Harbinger of DOOM

Don't act like you didn't see the apocalypse coming like this. You know it will happen.

Yes, my dears, it is Cthulhu riding on the back of Derpy, and the end is bloody nigh. This picture was a request from the ol' Twitter by @NoirX. She saw my picture of Tex, the ghostbusting pony [link], and asked me to draw a pony for her. When she emailed me the details as to how this would be Cthulhu on Derpy's back, I could not say "no" to this. It's the sort of art request one dreams about.

There was a lot of back and forth between NoirX and I to get the characters scaled properly with each other and posed to what she wanted. We also collaborated on the final colour scheme. She was very nice and patient with me and my changes and the fact that this one took me a while to finish due to other things in my life getting in the way. ...and I'm not just saying that because she paid me.

I kinda had free reign on designing Cthulhu. There are many different artists renditions of him around, but I wanted my own thing, and she didn't want him too detailed, as it would contrast too much with Derpy. I settled on a stylised version of Disney Gargoyle anatomy for Cthulhu, with the brow ridge, feet, wings, and such. I went with an Asian style based armour for him simply because I didn't want the fellow nude on Derpy's back. NO. That would not happen.

I also filled in the background mainly so that Derpy's light grey colour would have something to contrast against. I felt fiery oranges and yellows would be appropriate for the end of the world. Added the clouds almost as an after thought, to make it look like the sky is ablaze with the end of days.

NOW, GAZE UPON THIS AND KNOW MADNESS. GAZE UPON IT AND KNOW DEATH.

Soft cloud texture can be found here: [link]

Pencil on paper, Digital inking, colours, and effects in Adobe Photoshop 7.