From the Archives: Flaming Sword

This was an older digital piece that never really reached a satisfactory level of completion.  The piece began as an imagining of DC Comics' Spectre, but quickly departed from that idea once I got into the piece.

{8x6, Digital Images manipulated in Adobe Photoshop}

Exhumed: If Flesh Could Crawl

The original piece was part of larger set, but didn't necessarily match up stylistically.  Working in color, I wanted to move the piece more towards my original vision: A molten figure singing in a pit of fire.  The fiery emotions here have built up to a point where they are consuming everything.

Featured Creature: The Staff of Phyligor

Excerpted from Liam Hofstadter's report for the Department of Extranormal Phenomena (DEP), Superhuman and Supernatural Threats in the New Millennium:

"The Staff of Phyligor is an old world artifact of immense occult power.  Physically, the staff is a simple stang approximately 5.5 to 6 feet tall.  Although the blade and base bulb seem to be made of a silver like metal, the dark material of shaft is unknown.  Those few that have observed the staff in person indicate that the full length of the shaft is inlaid in strange runes of some lustrous black metal.

Featured Creature: Devil's Square, Scream

Excerpt from Liam Hofstadter's report for the Department of Extranormal Phenomena (DEP), Superhuman and Supernatural Threats in the New Millennium:

"The banshee entity called Scream is the most recent member to join the villainous extranormal group known as the Devil's Square.  Her origins are unclear at this time, but her first appearance coincides with a sighting of the group at the Novedian library archives.  DEP has deployed agents to that area, but no evidence as yet has been discovered.

Featured Creature: Devil's Square, Scratch

Excerpt from Liam Hofstadter's report for the Department of Extranormal Phenomena (DEP), Superhuman and Supernatural Threats in the New Millennium:

"Of the super villain quartet known as the Devil's Square, the pygmy creature Scratch is considered the most physically dangerous.  Often seen collared and escorted on a chain by his group, this creature's numerous escapes give clear reason for his restraint.    Despite his small stature, Scratch is lethally violent and has caused hundreds of casualties during his few encounters with humans.

At the Crossroads of Doubt

At the crossroads of doubt,
even our most staunch truths abandon us.
We are wrapped in darkness,
lost to to wit and to reason.
The feel of our hands is confused, one to the other,
our own flesh in the darkness become a lie,
some murky beast come to torture.
Everything rings true
Everything stinks of lies
Everything cries out
Signal or Devil?
Signal or
Devil?
Signal
or -

Observation of the Supplicant before the Throne

On the wings of thought and desire,
I send my petition into the other.

Mandala Cross of the Mothmen

Once again a mandala has found its way over from Trail of Breadcrumbs.  This one isn't so much gruesome as the last one, but it's dark air of mystery was what felt more appropriate to Zombie Bites...that and the Mothmen.

Astaroth

I had some confusion initially as to who this was a depiction of.  My first thought was of Baal, but upon checking other source materials, I feel that the crowned prince of hell, Astaroth, maybe be more accurate.  Also, this is not to be confused with the butt kicking axe wielder from the game Soul Calibur.

The Guardian

Blocked and bound at the wall of forbidden passage. This is another one of those pieces that doesn't want to give up its information.  There seems to be a diffusion around it.  My attempts at revealing its inner nature seem to be pushed away each time I try to analyze it.

Interesting that there is a Venus symbol in the structure of the piece and what appears to be the head of a large bull hidden in there as well.  If we follow the structure of the Crux Ansata and apply it to the Kabbalah, the guardian head emerging from the circle would be in the placement of the Daath level which is associated with Choronzon.   Choronzon is often considered to be the dweller at the threshold, the demon of dispersion, the guardian at the gate.  So now my difficulty in analyzing this piece becomes clearer.

Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III give a very interesting depiction of this level of consciousness in the 20th issue of Promethea.

Recommended Listening:
Moderat
Seamonkey
from Moderat


{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

I Raise Up My Light

It burns in my heart like an ingot of molten metal. Sometimes it moves to the forefront from the far reaches of my mind and boils over my view until I cannot see past this driving force.  There is no reason, just the scream, only the scream.

It will be free.  If I do not find a way to release it, it will seek its own purchase in the world.  It will strike like lightning, burning and breaking until it is spent.  The surge of blood.  The great red sea.  The Odin force.  The Kundalini.  The opening of the great eye. The life death scream of the hawk.  When it wakes, the world trembles.

There is an older piece I created in graphite that is a sister piece to this one.  I will get a photo of that one soon.  It is larger than my normal work.  Also, It was packed away during the move and will need to be extracted.

Recommended Listening:

VnV Nation

Lightwave

Matter+Form

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

Io Pan!

I spent a good bit of time trying to truncate this image once it reached this state, but I finally chose to accept it as it is.  There are so many elements that are important to the meaning of this piece and every time I tried to crop it or manipulate it further, something important disappeared.

Here is Crowley's Hymn to Pan.  An interesting symbol to start the new year off with. Also, there are some elements hiding in this piece that remind me of some of the strange artwork associated with Alchemy.

Recommended Listening:
Access to Arasaka
Nostromo
from Oppidan

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}


UPDATE 011515:

This piece is now available as a tshirt or other paraphernalia at my Neatoshop.  Drop by and check it out!

The Child

"My flashlight battery finally died as I stepped into the darkened alcove, but there was a dense red light emanating from the machinery nearby that allowed me to see. Ozone burned my nostrils. I covered my mouth with a portion of my shirt and stepped over several large cords to get closer to the cylindrical pod within the alcove.

In the halflight, the strange pod glistened as though it were coated with strawberry jam. I brushed my fingers across it. It was warm and thick like the refuse of chicken boiled too long. When I removed my hand, a thin string of it pulled away like snot. I jerked my hand quickly and it splattered somewhere in the darkness.

My touch seemed to activate something with the pod.  It jerked like a water balloon.  When I moved in, I heard a cry like a cat. It was muffled though, as if it were on the other side of a very thick wall.  I leaned in closer.  Through the jelly, something moved.  I gasped when I saw the thing.  It was staring back at me from within the cocoon..."

Recommended Listening:
Empusae
Tenebris For The Unborn
Ritual Decay

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

SEES YOU WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING. KNOWS WHEN YOU'RE AWAKE.

Need I say more?

{Drawn in Sharpie, Color added in Photoshop}

GRUSS VOM KRAMPUS!

Sorry for the delay on this one. We had a power outtage in my neighborhood and I lost several hours of drawing time. Probably Uranus getting ready to go Direct on the 10th.  We also have an Eclipse / Full Moon on the 10th, so expect a bit of Chaos. All this during a Mercury retrograde (Nov. 24th - Dec. 14th). I guess Krampus is in full effect this year!

Regardless, Happy Krampusnacht! I hope you've all been good this year!  I hope that your 2012 is much better!

{Created in the Adobe Creative Suite}

Krampus is Coming!

Here is a Krampus Card to celebrate the season!  If you would like to steal and print this, feel free.  All you naughty children better be good for goodness sake!  Krampus is Coming!  Only three more days!

{Image created using the Adobe Creative Suite}

Not Exactly Krampus...

Not exactly Krampus, but I think devilish enough to fit the season.  Be good for goodness sake, Krampus is coming!

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

UPDATE 010413:

I discovered recently that this piece had some visual issues that I hadn't noticed before.  I've gone through several computer upgrades since this was originally created so I'm chalking it up to the better system I'm using.  Regardless, I noticed the hard black edge within the piece that I had not seen before.  Here is an updated version of how I intended the piece to look.  It's a subtle trade, but I had not intended that hard line in the original.

Some catching up to do...

Sorry for disappearing for a few weeks there.  I was finishing up my move and cleaning my old abode...aaaannnnd to top things off, because I didn't have nearly enough to do, I caught the flu this week.  OH JOY!   However, today my move is complete, my old abode is clean and fresh, and my flu is on the mend (although my ribs are very sore from coughing - ouchie).  Here's a little devil I concocted in penance.  Hope you like.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

From the Sketchbook Archives: Night Thing

Silently, across the sea of night,
a sound like wind in the leaves.
I hold my breath and stand stock still
until it passes.
The chill of its presence
makes my breath a faint cloud.
I rush to the safety and warmth of interior light
and check all the bolts on my locks.
Outside, the tree limbs creak
at the touch of the wind.
"Perhaps," I think,
and light a candle for protection.

The Throne of the Mind

It gazes within and it gazes without,
It opens and swallows itself.
At the bottom of the ocean, at the bottom of the sea,

The nested flesh gestates.

Intelligence serves it,

Ignorance serves it,
War serves it,
Peace serves it,
Our every action
is the thumping tread of its gargantuan footsteps.
We are it mouths.
We are its eyes.
We are its thoughts.

Drum beats, heart beats,
blood pumps the light beneath skin and hair and sweat.
The dream of a thousand million years.
Knowledge is giving birth to itself.

Recommended Listening:

Phutureprimitive
Cryogenic Dreams
Kinetik


{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}