So this is actually for a friend who wanted a portrait of H.P.Lovecraft to promote his game Strange Aeons (link)—a tabletop miniatures game set in around the 1920’s in a Lovecraft-type world. I’ll have to see what he thinks of this one. I had been putting it off and putting it off and last night I decided I was just going to make myself work on it. I had a preliminary sketch done already, but I just wasn’t excited about it. So I got set up and put my i-pod on shuffle and the song that came up was “In Silence”(link) by a post-hardcore band Thursday (off of a split EP that they did with the Japanese hardcore band Envy). When I get a song that puts me “in the zone” I just set it on repeat and listen to one song over and over while I work. Last night that was the song and three hours later I was almost completely finished the drawing. While I was working I was thinking about what to do with the background (not really wanting to stick Cthulhu over his shoulder) and I started thinking about the band Envy and then about Japan and then about the tsunami and then about the sheer destructive and chaotic power of water which made me think of this wave pattern from a Japanese kimono that I had on an old postcard. The title for the pattern is “Carp: Symbol of Success in Life” and it is attributed to Yaichiro Ichida (1843-1906). I couldn’t find the image online so here is my old worn postcard.
Though now that I’ve done the drawing and I have the waves in the background, I am thinking that it might need to be in colour. And bright colour! Lots of teal waves (not brown). In black and white the waves look a bit like blankets or yarn. So this might end up being a study for a painting, we shall see.
Dayna Bordage Art 
I love this Dayna. I am so impressed.
Thank you Laura, I am very pleased with it :)
Dayna, This drawing looks fabulous! I love it. You are so talented. A good example of what the power of music can do to one’s creativity. Rock on!
Thanks Marie :)
Wow, Dayna! This is absolutely awesome! I love the story that accompanies it as well as it truly reflects the creative process and how your art is a reflection of all the moments and experiences that comprise you. I can’t wait to show Mike (he will be home soon). Thank you for bringing this to life for him and for sharing your talent with us!
Thanks, I’m really glad you like it Polly!
Wow! This is fantastic!!! You have really captured his look perfectly. And made him look ‘interesting’ rather than just ‘ugly’. The background looks great and has a very subtle menace about it. Most of all I love his eyes…they have a certain ‘boyish’ quality about them and seem to look through the picture at the viewer. This far surpasses my expectations and seems to convey much of the lurking strangeness of his writing. A true masterpiece of unexplainable horror rendered in subtle shades…just wonderful! Now, to get one framed and mounted in a place of distinction.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Mike! What amazing feedback. I’m so happy that you’re pleased with it :)