Sunday, November 28, 2010

for a great old one









this is a piece i made for my friends thirtieth birthday.

i wanted to make an idol similar to the scale of the idol from indiana jones.
the decription of the idol found in "call of cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft--

"The figure, which was finally passed slowly from man to man for close and careful study, was between seven and eight inches in height, and of exquisitely artistic workmanship. It represented 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. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters. The tips of the wings touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the centre, whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouching hind legs gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way down toward the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs of huge fore paws which clasped the croucher's elevated knees. The aspect of the whole was abnormally life-like, and the more subtly fearful because its source was so totally unknown. Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was unmistakable; yet not one link did it shew with any known type of art belonging to civilisation's youth - or indeed to any other time. Totally separate and apart, its very material was a mystery; for the soapy, greenish-black stone with its golden or iridescent flecks and striations resembled nothing familiar to geology or mineralogy. The characters along the base were equally baffling; and no member present, despite a representation of half the world's expert learning in this field, could form the least notion of even their remotest linguistic kinship. They, like the subject and material, belonged to something horribly remote and distinct from mankind as we know it. ."

so i decided to make something along those lines.
the idea was that it would be very crudely carved. just a simple form with simple details that would describe enough of the idea. as i was making it i didn't like the way the feet might look and so kept things mega simple. just head and wings and mass of body.
i made a small version in plaster but the plaster looked all wrong so i got a piece of red sandstone and made the thing again.

more at some other time...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love it!