I completed The Well III a week or so ago, after letting it dry enough I put a layer of retouching varnish on it and here ya go:

The Well III oil painting by Airn LeBus, oil on panel 9x9 inches, 2008

I think maybe this is the best painting I have done so far overall, and it was one of the fastest to complete! I didn’t have to make very many revisions even though it wasn’t planned out at all…although I sort of based this on other drawings I have done I didn’t sketch this out beforehand, just started painting and went with the flow. I am happy with this one and want to do more creepy landscape type scenes, I’m loving the creepy night scenes.

Categories: completed, lovecraft, oil painting by Airn
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Tentacles emerge from a subterranean well as sickly broiling vapors swirl around the misty oozing swamp. Luminous fungi cast an eerie radiance on crumbling stone as the slithering, ropy tentacles writhe in the moonlight.

Update 11-02-08: The Well III is done, go here to see the finished painting.

The Well III, oil on panel, 9x9 inches, work in progress 09-28-08

This painting is inspired partly by H.P. Lovecraft’s writings and his Cthulhu Mythos. It’s a kind of sequel to a couple watercolor illustrations I did and also a companion piece to my dark and creepy Lovecraftian song The Well.

I finished my Jovial Jack O’ Lantern painting directly before this and picked up some new techniques for painting grim grass, forbidding flora, slimy stone, and other such goodness. This is a rather small painting so I wasn’t able to cram in any tombstones or anything but I’m excited about the overall look and feel of the painting, there’s something super creepy and cool about steaming swamps and weird glowing mushrooms. I’m starting to figure out what I like painting the most: creepy night scenes with fog and smoke and lots of glowing stuff (like Dream City #1 and Jovial Jack O’ Lantern :B).

Categories: lovecraft, oil painting, work-in-progress by airn
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This painting is done.

Priestess of Dagon, (after Bouguereau, kinda), oil on panel, 9x12 inches

Another Lovecraft-inspired painting, it started out as a study of a Bouguereau painting (see initial post) but I deviated pretty completely from it except for some shading and the pose. This was another painting that I didn’t plan out at all but kept painting over stuff and learning as I went along. This is the most complete portrait-thing I’ve done so far, the first one outdoors with a landscape background.

Categories: completed, lovecraft, oil painting by airn
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Here’s the latest update to my Dream-City oil painting…actually about a week old but I got a good pic of it in outside lighting with dry paint today so I’m able to post a picture where you can actually see the sky and such This is still a work in progress.

Dream-City work in progress 09-10-08

Look at the Dream City category to see all posts on this topic where I talk more about the painting and such.

Categories: dream city, lovecraft, oil painting, work-in-progress by airn
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I took some stuff from a Bouguereau painting for this one…I had a nice large reference photo for a change and want to learn some of his awesome techniques.

Priestess of Dagon, oil on panel, 9x12 inches, work in progress 08-17-08

This is the first outdoor portrait-type painting I have attempted and the first with a substantial background, but I didn’t plan anything out here so it just kind of evolved as I painted it. The Lovecraftian Dagon motif wormed it’s way in at some point…originally I was just messing around studying the Bouguereau painting as I painted over some abstract experiment.

I just started learning to represent bushes and landscapes and such so I’ve been experimenting with that as I go along. Originally I took reference photos of some Goleta, California landscapes but ended up covering up most of what I painted from those.

The pyramid is going to have a somewhat evil-looking eye on it which will also be mirrored on her brooch. I’m going for a contrast between the wholesome landscape, her flaxen fair, puffy white clouds, etc., and the soon-to-be weird and creepy structures in the background, her strange brooch, and her less than happy expression. The eye symbols will be the same stylized eye used in the movie Dagon, which was based on Lovecraft’s story The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Lovecraft is a favorite of mine and some of his influence (and that of the author Lord Dunsany and the artist Tim Kirk who, among other works, drew some wonderful illustrations for Dunsany) is creeping into another of my paintings, Dream-City #1.

Here’s the Bouguereau painting I borrowed from, my painting doesn’t look anything like it anymore but I still feel I must disclaim since I used that painting heavily as a reference for the eyes and such:

Categories: lovecraft, oil painting, work-in-progress by airn
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I made a ton of changes to this one tonight and over the past week. I started a bunch of Egyptian stuff including a giant scarab building, Eye of Horus, and a building with the head of Anubis. I altered many other parts, my painting has improved a bit since starting this in April so I’m going back over some stuff I was not happy with. I am really having fun with this one, once it’s done I plan on doing more along these lines for sure!

I really like doing the vegetation and grassy bits, I’ve been using yellow ochre/cad yellow light/viridian/raw umber/titanium white/terre verte. I’m mostly using a splayed out cheap round brush for the flora and it works great! The water is also super fun and it’s mostly phthalo blue and white, maybe with some lamp black and raw umber which I use a lot in general. I really like the way it looks to have the earth/grass sinking into and decaying into the water like on the left where the tombstones and crosses are…also the parts where you can see stone and stuff under the water like in the lower left…I dunno why but I really love that

Dream City as of 08-07-08

Categories: dream city, lovecraft, oil painting, work-in-progress by airn
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