Hello, everyone! Really seeing some nice work all around, and I'm very proud to be in such great company. My introduction to Eaten By Ducks was through Robert Adam Gilmour, who had seen a drawing I had done on Agony a Go-Go (picture on left). Somehow, I had forgotten the source of the creature. I looked through all of my mythology and folklore texts, as well as my notes, and couldn't find a thing on it. I put it up in my gallery, along with the caption that should anyone be able to identify it, they should email me. Well, Robert emailed me and said that the man-horse creature was known as the Nucklavee and then invited me to join EBD. At least, that's how I remember it.
Anyway, I've always hated this drawing. What you're seeing is actually a xerox of the original sketch that I clumsily colored with marker. It's not even cropped off right- you can see the edges of the sketchbook page it was taped into. So, I've started on a newer version. It's not done yet, and I'm not happy with what I have so far. I started with some sketches of sickly horses(ignoring versions of the creature that involved huge flipper legs and flipper appendages protruding from the chest of the horse):
Even if I wasn't drawing a Nucklavee, it's always good to have some nice sickly horse studies. I'm positive that the description of the Nucklavee I had seen had said that the monster was comprised of a rotting horse with the rotting torso of a man , his head huge and his arms long enough to reach the ground, sticking out of its back.
So, anyway, I started off with this drawing, but I made the original pencil line too dark- which is a bad thing for me. You see, when I go to ink it with a fine line, and the pencil line is so dark, I can't see the ink line very well, so what looks okay when you first think you're done looks like crap after you've erased the pencil line. You what I got was this ugly, disjointed bit of line work with bad hatching. I hate the neck, especially. So, anyway, I started another version, this time adhering closer to the descriptions that I'm reading all over the web on the Nucklavee, wherein the horse and "rider" are comprised mainly of exposed muscle covered with pulsing veins.
It's an okay start, but I think my horse looks too much like a young horse or pony because of the proportions I've given it. So dainty. I think I'll go for a rotting musculature look, as opposed to the shiny wet look I've seen.
Finally, I made a quick sketch of another idea, where the features of the Nucklavee are more exaggerated, like the horses in the paintings of Breugel the Elder. Even more so, than in this sketch. I'll let you guys know when I've finished anything.
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8 comments:
Good work, I really like the hair rendering on the horse closeup.
The best Nuckelavee I ever saw was by Anne Yvonne Gilbert in "Abbey Lubbers, Banshees And Bogarts", it used to be on the internet, but it seems to be gone, I know I have it saved somewhere. It was really dramatic, it looked furious and fearsome and it had really long hair. I wished I had thought of it.
Of course the version that I first saw and inspired me was in Monster In My Pocket, it looked really sad and strange to me and I was amazed it came from my own country.
I also dont like the idea of it with flippers. Never liked that look.
Wonderful drawings Kurt. Thanks for sharing. It's great to see those sickly horses studies and I particularly like the first uncolored version. Great stuff!
It would be fun to do a blog project based on one creature, like chose one and then each do an interesting version of that creature.
very nice studies of the horses. also you should check out some Beksinski art, he has some wicked horse-corpse with rider paintings. you may find them quite the inspiration.
I love the stretched out arm of the figure and the grotesque manner in which it fits into the anatomy of the horse, the meshing of the two. You should do a drawing of a merry go round with odd things such as this on it.
A monster merry-go-round! That would be fun. I wish we could each do one and have it somehow made into 3d. That would be a great display.
I've had it in my head for several years to do a merry go round in some ruined state with bizarre abominable things on the poles. There's something about these rides that I find disturbing, maybe because of a Ray Bradbury story that I think referenced one as a sort of time machine? Or was that a Twilight Zone episode, can't recall.
Merry go rounds designed by us would indeed be a strange sight to behold!
The age regressing/progressing merry-go-round was in Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes."
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