Marie WheelerThe procrastination is over, for the moment, and I have finally created another piece for the NAJ. This weeks entry is Shub -Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. How’s that for a title?
This one was harder than most to conceptualize, as I don’t think HPL even knows exactly what he intentioned for this creature as the details are confusing between stories. Also, there is no actual description ever written, just the fact that Shub is a very well-worshiped fertility deity.
From A Lovecraftian Bestiary:
“Iä! Shub -Niggurath!” (“The Last Test,” “The Dunwich Horror,” “The Mound,” “Medusa’s Coil,” “The Horror in the Museum,” “The Thing on the Doorstep,” and “The Diary of Alonzo Typer”)
“One squat, black temple of Tsathoggua was encountered, but it had been turned into a shrine of Shub-Niggurath, the All-Mother and wife of the Not-to-Be-Named-One. This deity was a kind of sophisticated Astarte, and her worship struck the pious Catholic as supremely obnoxious.” (“The Mound”)
“Iä! Shub -Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!” (“The Whisperer in Darkness,” “The Dreams in the Witch House,” “The Man of Stone”)
Clearly not a lot of physical description there. I decided that it would be the most interesting and most able to help me practice some old skills and touch on some new techniques if I made the setting the temple described in The Mound and put a coniferous forest as the backdrop with a full moon. I believe I was vaguely inspired for the coniferous setting by the fact that I was concurrently listening to the Tanis podcast.
The first step involved sketching out the scene roughly and *trying* to develop my skills on perspective. I used my new Derwent Graphic Pencils that I picked up at Michael’s for an upcoming drawing class (excited!).
I then attempted a technique I learned about the other night watching Peter Sheeler on YouTube on how to create a dramatic sky. I must say, this technique worked easily and I feel really confident to continue with watercolors based on just having this added tool in my belt.
The last part was just adding details and shadows with my Micron pens and using some gouache to amp up the color of the moon to allow full creepiness to emerge.
A tentacled goat. That’s where I ended up with my creature. I thought of adding just one tentacle emerging from the ominous black of the temple entrance, but decided against it.
I really like the gouache moon. So creepy.
