Drawing Cthulhurotica: Thoughts from Art Director Galen Dara

Last year Carrie approached me about doing some illustrations for a new anthology she was putting together:  Cthulhurotica. A collection of Lovecraft-inspired tales with a healthy dose of Whoopee. The place where Sex and Madness meet.

How was I supposed to resist that??

Embarrassing admission: up till that point I didn’t know a whole lot about Lovecraft, so I got busy learning a few things. Well, I still can’t pronounce ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. Nor have I yet read a copious amount of Lovecraft himself.  But I have gained a healthy respect for those dark elder gods and I have read some fabulous fiction inspired by their original tales.

Part of my education was to see how other artists had rendered the creatures and landscapes of the Lovecraftian universe: Cthulhu, Deep Ones, etc. (In addition, there’s a good amount of erotic content out there involving tentacles.  No, I’m not linking to them.)  Many artists have used pigment and pixels to bring Lovecraft’s monsters to life.  It was a dark and delicious journey poking my way through those varied creations, picking up slimy tidbits along the way.

I drew three illustrations for Cthulhurotica using pen and ink on Bristol paper. They were not tied directly to any of the stories but based on the general concept of the book.  Carrie and I did a bit of back and forth on ideation and appearance, then they were placed in the book following stories that had similar themes.

click on the image for a larger version

After publication I had the opportunity to be in the World Horror Con art show and I revisited the original B&W illustrations to digitally re-create full color versions:

click on the image for a larger version

For the up-coming re-release of Cthulhurotica we are adding more art to the collection, and this time I’ll be doing illustrations specific to some of the stories.  I love this part: getting into the stories, finding that scene or that image and trying to capture it visually.  It’s wonderful to be cozying up to Cthulhu again.

(And now, I really must learn to pronounce ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.)