"I was ... working on something else but last night I dreamt of R'lyeh"

September 3, 2013 2:12 PM

The title of Allen Williams' website, "I Just Draw," undersells his works. These are no idle doodles, but rather, as Guillermo del Toro wrote: "Entire worlds flow from Allen Williams' pencil and brush. Creatures and characters more twisted and full of humanity than our imagination dares to conjure. He is an incredible draughtsman and a true original mind." You can see more of Williams' works on his blog. Click on the images to enlarge them.

In a 2011 Comic Con panel, del Toro said he often walks the con floor and looks at artists' work displayed, and Williams was one such artist. Because Williams handed del Toro his portfolio, he joined two other artists that del Toro came across at Comic Con to work on concept art for Pacific Rim, which you can see on his blog, and in this making-of Pacific Rim book.

You can also browse Williams' work on CGhub (featuring both traditional and digital 2D media), and his three older blogs: Allen Williams Concept (last updated in 2012), 4 Bethesda Softworks (some more material, idle since 2011), and Skinned and Boned (also idle since 2011).

And if you missed it previously, here is a gallery of pages from Guillermo del Toro's sketchbook, with ideas and images for Hellboy and the sequel, Pan's Labyrinth, and the ill-fated adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.

Speaking of which, here is one of seven pages of plot notes that H.P. Lovecraft produced while planning his novella "At the Mountains of Madness.", written in 1931 (see timeline). This particular page is actually a deconstructed envelope, as the author had hit hard times. This piece is on display at the Brown University Library's "The Shadow over College Street: H.P. Lovecraft in Providence" exhibit.

posted by filthy light thief (10 comments total)

For archival sake, here's the blog post where Williams wrote "I was actually working on something else but last night I dreamt of R'lyeh...."

If your browser doesn't pop up that image in a larger view, here's the full-scale image, which shows the insane level of detail in the piece. It was described as "both talon and ocean wave, cresting into foam and bone" by Annalee Newitz for io9.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:22 PM on September 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

I bet this guy could put together a Lovecraftian Nughtmare or two: Alex Kozhanov
posted by Artw at 3:01 PM on September 3, 2013 [4 favorites]

Fell into the web links.
Can't get out.
Wait...I know, just let me sharpen this pencil...
BRB
posted by mule98J at 4:12 PM on September 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I went to the Paintings link, and immediately recognised some of the art from Magic: The Gathering cards.
posted by Metro Gnome at 4:57 PM on September 3, 2013

This is why I metafilt.
posted by Renoroc at 6:37 PM on September 3, 2013

The Kozhanov stuff is also nice, a bit Giger-y but nice. Williams' pieces reward close observation; really neat and the many subtle details contribute to an eerie gestalt.
posted by Mister_A at 6:41 PM on September 3, 2013

His stuff is very good, but the stuff he did for del Toro is... very much like del Toro's stuff, that is, good, but getting a bit samey.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but his monster designs are all starting to blur for me, from Sammael in Hellboy to the Angel of Death in Hellboy 2 to the Kaiju in Pacific Rim, from the Pale Man and the Faun in Pan's Labyrinth to Abe Sapien in Hellboy. He seems to have a few different monster patterns he's reusing.

I mean, they're good and original patterns, but we've seen them a lot now.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:51 PM on September 3, 2013

the ill-fated adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.

why would its fate be anything else?
posted by mikelieman at 2:38 AM on September 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

For comparison/contrast sake, a little Orchid Garden.
posted by Twang at 9:32 AM on September 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Mecha Drivers Stop for Directions
posted by homunculus at 12:45 PM on September 15, 2013