Over View
The story of Cthulhu is best showcased by it more fantastical elements. The city that Cthulhu is sleeping in is said to be illogical and mind bending. Inspired by the M.C Usher stair case painting, the city was modeled after that. The tentacles reaching up from the depth is to show the power and ominous nature of Cthulhu as the god is almost always shrouded in mystery. The little boat resembles the ship our main character goes on to find Cthulhu but it's size gives us a feeling that they are more helpless. The colours were chosen based on ocean colours of being blue with a green mixed in for a more creepy aesthetic that is often used in love crafts art. Being a novel written in the 1800's the font is a serif font with a more hand written look like the detective wrote it him self. With the Authors name written in a more plain serif font for legibility at a smaller size. The cover art is turned up side down as the main character's world is also flipped metaphorically as they grapple with the knowledge they uncover.
Requirements
-Making a cover for an old the book Call of Cthulhu.
-The cover needed to showcase the story
-Cover needs to have a feeling of the story.
-Cover had to be made for print
-Had to have a book mock up
-Authors name and description
-Leaf's needed the same treatment as the cover
-Room for a bar code
-Have info on the author and story on leaf's
Goals
-Draw the city of R'lyeh a paradoxical city that makes the human brain confused.
-Incorporate the title into the art.
-Give a feeling of not understanding while still showing the story.
-Give an idea of a monster with out showing it.
-Show the author as a monster
-Have the cult symbol of Cthulhu shown
Reflection
The cover was successful as it met all goal criteria. Drawing the city in an M.C usher style gave to the confusion of the paradoxical city of R'lyeh. The tentacles showed Cthulhu as a large monster without showing his face or body, allowing this to still be up to the reader. The scene depicted is of the end of the story when the main character goes on a ship to try and stop the coming of Cthulhu. The scene is flipped to give unease and uncertainty. The author was made into a monster to show the body horror his characters often faced throughout his works. The symbol is a cult sign that the worshipers of Cthulhu use, by showing it readers can see the complexity of it to give a visual add to help when reading. Some things I would like to improve upon are rendering the art work further. As well as doing test prints for the final product.
Appendix
In the early stages of the concepts, 3 book covers were made for Call of Cthulhu and 3 others for Go Ask Alice and Spiderwick chronicles. For Call of Cthulhu 3 themes were chosen. The statue was the first as it is our first view of the creature in the novel. The title would cover the face to enhance the mystery of what it is you are seeing. The second theme was based on the city and its incomprehensible complexity. Leafs were not thought of in this stage so the back cover was designed to house all the information. The third design was focused on the detective aspect and the back cover has a peg board that a detective would use. Ultimately the second design was chosen as the best way to display the story.
2 other novels looked up also had high fidelity mockups. The spiderwick chronicles is themed after other book covers and some movie elements. The concept is that when you look through the spyglass you see a magical world in full colour where the real world would be black and white. Go ask Alice’s cover is a young woman being crushed by a needle symbolizing her drug addiction and feeling of her world closing in around her. The back of the book would be newspaper clippings as this is a fake “true” story. This would be a nod to the author lying to the public about the story's origins.
