prevent the demons from infecting the doctors, they wore beaked leather masks. The beask were stuffed with herbs to ward off evil spirits. Doctors also wore long thick coats and prodded the infected with long sticks, ironically, this prevented the fleas from getting to the doctors.

What most people don't know, is that the masks were originally made from white linen and a modified archer's hood. The white hood worn over a black coat was symbolic of the doctor's life succeeding over death. These color schemes come from a much older civilization that held the ideals of light, dark, and balance in a religious triptych. These three branches of their religion waned over the years, but one Dr. Paul Redgrave hypothesized the black rats that brought the plagued fleas into Europe were planed by the Black Robe sect of this religion and the combating doctors were from the White Robes. Hence the color scheme.
The hidden history of the world is so terribly fun to explore.

Velcomin!

Welcome one and all to the first posting of the illustrious N. Tep Enterprises.
On the block today is a gem of anthropology, a stoneware idol of the dread Elder God Cthulhu.
This little visage of horror is 3.25 inches tall 4 inches long 2 inches wide. It's hollow and has been stained with what appears to be watered down India ink. It was found in a recent cleaning of a postwar flat in Brooklyn New York. N. Tep Enterprises acquired it for the small sum of $45. Thus far, no rituals from The Book of Black Names has yielded anything other than a fishy smell.