Cosmic Cthulhu- Art Process- My New Knownorigin NFT

in Pixelart4 years ago

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Hi guys! I finally tokenized my pixelart ^_^ I'm quite attached to this drawing and I couldn't decide on the price, so I set it to offers only. There is only 1 edition, as I want it to be special.

Knownorigin - Cosmic Cthulhu There you can read a little extra story.

This was my first extra detailed pixelart and it motivated me to create more big scenes ever since. I love the Lovecraft's stories that I have read so far and I have a few more left, and then I want to reread them. I've read a bunch of fan fiction as well, I really like the The Innsmouth Legacy by Ruthanna Emrys.

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About the art

I began with the Cthulu's description:

In "The Call of Cthulhu", H. P. Lovecraft describes a statue of Cthulhu as "A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind." Source: Wikipedia

Octopus-like head
Scaly, rubbery body
Long claws
Long narrow wings

I started the sketch with the round octopus-like head, then marked the torso and the arms placement. I first thought of drawing him reaching for a boat in the ocean as Cthulhu originates from Southeast Pacific Ocean. However, I felt that it would be hard to transition well from water to Cthulhu and then stormy sky. I decided to make it more mysterious- floating in space.

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The yoga position was a random inspiration in the moment, and it adds a more wise pose to the monster. I drew the face more wise looking and wrinkled than menacing or spiky.

The claws are actually long nails making the creature less scary and looking more like an old wise seer looking into a crystal ball.

The third eye and 6 fingers/toes are my additional design ideas, making the monster more personalized.

I also collected as much varied Cthulhu art as I could find on Pinterest

Before animating I made a list of the elements:

  • Floating Body
  • Wings
  • The spheres
  • Hands (slight animation
  • Head Tentacles (slight)
  • Stars
  • Blinking eyes

It's recommended for pixel art animations to be at least 8 frames, but each additional frame requires more planning.

I reused frames whenever possible, mostly animating 3 key frames.
Before doing the line art I decided that I would use mostly greens and blues, the more traditional Cthulhu colors.

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Pixel Art

First I scaled down the pencil sketch as much as possible, without losing too much details. I drew the outline roughly first and made a few proportion adjustments. Afterwards I cleaned up the outline. The most common way is to avoid jumbled pixels and zooming out a lot to see if the lines look smooth. It takes a bit of practice, but for bigger drawings tiny outline mistakes become less visible.

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I started with very strong green and dark tones, which I adjusted afterwards to my liking. It is important to get started, afterwards it is easier to make adjustments.

I worked with very dark tones for most of the drawing. In the end I added a lot of brightness and contrast, because some monitors show less color and contrast (like my laptop vs monitor).

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The decision to keep or remove the outline is mostly based on preference. The outline can save a lot of time, and it can be easily blended with the local colors, it doesn't have to stay black. For stronger visibility I used some rim light, because I wanted a dark background.

When I got stuck I started adding some subtle textures to make the skin more interesting.

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I left the sphere for last in case I decided to change it's size. I didn't want to make it too difficult to animate so I draw a very quick full map, which I cut into 6 pieces and distorted slightly for animation.

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The stars and constellations are soft and mostly small, to not distract from the main composition. Based on some feedback I received, I decided to not use the moon.

Final art

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I animated in Aseprite, with only 4 layers and an additional one for the moon which I decided to remove.

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Bonus:

Little clay Cthulhu I sculpted many years ago :D I should try sculpting it again xD

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Dragon head winner: @edouard ^_^ more info
You can win a head by commenting :D

I'll wait 1 more day for the Giant Frog buyer to pick the next dragon head, otherwise I'll pick random and reserve the second edition for when I find who it is (sorry I can't check buyer history right for now) ^^

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Thank you for checking out this long post! I hope you enjoyed it ^^ I've originally posted this few years ago when I first drew it, I mainly fixed a bunch of typos. I have another new pixelart tutorial planned soon, I just need to finish the text explaining the steps ^^

Pixelart Contest #2!!!

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That's really well done. I feel thrown back to the 80's right now, playing on MS-DOS. And funny topic, as I have played just yesterday Mansions of Madness, a Lovecraft-based board game. I have never read the books though.

Mansion of Madness.jpg

Why do you sell the art for ETH and not for Hive on NFTshowroom?

I only sold 2 editions on NFT showroom each for 35hive :) No buyers on hive yet. However, Iaven't been doing well on knownorigin either. Only sold my first piece there, maybe I put too high prices xD
I really want to get mansion of madness :O I got to check it out on a game con once, it's so cool!! There is a solo mode if I remember right?

I am still not quite clear about the value of such an NFT. I do like the idea of it and I understand that it transfers certain ownership. I guess I can go and print it then myself? Either way, hive is certainly easier for users here than ETH.

I have bumbed my upvoter up to 100% for you (it was only on 1% previously and 100% creativecoin), that is still the easiest way for me to support you. Your work is so cool and I am glad we have artists like yourself here. The pixelart contest and stuff like that is highly appreciated! I am an artist myself although in a very, very unique approach that is not suited for selling anything. I am fine with that as long as I can spread my message.

Thank you very much :D
I'm still figuring out how to price my stuff really, I probably need to promote it way more :)

I hope you give pixelart a try and join the contest ^_^ there are many free apps even for the phone, it's really fun :D

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There is no God, but there's only Cthulhu. In Cthulhu we trust! Pretty awesome stuff as always, and I must say, that little clay sculpture is adorable! 😄

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Thank you!! xD 😁

You're welcome, and I do agree, that little clay sculpture needs a sequel. But please, keep the cute anime eyes, please 😁

That is very impressive, @Kristy! I can really imagine you developing artwork for computer games. Your style would be very requested, I have no doubt of that! 🤗

Aww thank you <3 :D

Octopuses are so fascinating! Love them! The little sculpture looked so cute!

They really are and incredibly intelligent :O
Thank you ^_^

Yes they are! I find them incredibly fascinating! The rainbow octopus looks amazing, it is one of my favourites

Really awesome piece, and cool to see tokenizing digital art is now possible and easy.

Thank you ^^ Yeah, it took me a a day to learn about it, but now it's really easy

Don't worry this isn't as long as some of my posts have been ;D

This so looks like a title screen or something for an old game xD

Aargh I love the little clay Cthulu how cute is it!

Aww I'm not worried xD I look forward to them haha. I just try not to check too often and do comments just a coupe of times a day ^^
Thank you <3 I'll see if I can find some clay to make more :D

Wow, very impressive! Really well done and, sure, well explained 😃

Thank you very much ^_^

Nice job and cute bonus <3 It has a really interesting atmosphere. Just - I love it :D

Thank you ^_^

AWSOME work! in pen like pixelart. i love the estetic