Shoggoth Sculptor

 

Now, the real round 1 of Bio-Cup! The theme for this one is Magic and Mysticism, and as it's July, I had to make my model between various away-from-bricks vacation activities. This took 1,5 days but I'm happy with it nonetheless; I could have spent one more day on it, but I didn't have to.

As the name suggests, this is inspired by H. P. Lovecraft. Shoggoths are artificial creatures engineered by the Elder Things. Eventually, the rose to rebellion against their masters. I wanted to capture certain vibe of forbidden magical creation; the model does not strive to faithfully re-create neither the shoggoth nor the Elder Thing. I began with the head and the robe front made of Antroz's wings; the printed Dreamz shell was the first piece I decided to use. Getting Antroz's wings in the right angle was quite difficult; the way they reveal the more detailed inner robe was essential to the composition. In the details, I wanted to make something half-artificial, half-organic. 

The white "skin" contrasts with the darker robe. Instead of legs, I gave him a short pillar of tantacles that spread around. Very long, eerie fingers helped to make the character spooky while matching the weird hind limbs. The smoothness of the white areas extend to the scalp. In contrast, the lower part of the head is more detailed and fragmented. I liked how it reminded both an elongated human skull and the tentacle mouth of great Cthulhu.

To define the character, I added a baby shoggoth-in-progress. Full shoggoths are black masses with eerie green glow, but this is a blue bubble with a dormant maggot-like creature inside. Shoggoth can grow appendages whenever needed, so a similar but inverted approach felt fitting. The creature uses a kraata, matching the krana on the character's robe. 

 -Eero.