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Published: 2008-09-02 22:50:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 31108; Favourites: 490; Downloads: 3793
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I've always been a big reader / fan of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction. Love his crazy, cosmically horrifying imagination, his wordy, luxurious writing voice, and his dark, unswerving certainty regarding the unavoidable, miserable future for the pathetic little human race.So I've been struck by the urge to do a series of illustrations based on his work.
Here's my illustration for: "The Colour Out Of Space".
This is one of Lovecraft's better-known stories, it has been reprinted again and again in many of the different collections that have been published over the years. A very easy one to find if you decide to go looking for it.
The fate of the poor farmer and his family is horrible enough... But the part that creeps me out the most is the discussion of the farm animals "falling apart".
I always had a thing for sad, tragic, tear-jerker horror stories, and "The Colour Out Of Space" is one of the best ever written.
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Comments: 195
NocturnalSea [2015-02-11 06:42:13 +0000 UTC]
One of my absolute favorite Lovecraft stories. I love your take on it. Especially the animals falling to pieces. I always found this to be a very sad story, with the family slowly falling apart and going insane through no fault of their own.
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Wolfmage90 [2014-11-05 19:56:49 +0000 UTC]
Amazing work, really brings out the Cosmic Horror of Lovecraft at his very best!
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BryanBaugh In reply to Wolfmage90 [2014-11-07 15:40:00 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! One of these days I gotta get back to this series and draw more Lovecraft!
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Brian-OConnell [2014-10-25 01:41:47 +0000 UTC]
Great illustration, as always!
Oh yeah, its a real faucet runner - seeing the tragic end of the poor animals and innocent family just slowly falling to pieces...literally...See, now wouldn't that be great in a novel form? Watching the day-by-day destruction of the Gardener family?
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Wolfmage90 In reply to Brian-OConnell [2014-11-05 20:03:42 +0000 UTC]
Have you ever read Stephen King's short story "Weeds" or Thomas Ligotti's short story "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World"? If not, then I think you should, because both were clearly inspired by The Colour Out of Space
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Brian-OConnell In reply to Wolfmage90 [2014-11-05 22:03:21 +0000 UTC]
Oh, thanks. Yes, I've read "Weeds" (great stuff!) but not Liggoti's, which is strange, because Ligotti is a great writer. Thank you!
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Wolfmage90 In reply to Brian-OConnell [2014-11-05 22:09:48 +0000 UTC]
Yeah, you can actually find The Shadow at the Bottom of the World for free online. If you can't find it, I'll send you a link, it's really creepy and unsettling!
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doctor3uk [2014-02-01 21:20:10 +0000 UTC]
This picture capures the story so well. It's the best of Laovecraft's tales.
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BryanBaugh In reply to doctor3uk [2014-02-01 22:16:16 +0000 UTC]
Thank you so much for your compliments on my art.
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QuantumBranching [2013-12-05 07:27:29 +0000 UTC]
Verrrry nice. My one objection would be that as far as I can recall, the crumbling was a _drier_, less gooey sort of decay - but it gets the general idea over very well.
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EmmetEarwax [2013-11-18 15:42:44 +0000 UTC]
It was a tale that shaped my life, just as "Lord of the Rings" was another.
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TheWildWestPyro [2013-09-23 07:32:56 +0000 UTC]
I just read the story. It's horrible that they become so...gray and frail and broken, and that a colour from space, that no one can describe, did it.
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derrickthebarbaric [2013-06-29 20:30:49 +0000 UTC]
"What it is, only God knows. In terms of matter I suppose the thing Ammi described would be called a gas, but this gas obeyed the laws that are not of our cosmos. This was no fruit of such worlds and suns as shine on the telescopes and photographic plates of our observatories. This was no breath from the skies whose motions and dimensions our astronomers measure or deem too vast to measure. It was just a colour out of space — a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes."
The Colour Out of Space (1927)
Got this off Wikiqoute. Hope you liked it.
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Wolfmage90 In reply to derrickthebarbaric [2014-11-05 20:05:09 +0000 UTC]
Thanks a lot Derrick
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derrickthebarbaric In reply to Wolfmage90 [2014-11-05 22:05:14 +0000 UTC]
Thank you for the comment.
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Wolfmage90 In reply to derrickthebarbaric [2014-11-05 22:08:51 +0000 UTC]
you're welcome. Aside from The Colour Out of Space, do you know any other really creepy cosmic horror stories by Lovecraft that are similar?
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derrickthebarbaric In reply to Wolfmage90 [2014-11-06 21:49:01 +0000 UTC]
The Call of Cthulhu. Not by heart, but I manage.
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Wolfmage90 In reply to derrickthebarbaric [2014-11-07 04:10:18 +0000 UTC]
Okay thanks. Also, are Pickman's Model, From Beyond, or Cool Air any good?
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derrickthebarbaric In reply to Wolfmage90 [2014-11-07 10:18:44 +0000 UTC]
Do you mean pics or stories?
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derrickthebarbaric In reply to Wolfmage90 [2014-11-08 17:25:18 +0000 UTC]
My bad I get confused very easily.
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Fael955 [2013-05-30 21:57:09 +0000 UTC]
Very good. I finished reading the story just now and thanks for helping me visualize what that "color" did to the land and to the Gardners. I think this story deserved a movie, do you know if there is a movie about it?
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Wolfmage90 In reply to Fael955 [2014-11-07 04:10:41 +0000 UTC]
There was also a movie from 1987 called The Curse
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BryanBaugh In reply to Fael955 [2013-05-30 22:29:33 +0000 UTC]
There was a movie in the 1960's starring Nick Adams and Boris Karloff called "Die Monster Die" which was very loosely based on "The Colour Out of Space". Or at least it starts out that way, then the story gradually skews off in other directions. But it has the meteor and the decay of the land, and some great looking squid like Lovecraft style monsters locked in cages at the end.
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lordolllle [2012-12-03 20:28:32 +0000 UTC]
this was the scaries book... novel? i ever have been reading
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Swellragg99 [2012-10-25 16:57:03 +0000 UTC]
This was a good story, indeed.
On the subject of HPL stories, you thinking of doing illustrations for Dagon, The Shadow Out Of Time, or The Whisperer In Darkness?
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BryanBaugh In reply to Swellragg99 [2012-10-25 21:11:15 +0000 UTC]
I've been lax about this the past few years... but my plan was/is to slowly but surely create 10 illustrations, of my top 10 favorite HPL stories, saving my #1 favorite for last, of course. But no, none of those you mentioned rank among my top 10.
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masterofhorr In reply to BryanBaugh [2013-03-17 21:33:56 +0000 UTC]
Wait, what ARE your top 10 HP Lovecraft stories?
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BryanBaugh In reply to masterofhorr [2013-03-18 19:48:08 +0000 UTC]
If I ever get back to this series you will find out!
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ckenyon1964 [2012-10-17 18:06:41 +0000 UTC]
I JUST read this story a week ago! Awesome depiction of the poor family living too close to the meteor. You've illustrated it exactly as I pictured it while reading.
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BryanBaugh In reply to ckenyon1964 [2012-10-20 20:46:16 +0000 UTC]
Thank you for saying so. I appreciate the kind words!
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Hawkheart29 [2012-09-25 00:58:30 +0000 UTC]
Huh, I always pictured the animals (and later people) to be more...what's the word I'm looking for?.....Dryer and crumbly. Not so, wet and oozing as you drew them. Still, very impressive work!
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BryanBaugh In reply to Hawkheart29 [2012-09-29 19:37:12 +0000 UTC]
Glad you like it, thanks for commenting.
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BryanBaugh In reply to Arthusbuttkick [2012-08-10 17:03:17 +0000 UTC]
Thank you. I take that as a compliment!
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LoganStoppable [2012-07-23 16:06:28 +0000 UTC]
I´ve always said to myself that I should read something from Lovecraft. Sadly, no library in my vicinity has anything from him! And new book is very expensive :/ Oh well...
But this is very disturbing, even though it has no blood or extreme gore. This definitely should be official cover for the book!
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BryanBaugh In reply to LoganStoppable [2012-07-23 17:52:04 +0000 UTC]
Aww thanks for saying so, I appreciate it!
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AbigailLarson [2012-05-03 12:25:11 +0000 UTC]
I love it! There aren't many short stories out there that reach Lovecraft's sense of raw suspense and terror, and this particular story of his I've been utterly incapable of making an appropriate illustration for. You've really hit it with this! The sepia tone really pushes the old New England farm sense. I also love the kid in the well ^_~ Great job!
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BryanBaugh In reply to AbigailLarson [2012-05-08 17:40:15 +0000 UTC]
Aww thank you very much for your kind words! I need to get back to doing more Lovecraft artwork!
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DocOtto [2012-03-20 16:13:54 +0000 UTC]
You did a terrific job at this illustration. Most of H.P. Lovecraft's stories are more obsessed with indescribable monstrosities than human beings, (one of Lovecraft's bigger flaws as a writer was his misanthropic attitude towards people in general), but COLOUR has an aching sadness about it that adds an additional layer of pathos to the horror. Lovecraft's best work by far.
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BryanBaugh In reply to DocOtto [2012-03-20 18:59:27 +0000 UTC]
Thank you for your kind words on my illustration!
I disagree that HPL's "misanthropic attitude towards people in general" was a flaw.
That said, "The Colour Out of Space" is unusually sympathetic toward its human characters, which gives it a different kind of punch.
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DocOtto In reply to BryanBaugh [2012-03-20 21:26:43 +0000 UTC]
I regard it as a flaw, simply because Lovecraft often seems to actively favour the monsters in his stories over their victims - hence the misanthropy - which emotionally distances the reader. COLOUR is one of the exceptions, which is why I view it (and this fine picture of yours) so highly.
On a side note, I'm something of a fan of "sad, tragic, tear-jerker horror stories" myself. One of my personal favs is THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT, by William Hope Hodgson. Check it out if you haven't already.
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