Centauroid

A response to Kurt's recent "Nucklavee" post, a drawing of a similar centaur which I did for a new book (soon to be published by Alkbazz).

Nucklavee, take 2.

Back in November of 2009, I was originally brought into EBD because Robert Adam Gilmour found my horrible drawing of the Nucklavee and helped me identify it(I had drawn it after reading about it, but then forgot where I had read it). On June 17, 2010, I posted here that I was working on a new version, because I so hated the first version. Well, I got sidetracked, but here is what I worked on today at work and then finished up at home tonight:

 It's only been maybe a half hour since I finished it, and there are already things bugging me about it, but I'll let it sit and see what I think tomorrow morning.

Nucklavee, In Work

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.

First Steps

Hello, my name is Kurt Komoda. I've been lurking on here for a while. I'm an artist living in New Jersey and working as a commercial artist in New York City- though, it doesn't really pay the rent and bills. I think you all know the story. Like many of you, I grew up as a terrified child, tormented by the things in the dark or just outside my field of view. Most of my nightly phantoms were fueled by the snippets of horror movies I was able to see before my parents would send me off to bed. Unfortunately, they always did this just as the nice movie we were watching turned into something ghastly- so....I be sent upstairs to my room where my imagination would begin to fill in the blanks. In all cases that I've have the chance to check, "my version" was better than the actual movie. I've learned that it sometimes better to keep it that way. My introduction to Eaten By Ducks was through Robert Gilmour, when he identified one of the drawings I had done of the Nucklavee: I had read about it somewhere and immediately sketched it, but then forgot what the hell it was. I don't think it's a very good drawing. It was just a silly sketch that, for some reason, I Xeroxed and then colored with marker and white gouache. I hate the human head and the one-eyed horse looks like "My Little Pony" or something. I'll have to draw it again and make it look a bit more sinister. Okay, well, I can't take up too much space. I suppose there will be more as we go on. Obviously, I'm fascinated by monsters- but I draw other things, too.