The Unearthly – Yog-Sothoth and the Necronomicon!

Recently I have been working on a project called “The Unearthly” for Mark Fukae.

It’s kickstarter page:  “The Unearthly Web Series Kickstarter Page”

I was given the task to create an H.P. Lovecraft creature called Yog-Sothoth as well as a prop of the Necronomicon.  The creature was a challenge as it is basically a living mass of orbs.  So My idea was that the orbs were dimensional gates that Yog-Sothoth creates.  The creature has many elongated elements within its form – tendrils, etc.  When they curl around a gateway is opened.  Through this new gateway enters another version of Yog-Sothoth from another dimension.  Yog-Sothoth continually moves into and out of each dimension and we see this massive continually changing and undulating form.

I took this image below and made a few other versions from it – reversed the blacks and whites to make it triply and added some graphical background elements.  I’ll show those later on.

And now the Necronomicon!  Going into this project, my plan was to purchase a previously created book and then fabricate an appropriate exterior.  I checked around and I was kind of disappointed with what I saw.  I was working in a budget and there would have been too much to alter from what I could find to get the look that I wanted.  So, my solution was to start from scratch.  “I’ll learn to book bind and create it myself!” I said.

And I did.  I checked out some videos on youtube (I’ll post more step-by-step images later on with the main video channel on youtube that I referenced) and bought what I needed to bind my own book.  The really fun part was coming up with what I needed to make this not only a great handmade book, but to make it the Necronomicon!  I of course went and found old-fashioned tanned hide on e-bay (also found some really cool snake print cowhide and red leather there too).  All for cheap – ebay is great in a pinch!  Also purchased some jaw bones and claws.  I was determined to make this really evil looking!

Okay, I’ll get into the nitty-gritty later when I go step by step through the process, but all in all it really turned out amazing!  This was my first stab at book binding and I really put myself to the test with so much work and so much specific detail involved!  The end result though was well worth it and I am looking forward to creating more of my own art journals.

The Necronomicon:

I was also asked to create some “hero pages” that would be seen when the book is opened and filmed.  The pages would showcase some mad incantation information:

This whole project was a real treat to work on.  I would encourage any and everyone to check out the kickstarter page for this project as it enters its final days.  There are some great awards available to those who pledge their support for this Cosmic Horror web series called “The Unearthly!”

Kickstarter page:  “The Unearthly Web Series Kickstarter Page”