Cthulhu Idol

FriedGeek

New Member
I'm starting up a new sculpt to be my first silicone brush mold and resin casting project. I've been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft for years and I've always wanted a Cthulhu Statue as described in "The Call of Cthulhu"

"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 civilization'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, something frightfully suggestive of old and unhallowed cycles of life in which our world and our conceptions have no part." - H.P. Lovecraft

My first version was a successful sculpt but unfortunately the natural latex mold was lost during a move before I could run any plaster castings.

Here are some photos of that sculpt right before I slathered it in latex.

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See all of the photos of the photos of the first version and the reference I'm collecting over in my project area.

The version I'm starting now will be a bit smaller, version one was about 8 inches tall. I just got my new block of sulfur free clay and I hope I'll get some time this weekend to start roughing the new figure out. I'll be posting photos over the whole process... so someone will be able to learn from whatever mistakes I make. :love
 
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That actually looks a lot like Lovecraft's sketch of how he intended the idol to look. I forget where I saw the sketch - I believe it was in one of the Arkham House collections, perhaps Marginalia.
 
Great looking sculpt! :thumbsup It's always great to see Lovecraft inspired stuff.


Here is the sketch Lanboy talks about.
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That actually looks a lot like Lovecraft's sketch of how he intended the idol to look. I forget where I saw the sketch - I believe it was in one of the Arkham House collections, perhaps Marginalia.
 

That looks pretty cool! I really like it. It kinda makes me wanna go "WHOS A WITTLE CHUBBY ELDER ONE? YOU ARE!! YES YOU ARE!" and also makes me want to paint it in glow in the dark paint and pop it on the mantle piece to freak out anyone in my home.

It's the best of both worlds :D

Chris
 
Very cool.

Casting it in barely translucent resin and fitting it internally with a slowly pulsing light would look wonderfully wrong.
 
Here's mine..

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It has the colored striations as described in the story. I weathered it a bit to dirty up the crevices otherwise.
 
I've been making sketches of a Cthulhu interpretation I came up with. I plan on doing both an idol and a 12" - 18" inch tall creature sculpture. If I had a scanner, I'd show you what I have in mind. It has all the classical elements obviously, but I've added some additional details to really make it look alien and outer-dimensional, yet stull vaguely aquatically based.
 
Me too. It's like asking someone to sculpt a dragon. You ask 10 people and you'll get 10 very different dragons that all hold themes in common.
 
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