Alzabo

A monster from Gene Wolfe's masterful series, 'The Book of the New Sun.' This creature assumes the memories of its prey. The lady of the house has just thrown open the door, overjoyed that her husband is safe and sound at the threshold... but the Alzabo speaks in the voices of those it eats. She could have avoided this by investing in a peephole.

Final Image -- redesigned head quite a bit from sketch.

The fur was done with custom brushes in Illustrator - the rest was done in Photoshop.

Sketch:

Sky Shaman

This is an old drawing from college I just uncovered.

Yithians battling Flying Polyps

Pencil sketch with Photoshop color and shading. The Flying Polyps are opening a hole in the sky, and letting in noxious vapors from God knows where or when. The Flying Polyps are described as being similar to the Cthulhu Spawn in not being made of ordinary matter, and displaying a distressing plasticity.

Sketch for flying polyp. I deliberately gave them Cthulhuish affinities. So many artists who've drawn the polyps obviously did not read even the scant descriptions provided by Lovecraft. Here's a hint: when the creature is described as EYELESS, making eyeballs the main feature of its skin is counterproductive.

Update: reenvisioned Polyps, and did a new sketch of battle.

The Horror At The Museum

From an obscure short story. Pencil with Photoshop highlights and color.

Lyrarapax

Lyrarapax was a Precambrian Dinocarid (terrible shrimp) whose relationship to other animal life is still murky. Recent studies link it to Velvet Worms, a bizarre group of animals that live in South America. 

Another Miniature World

This one is sort of based on Oak Creek Canyon in Arizona.

Portrait of a Friend

A little off the usual themes for me, I did a portrait as a gift for a friend. Working from a photo can be deadly, and the result lifeless. I think I put some life into it. I used custom Adobe Illustrator brushes, rows of tapering dots, for an impressionist effect.

Detail

Paths exposed in wireframe preview: