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Ito-Saith-Webb — Night-Gaunt Concept
Published: 2009-03-31 21:37:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 12796; Favourites: 257; Downloads: 0
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Description
Description used as inspiration:Shocking and uncouth black things with smooth, oily, whale-like surfaces, unpleasant
horns that curved inward toward each other, bat wings whose beating made no sound, ugly prehensile paws, and barbed tails that lashed needlessly and disquietingly. And worst of all, they never spoke or laughed, and never smiled because they had no faces at all to smile with, but only a suggestive blankness where a face ought to be. All they ever did was clutch and fly and tickle; that was the way of nightgaunts.
— H. P. Lovecraft,”The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath’
This is one of eight creature/character that will be used later as a master reference for a series of compositions depicting scenes from the story ”The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath’ by H.P. Lovecraft. Not only is this the main project for my independent art study class but also has the intention that these could possibly be used for either the video game or movie industry.
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Comments: 28
They are lovely 
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I like the way you've realized the night-gaunt. I imagine the horns a bit longer, but your design is very impressive anyway. I remember when I read "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," I was constantly struck by the images and felt the urge to depict what Lovecraft's words had put in my head. Sadly, I did not act on my impulse.
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I remember when I first read of such things..the necronomicon really is an inspiring book
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all of your work is amazing
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I especially like how you interpreted the 'smooth, oily, whale-like surfaces'. Great work! I'll see them in feverish dreams.
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Thanks was hoping that came off clearly
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Nice! I'm actually doing a research paper on HPL, and the Night-Gaunts and their origins are a major part of it. The veil works well, since they were supposedly inspired by Lovecraft's family members mourning the death of his father/grandfather.
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That is an interesting theory although the veil idea was not about mourning or death in my mind but simply an abstract idea of how to handle the faceless part. I would advise that you be careful about that speculation. I am not saying it is wrong but it is all to easy to read to much into an action or the creative process. The deaths in his family were very spread apart and I am sure they all effected Lovecraft greatly but I would also suggest to look at when he wrote the story first staring the Nightgaunts actually I think they first appeared in one of his poems early on in his career as apposed to first appearing in the Dream Quest to Unknown Kadath story.
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Oh, I know, I was just pointing out what I thought was a macabre coincidence. It seems like from what I've gathered so far is that Lovecraft initially used the term Night-Gaunt to describe any monster he dreamed about, and then he re-used the name for their first written appearance. I've just started the research, I've got a lot more to figure out.
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Arguably the definitive Night-Gaunt illustrations. I don't think I've seen them done better.
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I like a lot of your beast designs, they are quite original, something I would have never come up with~
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Another great piece! I think I'm going to have to read this book.
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It is open domain so you could find it online probably for free.
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This one's my favorite out of your concept drawing. The bottom right-hand figure really jumps off the page!
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So excellent with so much awesome anatomy. The muscle structure supporting the wings, those wonderful splayed toes, the fold of skin between thumb and hand, the way that scaly back forms into the tail - lovely texture there, you can just feel it.
I think the simultaneous front and back views best evidence the amount of thought and imagination and obvious expertise that's gone into conceiving the fine detail and the texture of these chaps. The background of sketches backs that up and kinda "animates" the main static figures even more by illustrating their form in motion.
The pose of the main figures seems very natural. It's easy to see them perched just like that on some blasted eyrie near the summit of N'granek watching a tiny figure clawing his way up the interminable cliffs below.
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Glad you liked how it turned out, I have 7 more to go before stage one is complete. Feeling kind of tired lately.
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I'm in love with them all TBH.
Don't make yourself ill working too hard man.
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