Cthulhu RPG game art.

[Victor Pflug]

I'm at the end of my tether. I desperately need C&C on some Cthulhu game art I made.
I posted this at a Cthulhu site and all 5000 members seem to have been devoured by a Shoggoth or something.
Anyway, I need mercilessly brutal C&C from the kind of forum goers who will fucking annihilate my work if it's crap.

Now, let me begin by saying I think most game art sucks balls.
Especially since the turn of the century. I won't go on about this, but to my eyes most game art I see in todays games bores the crap out of me. Anyway, I digress or whatever.

So, my art director thinks my concept for Kingsport, a town from Cthulhu mythos, is way too fantasy like. I thought it had an eerie dead calm.
I''d like to know what anyone familiar any Cthulhu games thinks especially. Am I insane to think I could pass this off as Cthulhu Mythos art? Must it be the usual shadowy green cities everywhere?

Also, what does everyone think about game art these days in general?
Is there room for experimentation and branching out from the norm? Must all spaceships be black behemoths?
Does space armor always have to look like fucking rejects from a Starship Troopers storehouse? They bloody well wouldn't if I had any say over it...

 

[Phelot]

Since you want us to be brutal, I gotta say that this looks like a Magic: The Gathering card. Some of which are very good, but this looks like the new age stuff. Not to say that you don't have talent because you obviously do. I'd like to see more of your art.

As far as game art today, I agree that current developers seem to be stuck in a certain groove that they can't get out of which is a shame. Take a look at fantasy art on Devianart and it looks the same. We can take screenshots from different games, mix them all up, and not tell the difference between them. That's sad.

It's been discussed before but I'll say it again: Current games focus more on graphics then the actual art. In fact, the graphics tend to hide the actual art, obscuring it and hiding it's flaws.

 

[Zeus]

Here's my take: the top half does NOT look very Lovecraftian. But then the eye scrolls down to the town, which you pretty much nailed.

I think the main problem are the clouds. Big billowing clouds imply a lot of clear sky otherwise. If it was completely overcast, that'd be truly oppressive. Make it look like it's about to rain, not like a summer breeze just rolled by and scooted a big cotton cloud to the side.

Just my two cents.

P.S. To anyone who says it looks too "fantasy" or "M:TG" to be considered Mythos, let's not forget a lot of the accepted Mythos art would look right at home on a Magic card.

 

[barker_s]

My first impression of that pic, even before I read your post, was that it's from a Discworld book. Seriously, it looks too cartoonish. You sure are talented, but it doesn't look like something taken out of Cthulhu mythos.

 

[Zeus]

And check out this book cover from noted Lovecraft historian, S.T. Joshi:

The guy is basically the undisputed authority on all things Lovecraft, and his book cover would look right at home with a "Lord of the Rings" logo stamped on top.

 

[Mattresses]

Not enough grimdark.

But, there's very little space given to the piece, more focus on the sea would be nice, and (I suspect) give you more of the 'stillness' you're looking for, the windswept clouds and the I'm-not-sure-what in the foreground really counter this a bit. It really does look like a fantasy town, though.

Really cluttered frame, but it must be hard to avoid in the dimensions you're working. Shifting the horizon down to the lower third division might help, there's not really much interesting at any of the focal points, aside from the head of the cloud..

I'm just spouting crap, though. No art expert am I.

EDIT: Also! Contrast! There is none!

 

[Zeus]

See the sad truth is, folks who have never picked up a Lovecraft collection have all these ideas about the Cthulhu Mythos, and how artwork "should" look... like some flexing video game boss. Just hit the convenient box of rockets beside his throne three times and he explodes!

What they don't realize is that H.P. Lovecraft stories were originally sold with art that looked like this:

And the 70s were even weirder:

Would either of the two above be considered appropriate artwork for a Lovecraft book today? Hell no. They aren't gooey enough! Where's the big squidface guy? If it's not Michael Whelan art it don't count, yo.

 

[Perfect Fool]

That last book cover looks a lot like Ian Miller's work... I'm a big fan of his, especially the way he plays with perspective. He's done some other Lovecraftian artwork that also looks amazing... still, probably a bit too slimy for you, to be honest!

 

[Zeus]

That last book cover looks a lot like Ian Miller's work... I'm a big fan of his, especially the way he plays with perspective. He's done some other Lovecraftian artwork that also looks amazing... still, probably a bit too slimy for you, to be honest!

I like slimy as much as the next guy. I just think it's sad that there are people who insist slimy is the only look appropriate for Mythos artwork.

This is the sort of look August Derleth went for:

When S.T. Joshi updated the collection, here's how he sold the work:

How's that for fantasy art? Looks straight out of the D&D manual.

Point is, there's no one right way to adapt Lovecraft's work to a visual medium, because nothing can compare to the imagination.

 

[sah]

I like that piece you posted. The pale colors and jittered edges of the buildings seem to hint at some sort of corruption. It's subtle, that's all.

edit: You could probably go with a flat line of clouds, but that would ruin the present contrast of lively clouds vis a vis a dead-looking settlement.

 

[Unradscorpion]

Josh Kirby? Is that you?

 

[Tails]

Les Edwards made pretty good ones for Gollancz publishing:

There is more on his website, just type in search Necronomicon, if someone is interested.

 

[Perfect Fool]

I think that the main thing for mythos artwork is that it be *wrong* in some way... either subtly or overtly, that it should make the viewer feel slighly uneasy, as if there's something naggingly wrong about the image it that you simply can't look away from.

The town artwork doesn't quite do it for me, it's a good picture but it doesn't make me feel a bit odd when I look at it. Maybe that the buildings are all uniformly crooked and curved at the edges? Perhaps it is the stylisitc choice of the artist and it is present in all of his work, but I think that a combination of stronger, more angular lines for the majority of the buildings, with some distorted/crooked shapes thrown in would perhaps be more jarring?

 

[Redeye]

Daedric Ruins in Morrowind.
For the culty stuff, if it's an acient site.

As for Kingsport- just modify the pointy-medievalness into more of a scrimshaw/weathered boards amphibian sea-chanty kind of thing.

Lose the pennant.

 

[mondblut]

Too much gothic spires. Isn't Kingsport a shanty New England village built sometime in late XVII-XVIII century? Less epic medieval glamour.

And there is probably 300% more sky than is necessary. The picture is not "Kingsport by the sea", it is "The Boundless Sky, with Mighty Clouds and Endless Colorless Vast Space, also some Kingsport"

 

[Whipporowill]

Kingsport is known for that lighthouse on a cliff isn't it? It's kind of odd leaving out the town's trademark.

Also, I'd say your art looks more dreamlands if that tells you anything.

Compare:

to

Sadly no larger found on the second one.

 

[juggernaut]

My first impression of that pic, even before I read your post, was that it's from a Discworld book.

Josh Kirby? Is that you?

This was my initial impression as well. I agree with what a few others have said in that something about the sky seems to give the picture a certain atmosphere that doesnt suggest horror.

 

[Victor Pflug]

Whoa, thanks for all the comments guys. This is surprisingly helpful, seriously I'm impressed that a game discussion site has been way more helpful than major art forums. Not that I'll make a habit of this kind of thing but yeah, I appreciate the input a lot.

Thanks for the pics too by the way, great food for thought there.

And no, I'm not Josh Kirby.

 

[Zed]

I like your art.

I feel like a faggot for asking but what's the thing on the bottom left?

There seems to be some slight fog action in the city. You don't see much of it though cuz you don't really see the streets. Maybe have some spill out into the sea?

I made an edit just to see how it looks with some more mist going on. And also lessen the contour of the clouds.

I don't know.

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

I think the art style is ok, if maybe somewhat more evocative of the Dream Cycle than the Mythos. Don't know whether Cyclopean actually aims to incorporate some elements of the Dream Cycle as well, but even if it doesn't, it would be refreshing to have some locations/art done in the style, unless Scott wants to go for a very consistent (grim) mood throughout the game.

Either way, it has personality, which is always good. I'd agree with you that most games these day are boring and generic in terms of art if not downright kitschy.

 

[Victor Pflug]

I like your art.

I feel like a faggot for asking but what's the thing on the bottom left?

There seems to be some slight fog action in the city. You don't see much of it though cuz you don't really see the streets. Maybe have some spill out into the sea?

I made an edit just to see how it looks with some more mist going on. And also lessen the contour of the clouds.


I don't know.

Bottom left is a heavily corroded copper corner-thingy, (gable?) on a building way up in the foregound.

As far as paint overs go, that's pretty good, I may throw real some real fog in my next draft, I was thinking the clouds had too much outline too actually.

 

[Zed]

Bottom left is a heavily corroded copper corner-thingy, (gable?) on a building way up in the foregound.

As far as paint overs go, that's pretty good, I may throw real some real fog in my next draft, I was thinking the clouds had too much outline too actually.

Okay I still don't see it but it's probably just me being all retardo-eyed.

Okay cool.

 

[JarlFrank]

It's good, but I gotta agree that it looks more like Dreamlands than the Mythos. Overall reminds me pretty much of Josh Kirby's cover arts.

 

[Lord Rocket]

The edited version with the fog looks good.

Mondblut has it right about the medieval-ness.

Make the town less busy - that's the main reason it looks like fantasy art. Kingsport was never a really big settlement, people wouldn't have had to build shit all cramped up like that. Make it emptier, and a bit overgrown and neglected, to match the sky. Maybe a lone example of American Gothic architecture to vary things up a bit.

Love your style, anyway.

 

[GarfunkeL]

It's good looking and nearly there. Bit too bright and the sky is too clear / sunny, maybe. The edited one with fog looks better.