Dance of the Cult

For this year's Ars Necronomica, which is NecronomiCon-Providence's art show, I wanted to bring new scratchboards, and figured whatever illustration I did for the cover of my Cthulhu Commune zine might effectively kill two birds with one stone, and would serve as a cross-promotion, as well- if you saw the illustration hanging in the show, you might recognize it on the zine in the vendor's room. The finished piece took about a week to complete and went through a transformation in the design process.

 The first sketch was the cover layout with the zine's title. Cultists dance around a pillar, on top of which stands a small Cthulhu idol, and the elder god himself rises behind the scene. The first drawing envisioned an ugly asymmetrical Cthulhu, while a second attempt looked like insect eyes. Not really the look I wanted. These drawings were made on vellum trace so I could lay each successive design on top of the previous one to see what could stay and what needed to be altered. Some of the dancers changed poses as I went on.

As I continued to work on eye placement, I Googled images of octopi heads and incorporated a more realistic form into the image. Wanting to include Cthulhu's dramatic wingspan, I redesigned the drawing for a horizontal layout. For the image to work as a zine cover, I made sure all the essential elements- cultists, idol, and monster- were in the center.

Designing the image for a 9"x12" scratchboard allowed a wider scope, and I thought I might show the hanging corpses that had been sacrifices, but knowing this piece would be included in a gallery art show, I decided against a scene of disembowelment and gore.

The first part of the drawing to be committed to the scratchboard was Cthulhu and the idol. It was such a stark and effective image, I scanned it for future use. I've since included it with text on Cthulhu Commune's blog and my business card. I spent a lot of time removing the black surface from this scratchboard, planning to add a watercolor tint to it, but my wife suggested against the color, leaving this scratchboard whiter and brighter than many of the ones I've done. Piles of skulls replaced the hanging corpses, and the skulls worked better in the design anyway.

When I took the scratchboard to be professionally framed, my wife chose one with faded silver paint that gives the scratchboard a silvery look. And the scratchboard was framed on top of the matte, giving it a floating three-dimensional effect that looks... well, stunning.

There are so many great artists featured in this year's Ars Necronomica, I knew I needed to bring my best work, and the time spent on this one piece was worth it for me to be included in the same show as Artist Guest of Honor John Coulthart.

"The Dance of the Cult" is hanging and for sale at the Providence Art Club. If you decide you cannot leave NecronomiCon-Providence 2015 without this picture and purchase it from the Club, email me and I'll gladly send you all the drawings I've included in this post, which will satisfy any completist.