ORACLE

3/02/2010

New Blog Header

I am sure it is apparent to my regular readers that I have updated the header for this blog... yet again. A blog is meant to be a work in progress, so I doubt I will ever settle in and leave the graphics alone. Part of the fun for me when designing a new header is finding a piece of art in the public domain that I can actually use. The challenge is greater than you might think being the theme of the blog is "where sword & sorcery gaming meets Cthulhiana and Yog-Sothothery". Yeah, not a whole lot of Yog-Sothothery going on in the public domain arena.

Last night, while poking around Wikipedia Commons, I ran upon a large collection of scanned plates by the biologist/artist Ernst Haeckel. In this collection there are a hundred pages of paintings and drawings of some of the most bizarre creatures in nature. Needless to say, this was just the thing I was looking for. Since these were published in 1904 it would not surprise me at all if Lovecraft himself had viewed these plates and drew much inspiration (and horror) for some of his creations. I am sure I will be using many of these images in the days to come.

4 comments:

The Venomous Pao said...

Love it, man. Love. It.

R.R. Hunsinger said...

Damn it Mangus!!!!! ;-)

R.R. Hunsinger said...

Damn it Mangus!

Shane Mangus said...

@Pao - Thanks!

@Hunsinger - I take it that is good? :-)

Stepping back and looking at things it just dawned on me... this is the black metal edition of Swords Against the Outer Dark. The look is so necro and cult!