[OT] Appreciate the weird!
Oso3D
Posts: 15,087
With my latest release, people were wondering 'dude... are you ok??' Hahaha.
So I thought it'd be fun to run down some of the weird stuff I'm fond of, and invite others to do same.
H. P. Lovecraft
He may have been a racist shut-in but his take on older gothic and dark romantic work, plus some strains of planetary romance, had a HUGE impact on just about all modern fantasy and science fiction.
His stories were generally predicated on the startling idea that the universe at large was vast and uncaring, and that humanity was utterly inconsequential, and that facing that truth would drive people mad.
The theme of losing sanity in the face of an uncaring universe has lost some of its sting over the decades. Even religious people have at least had to wrangle closely with the concept of a scientific universe not built around humanity, regardless of believing it or not, and come to some terms with it.
But 'truth driving one mad' still has a lot of legs.
HP Lovecraft also stirred a lot of powerful themes of body horror (even if his was often tramping through racist themes) that we see in effective horror today.
Finally... he sure had a thing for tentacles. Also slumbering monstrosities, portals that let in, well, more slumbering monstrosities.
From Petersen's Field Guide to Cthuluh Monsters (for the Call of Cthulhu RPG; note that Lovecraft was vague and weird describing most of his creations, so there's considerable room for artistic license)
Oh, another important thing about his work, that helped spread his ideas, was that he enjoyed sharing and commiserating with other authors. The whole 'Cthulhu mythos' originally was about authors doing a somewhat informal shared universe, drawing on one another. He and Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, would include each other in their stories to get killed off. Heh.
As a great example of his influence, consider Hellboy:
Dali
Embracing the absurd but also incredibly talented, there's something about the juxtaposition of real and impossible thats thrills me.
Wayne Barlowe
Starting his career as a skilled illustrator of animals and then dinosaurs, he has done incredible work with fantasy and science fiction themes.
He did two art books, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials and Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy, which were probably my first encounter with his work. Extremely high quality illustrations of creatures from fiction.
Possibly more likely to be known is his Expedition to Darwin IV (made into a fun mostly CGI 'documentary' ~10 years ago).
He observed that there is something unsettling and cool about rendering creatures without eyes, so he made heavy use of this... and it's definitely effective.
Finally, an incredibly bizarre and wondrous and frightening work is Barlowe's Inferno, filled with distorted residents of Hell.
Peter Gric
That sort of European fantasist artwork, like Giger and others. Fantastically weird but realistically detailed.
Gil Bruvel
A lighter hearted fantasist, I first encountered his work in a 1990s video game (Of Light and Darkness)
Zdzislaw Beksinski
Polish surrealist, back to dark theme.
Anyway, I've flogged this enough... anyone else?
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Comments
heh, I'm just wishing I could think of a pic I wanted to use that Cephalovore in so I could justify buying it. (sadly would also require buying the Dog 8, which is why I'm hesitant.)
for me there is a line where an original creative idea can go up to and i love it, but over the line to the absurd and unbelievable it's not for me. I really like Wayne Barlowe for his creature concepts in Avatar, Harry Potter and John Carter
Great post Will.
Art for me is about giving the imagination free reign. That results in a set of questions, which all revolve around 'What if?', 'How would?', 'Maybe...'. and others.
I don't have the skills yet to answer many of those questions, even in part... But I do enjoy trying.
I think that sort of art can come about (sometimes), like some poetry, when the person is battling demons or suffering inner turmoil. It also serves a purpose.
FSMCDesigns: Hahahahaa! I hadn't realized Barlowe worked on those. Makes sense, duh.
I'm a fan of strange creatures, I have a ton of them in my runtime. My saying is Nursoda does dreams, Sixus1 does nightmares ;)
Will, you are somewhere between the two
Oh man, I just love weird and frightening stuff, even if it occasionally gives me nightmares. :)
I'm a huge fan of creature features. Love your critters. Keep up the good work.
Some oddity by me and a link to discussion of Ray Harryhausen creatures. (Cyclopstritch modeled by me, Killer Tomato head modeled by GKDantas)
.
link for free cyclopstritch rigged in carrara
https://sharecg.com/v/86861/gallery/5/3D-Model/Cyclopstritch-Figure-for-Carrara
Link to discussion and pics of some creatures by the great Ray Harryhausen.
https://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/17987/the-top-10-ray-harryhausen-creatures
...I love his Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
My "weird" tends to be more along the lines of Salvador Dali and the unicycle riding Unipiper. .
Hmmm... weird elephants on stilt legs. Where have I seen that concept before?
Oh, I know. 60 years ago in a Savadore Dali' painting (just one of several with that imagery) from the mid '40s.
Salvadore Dali': "The Temptation of St. Anthony" https://www.art.com/products/p10042411-sa-i677503/salvador-dali-the-temptation-of-st-anthony-c-1946.htm
In fact... very interesting https://www.castlefineart.com/art/elephant-in-the-style-of-salvador-dali-1948 (Google is amazing!)
Heh, the Unipiper is one of the great things about Portland OR. Always great to see him around.
the Hieronymus Bosch Painting was a weird one
not sure if its tos busting
Butt music
but there is not that many notes on his butt, I downloaded a huge photo and looked
I was thinking of linking the Temptation of St Anthony, but nudity.
Yeah. heh
Trying to find a Dali artwork that didn't have nudity and wasn't someone else's work proved impossible, sheesh. heh
+1 for more lovecraft creatures
...I thought butt music occurred after having a couple knackwursts smothered in sauerkraut, with a liberal slathering of stone ground mustard which were chased down with a couple half litres of Pilsner or Kolsch.
....and then there are all the butt trumpets and tubas depicted in much medieval art
a butt tuba
is an anagram, mind blown
and so is the tuba ......not by the mind
"Tuba" is an anagram of "a butt?" Where does the second "t" go, then?
a butt tuba
abut ttub a
its actually a palidrome
you can stick the t where ever it takes your fancy
It's three paintings on wood that fold up into a cabinet. I believe it's called a triptych. The title of the piece is, I believe, "Garden of Earthly Delights".
It went whole into the "a"?
I've always liked the surreal. Discovered Hieronymus Bosch as a teenager. Was never in to Lovecraft, but the creatures are cool. One can never have too many tentacled creatures in one's runtime, LoL.
I know, that was the painting I downloaded a huge photograph of to check out the butt referenced in the video
I can read music but it still was rather styalised and archaic
So going to buy your animal, because it quite fits the bill for an alien creature I need for my comic. Thank you for creating these creatures, @Oso3D
Weird? Try Mike Batt. i.e. his version of "Hunting of the Snark"
OK...the WEIRD...Nothing I know is more weird than this...And I still can't count how many Friday nights I spent, when I was young, running to the theatres, watching this...and reciting the lines...and...and...well...well...DAMN...WHERE'S THE MOVIE SCHEDULE?!?!?!
but did you dress up as a character also???? Me and a group of friends went once a month when in college, ahh the memories
Met my wife of 20+ years in line for the weekly midnight showing in Berkeley.
"Not meatloaf! Again!" (Sorry if this furthers the tangent)
I wonder if I can change my caller id to "Cthulu"
http://orig08.deviantart.net/b439/f/2011/272/2/6/the_call_of_cthulhu_cover_by_drfaustusau-d4ba34e.png
I am gathering Oso wants ideas and butt tubas may not meet the store TOS
a tentacle dog with a mindflayer snout might
Or a morph for the baby based on that thing in Eraserhead? Probably wouldn't sell but definitely weird.
Nah, I have billions of ideas, just sharing the weird.