Marie WheelerSo I’m a few days late with my rendition of the Elder Things and y’all get two posts today!
The Elder Things are mentioned in several of Lovecraft’s works and are interchangeably known as the Old Ones and the Elder Ones, but no story describes them with such detail as in At the Mountains of Madness, where he writes:
“Important discovery. Orrendorf and Watkins, working underground at 9:45 with light, found monstrous barrel-shaped fossil of wholly unknown nature; probably vegetable unless overgrown specimen of unknown marine radiata. Tissue evidently preserved by mineral salts. Tough as leather, but astonishing flexibility retained in places. Marks of broken-off parts at ends and around sides. Six feet end to end, 3.5 feet central diameter, tapering to 1 foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In furrows between ridges are curious growths. Combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans. All greatly damaged but one, which gives almost seven-foot wing spread. Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things in Necronomicon. These wings seem to be membraneous, stretched on a framework of glandular tubing. Apparent minute orifices in frame tubing at wing tips. Ends of body shrivelled (sic), giving no clue to interior or to what has been broken off there.”
In imagining these creatures through the years with different readings of At the Mountains of Madness, I had always imagined them as having vertical ridges, but more recently and in taking the idea of the barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves, I wonder if they shouldn’t be horizontal. I don’t think that this is accurate based on other parts of the description, so I went with the vertical ridges. It seems that if they were real, this would be a more structurally sound design for them, especially as the description of them just seems like he put together a bunch of echinoderms. Otherwise they are like a vertical accordion and that doesn’t seem reasonable. Then again, neither does trying to figure out the structural aspects of an imaginary monster. Whatever.
Anywho, as always, I used a combination of the Derwent Inktense Pencils (Payne’s Gray, Sepia Ink, Indian Ink and Chili Red) and my new Distress Ink Marker in Black Soot, both the fine and brush tip ends. I had done the background using a mixture of the Distress Sprays in Black Soot and Spiced Marmalade.
To explain the backdrop, I felt like I wanted to put the Elder Things in the habitat they once knew (mythically) and I went with an ancient Antarctica with the city in the background, I sadly can not make the inhuman, non-Euclidean geometry of the city, darn being human and all.
So that’s it. I feel like I continue to improve, though it’s really difficult to get some things right and I continue to rely on the internet for help in figuring it all out. I hope you enjoy and see you next week when I try my hand at Ghouls!
I’m now active on Twitter @marieisomnia and on Instagram @omniasubsole, so come on and follow me! I’m still trying to get it together for Facebook, but I think that its
As an aside, I have worked a lot with the Inktense Pencils to this point and have yet needed to sharpen them. I’m pretty impressed with the longevity!
