HOME | DD

Description
Click to zoom in or download for better quality! Deviantart doesn't always like my 4K resolutions haha.

The final character concept for the Inksmouth Project's lead antagonist NPC Captain Marsh, strongly inspired by the character of the same name from H.P Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". In our reinterpretation we went more for a historical-fantasy, set in the 18th century at the height of piracy. It just felt like pirates and giant cosmic sea monsters were a very fun mix haha. I was really happy with his lobster features and hair! I think he has a fun silhouette. I painted the BG loosely, based on the backgrounds I saw in classical oil paintings of Navy officers.

In the original novel he's a sea merchant who stumbles upon the Sea Monstrosity-Deity Dagon, and after becoming indoctrinated ends up converting his harbour town into a cult of human sacrifice in return for jewels and rewards from the Deity; the townees eventually getting corrupted into these semi-aquatic monsters known as The Deep Ones, and eventually 'returning' to Dagon in the sea. He's not really an active character, more just a part of the town history's mystery.
In our campaign version, we needed a more coherent/cookie-cutter villain, and that's kind of what Marsh became: a key NPC, a revered merchant who's very corrupted by this Deep Sea curse, and in turn is a good warning symbol to the player that this is what happens if you linger too long in this town, or succumb to its cult. He's not entirely unpleasant... But he is eventually, as he corrupts further until becoming the final boss. With my director we agreed that we wanted signs of a curse, but we didn't want to go full-zombie or gross-out. Marsh is still very sentient and needs to take responsibility for his own greed.

Produced for Teesside University as part of my Master's degree (MA) in Concept Art.

On my website you can see some of the concept art developments (including the OG gorier zombie versions), and my painting process!: madeleinenoonie.art/projects/z…

Description
Click to zoom in or download for better quality! Deviantart doesn't always like my 4K resolutions haha.

The final character concept for the Inksmouth Project's lead antagonist NPC Captain Marsh, strongly inspired by the character of the same name from H.P Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". In our reinterpretation we went more for a historical-fantasy, set in the 18th century at the height of piracy. It just felt like pirates and giant cosmic sea monsters were a very fun mix haha. I was really happy with his lobster features and hair! I think he has a fun silhouette. I painted the BG loosely, based on the backgrounds I saw in classical oil paintings of Navy officers.

In the original novel he's a sea merchant who stumbles upon the Sea Monstrosity-Deity Dagon, and after becoming indoctrinated ends up converting his harbour town into a cult of human sacrifice in return for jewels and rewards from the Deity; the townees eventually getting corrupted into these semi-aquatic monsters known as The Deep Ones, and eventually 'returning' to Dagon in the sea. He's not really an active character, more just a part of the town history's mystery.
In our campaign version, we needed a more coherent/cookie-cutter villain, and that's kind of what Marsh became: a key NPC, a revered merchant who's very corrupted by this Deep Sea curse, and in turn is a good warning symbol to the player that this is what happens if you linger too long in this town, or succumb to its cult. He's not entirely unpleasant... But he is eventually, as he corrupts further until becoming the final boss. With my director we agreed that we wanted signs of a curse, but we didn't want to go full-zombie or gross-out. Marsh is still very sentient and needs to take responsibility for his own greed.

Produced for Teesside University as part of my Master's degree (MA) in Concept Art.

On my website you can see some of the concept art developments (including the OG gorier zombie versions), and my painting process!: madeleinenoonie.art/projects/z…