My C´thulhu sculptures and idols

Sordes

Wonderpus
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During the years I´ve sculpted a lot of cephalopod-stuff like some living squids, prehistoric nautiloids and belemenites, as well as many other living or extinct animals. But occasionally I´ve also sculpted models which are more fantasy-related. As a big fan of Lovecraft, I also sculpted some models inspired by his stories, like some C´thulhu-related stuff,which I want to show here. The first one is actually not really C´thulhu-related, but a model which is directly based on an old drawing I made many years ago, before I had any knowledge of C´thulhu at all. But still I think it could well depict some kind of star-spawn or something like that:
 

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This are two C´thulhu-idols I sculpted during the last weeks. Normally I try to make my models as realistically as possible, with lots of fine details, but this time I really tried to make something much more stylized. Inspired by the C´thulhu-worhipping inuit at Greenland mentioned in "The Call of C´thulhu" I made the first idol in a style quite similar to the carved bone, ivory and soapstone figurines of traditional inuit artists. I even added several fine cracks, like the ones often seen in old ivory carvings. The second one is even more stylized, and I tried to give it a highly minimalized and compact look, without a very specific relation to an existing style of traditional art, but style influenced by inuit artists. Both models are made from white sculpey, and look quite boring, so I slightly modified the photos. Anytime I want to make casts of them, which I will paint to give them a more ivory-like look. Both idols are of a size which would still fit within the diametre of a large walrus tusk, because it was important for me to give them a realistical size.
 
Here are some photos:
 

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This was the very first "real" C´thulhu I sculpted, but it was only a maquette, without any inner armature or something to hold it, so I was never able to finish it, and eventually recycled it for another purpose.
 

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Just some days ago I decided to re-sculpt the maquette, but this time with a wire armature, and also with a somewhat bigger body. It is not planed to be a full figure, but only a bust without arm. Perhaps I will later add a pair of wings, for which I already sculpted two stumps. I really tried to come close to Lovecraft´s original description of C´thulhu, with a bloated and obese body and a scaley hide. It is also compared with a dragon for two times, so I give it a lot of scales. I did not sculpt the multiple pairs of eyes which are shown on Lovecraft´s own sketch of the original C´thulhu idol, because I wanted to give it a more cephalopod-like head, and stay close to the desing of my old maquette. Furthermore the tripple pairs of eyes are never mentioned in the stories, what´s a bit strange given the fact that Lovecraft described so many details of C´thulhu in the story. This model is still far away from being finished, I still have to add a lot of details, and the right side of the head is still nearly completely bare of details.
 

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I really liked the one you recycled and hope the new version comes out as impressive. It would make a really nice pencil holder for a desk if you could work the back to accept a cup I think (I am a sucker for utilitarian art, otherwise I have to remember to dust it :roll:)
 
I have added some more details and surface structues on the model, and - not really surprisingly - as it turned out, it´s incredibly much work to sculpt all those little scutes and scales, especially on the tentacles. Sadly all the really fine details I´ve already sculpted are hardly visible at all at the photos. I only made details on the left side of the head, so I still have a lot to sculpt on the other side. I had to remove two of the tentacles, to sculpt the chest area, and I wasn´t happy with their shape anyway.
 

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So I finished another small C´thulhu idol. This time it was mainly inspired by paleolothic figurines carved from mammoth ivory, especially the famous pieces from the Vogelherd Cave, which are exhibited in a museum at my home-town. You can see some photos of them here

Kunst Vogelherd

I really like the simplified yet natural shape of this figurines, with a beautyful patina and an interesting scratched and eroded surface. Of course the model still needs a paintjob, and as usual, the white sculpey doesn´t show all the small surface details on the photo.
 

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