I did a cursory search on the web to see what other artists have done. I wanted to avoid making something too similar to another themed piece. What I discovered was a little troubling. There was not much to be found. I thought this would be a common subject due to the popularity of Lovecraft. Most of the works had Cthulhu incorporated in some way and lacked a sense of realism, having no visual impact on the observer. I wanted to break the trend.
First, I had to choose a quality image for reference that included the Earth and Moon.
Then I sketched a layout of the objects on a black-outed canvas. Once in place, I used a toothbrush to spatter in stars and a dry brush to create a hazy cloud to add some color and movement to help frame the central piece.
I was pretty satisfied with my Moon. I included enough details of the surface features that it actually looked very similar to our Moon.
Then came the tentacles... all eldritch horrors have tentacles.
And, finally, the Earth. Unfortunately, with such a small representation of the planet, I was not able to capture that same level of visual familiarity with the Earth as I did the Moon. The land mass appeared difficult to distinguish what region you are viewing, and I have come to accept that I didn't achieve the same quality.
But, the final results were more than satisfying.
With each anthology, the cover project was almost as exciting as the process of gathering up a terrific collection of stories from gifted authors. Shattered Space was no different. Without the inspiration from the contributing authors and knowing the project is nearing its end, one could easily be consumed with the details and never put together a cover that harnesses the true horror found within.
