The great Old One loves you
September 23, 2018
I had just finished reading a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's works and received an invitation to friend's wedding. They love weird things just as we do and what could be a better present than a statue of ancient cosmic horror, bringing love to the newlyweds. Flowers? Giftcard?
Yes, nothing.
After shaping and bending many 3D model tentacles in Sculptris (I was still to discover the Zbrush, my bane) the great Cthulhu descended onto the heatbead of our 3D printer.
The Old One had many supports to hold the tentacles, and it was a huge pain to remove them, but what one wouldn't do just to bring His sweet lovecraftian dread to the world. Well probably design could be less tentacly or more thought out, but who are we to fear removing some PLA from another piece of PLA?
The print was followed by hours and hours of priming and sanding, and priming and sanding, and then the fun part of painting. It was incredibly interesting to see how different layers of spraypaint react to washes and drybrush. For priming I used a lot of universal gesso primer, but now I would definitely prefer spray putty. Painting included a lot of white, shiny blue and black spray paint of various brands, homemade ink and acrylic washes and random spotting with mostly acrylic paint. In between painting and washing I used spray lacquer for sealing. There was also a hint of drybrush.
And then I decided, the great Cthulhu needed to see the ones He brought love to. Some gold paint, some red and purple drybrush, pitch black irises and I was prohibited from keeping the Old One at home a minute longer than necessary. Is Cthulhu scary, though? Terrifyingly impossible to understand, yes. Not the first choice for a normal gift, yes. But scary? I really don't know.
He stares at you and wakes up every one of your deepest darkest fears. But He comes to bring Love. Our first digitally sculpted, 3D printed, handpainted the great Old One Cthulhu now resides with our friends, protecting their happily ever after with cosmic terror.
