I finally drew the Cthulhu! I've tried once before long ago, but it was simply too challenging. Now I have learned enough to really do it!
Usually I draw much smaller pixel art, as it is easier and much faster. This time I was inspired by Paul Robertson's art.His work is extremely detailed and colorful. I love it but I prefer drawing with more desaturated colors and less depth in the composition.
I love the Lovecraft's stories that I have read so far (and have many more to go). The most memorable one for me is "The Music of Erich Zann", amazing mystery. What is yours?
Thank you @jonny-clearwater for the awesome theme of this weeks Pixel Art Weekly Contest
I began with the Cthulu's description:
In "The Call of Cthulhu", H. P. Lovecraft describes a statue of Cthulhu as "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." Source: Wikipedia
- Octopus-like head
- Scaly, rubbery body
- Long claws
- Long narrow wings
I began the sketch with the round octopus-like head, then marked the torso and the arms placement. I first thought of drawing him reaching for a boat in the ocean as Cthulu originates from Southeast Pacific Ocean. However, I felt that it would be hard to transition well from water to Cthulu and then stormy sky. I decided to make it simpler: him simply floating and holding multiple spheres. Eventually I decided to draw a simple Earth globe and maybe the moon.
I knew that I wouldn't have much time to animate, so I tried to keep all of the elements relatively simple. I added wings and legs last. The yoga position was a random inspiration, as it adds a more wise pose to the monster. The face is also more wise looking and wrinked than menacing and spiky.
The claws are actually long nails making the creature less scary and more old looking. Overall the composition looks like an old wise seer looking into a crystal ball.
The third eye and 6 fingers/toes are my additional design ideas, making the monster more personalized.
I also collected as much varied Cthulhu art as I could find on Pinterest
Before animating I made a list of the elements:
- Floating Body
- Wings
- The spheres
- Hands (slight animation
- Head Tentacles (slight)
- Stars
- Blinking eyes
Ideally pixel art animations should be at least 8 frames, but each additional frame requires more planning.
I reused frames whenever possible, mostly animating only 3 frames.
Before doing the line art I decided that I would use mostly greens and blues, the more traditional Cthulhu colors.
Pixel Art
First I scaled down the pencil sketch as much as possible, without losing too much details. I drew the outline roughly first and made a few proportion adjustments. Afterwards I cleaned up the outline. The most common way is to avoid jumbled pixels and zooming out a lot to see if the lines look smooth. It takes a bit of practice, but for bigger drawings tiny outline mistakes become less visible.
I started with very strong green and dark tones, which I adjusted afterwards to my liking. It is important to get started, afterwards it is easier to make adjustments.
I worked with very dark tones for most of the drawing. In the end I added a lot of brightness and contrast, because some monitors show less color and contrast (like my laptop vs monitor).
The decision to keep or remove the outline is mostly based on preference. Outline helps save a lot of time, and it can be blended with the local colors, it doesn't have to stay black. For stronger visibility I used some rim light, because I wanted a dark background.
When I got stuck I started adding some subtle textures to make the skin more interesting.
I left the spere for last in case I decided to change it's size. I didn't want to make it too difficult to animate so I draw a very quick full map, which I cut into 6 pieces and distorted slightly for animation.
The start and constellations are soft and mostly small, to not distract from the main composition. Based on some feedback I received, I decided to not use the moon.
Final art
I animated in Aseprite, with only 4 layers and an additional one for the moon.
x3 scale for better preview
I really enjoyed drawing this and I hope you enjoyed this post!
Edit: A shoutout to @juliakponsford and her "Art Explosion" contest. For those interested this week's theme is Animals, any art style accepted (around 4-5 days left).
