Weird Fiction - Tumblr Posts

I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth--a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow.

Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

Well, that would certainly be an interesting review to get as a writer...I doubt any of us wish to be literally cursed by our readers, but it would be flattering to know we’ve affected someone that deeply.

Causing insanity in readers, that’s another story.

[sources: x / x ]

"Almost Familiar" (Annihilation)

Digital collage made in GIMP with stock images from Pexels.com. Based on a scene in the book "Annihilation", part of the "Southern Reach" triology-soon-to-be-tetralogy by Jeff Vandermeer.

I was kinda thrilled that making collages enabled me to re-create this specific scene from the book, even if this piece looks and feels just as eerie to me as reading the scene did. This was more of a quick one, but I still like it very much.

I have made a few other collages that dip into the same uncanny metamorphosis-type entities and imagery as this one that I will hopefully post soon as well.

[sources : x / x ]

"Annihilation - The Bear (version 1)"

Digital collage made in GIMP. Inspired by the bear(-creature) from the movie adaptation of "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with stock images from pexels.com.

This is less of a 1:1 interpretation of the bear, and more of an abstract, experimental, artistic representation of it. After I made the dolphin, I remembered the bear from the movie and thought about recreating it, and was actually quite surprised (in a good way) when I managed to do so.

The pic is meant to be half-realistic, half artistic; the skull kinda looks like it was drawn over the bear, and kinda as if the skull really portrudes from the bear's head. I really enjoyed the 'shared eye' as well, it came out looking really well.

I have a second picture of the bear that I will post in the future; it looks very similar but is not completely identical. Overall, this concept was a lot of fun to try and adapt, and I learned a few new things along the way.

(Fun fact, the bear actually has a name. It's 'Homerton'.) (2nd fun fact, I am almost sure that the art for Tom Rhodes' 'Don't Fear The Reaper' cover features the same skull I used.)

[sources : x / x ]

"Annihilation - The Bear (version 1)"

Digital collage made in GIMP. Inspired by the bear(-creature) from the movie adaptation of "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with stock images from pexels.com.

This is less of a 1:1 interpretation of the bear, and more of an abstract, experimental, artistic representation of it. After I made the dolphin, I remembered the bear from the movie and thought about recreating it, and was actually quite surprised (in a good way) when I managed to do so.

The pic is meant to be half-realistic, half artistic; the skull kinda looks like it was drawn over the bear, and kinda as if the skull really portrudes from the bear's head. I really enjoyed the 'shared eye' as well, it came out looking really well.

I have a second picture of the bear that I will post in the future; it looks very similar but is not completely identical. Overall, this concept was a lot of fun to try and adapt, and I learned a few new things along the way.

(Fun fact, the bear actually has a name. It's 'Homerton'.) (2nd fun fact, I am almost sure that the art for Tom Rhodes' 'Don't Fear The Reaper' cover features the same skull I used.)

[sources: x / x ]

"Annihilation - The Bear (version 2)"

Digital collage made in GIMP. Inspired by the bear(-creature) from the movie adaptation of "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with stock images from pexels.com.

This is, in fact, not the same image I posted before; the photo for the bear is a different one. Very similar though. I wanted to do a more close-up version of the creature and experimented a bit by adding color to the eye. I really like how eerie it looks, and how well the images fit.

[sources: x / x ]

"Annihilation - The Bear (version 2)"

Digital collage made in GIMP. Inspired by the bear(-creature) from the movie adaptation of "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with stock images from pexels.com.

This is, in fact, not the same image I posted before; the photo for the bear is a different one. Very similar though. I wanted to do a more close-up version of the creature and experimented a bit by adding color to the eye. I really like how eerie it looks, and how well the images fit.

"Annihilation - The Deer"

[sources: x / x ]

Digital collage made in GIMP. Inspired by the deer-creature(s) from the movie adaptation of "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with stock images from pexels.com.

I originally didn't plan on posting this separately and only using it in a 'Annihilation' moodboard/aesthetic (that I haven't posted yet), but then looked through my files and decided to clean it up a bit and actually give it its own post.

Again, this is partly meant to look artistic, part realistic - the branches are from a stock photo but edited so they look almost hand-drawn, and almost as if they are sprouting from the deer's head. The branches make the deer look very alien but regal, just like the ones from the movie did.

Still not quite sure what to make with the text(s) on these pieces however. I'm not sure topography and choosing fonts is gonna be one of my strengths. But the pic looked a bit unfinished without some text imo.

"Annihilation - The Deer"

[sources: x / x ]

Digital collage made in GIMP. Inspired by the deer-creature(s) from the movie adaptation of "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with stock images from pexels.com.

I originally didn't plan on posting this separately and only using it in a 'Annihilation' moodboard/aesthetic (that I haven't posted yet), but then looked through my files and decided to clean it up a bit and actually give it its own post.

Again, this is partly meant to look artistic, part realistic - the branches are from a stock photo but edited so they look almost hand-drawn, and almost as if they are sprouting from the deer's head. The branches make the deer look very alien but regal, just like the ones from the movie did.

Still not quite sure what to make with the text(s) on these pieces however. I'm not sure topography and choosing fonts is gonna be one of my strengths. But the pic looked a bit unfinished without some text imo.

Who am I?

Aster Norwood ...

Hello everyone, I'm an aspiring author with aims of writing multicultural sci fi, fantasy, weird fiction, and folk horror novels and short stories. This account bears my pen name.

thecityoflostintentions.com

The City of Lost Intentions

A Guide for the Artistically Waylaid

Please buy this weird little book.

Available from the slightly chaotic website above.

Also from Tertulia (20%-50% off, by god!) with free shipping to the US.

A BOOK FOR ALL WAYLAID ARTISTS* & SELF-SABOTEURS!

*writers, painters, glassblowers, cabaret performers, burlesque dancers, stand-up comedians, fashion designers, sculptors, directors, photographers, ink scribblers, dilettantes & dabblers, pifflers & procrastinators.

Find your Eternal Carnation in the Artistic Underworld! Fun for all depressed artists!

V A U L T

You think of the labyrinthine Earth, an unending cascade of layers that ascends upwards and downwards eternally, forever, fucking forever. The night and space and the dead worlds in the blackness are below their own Vault, their own cellar of existence that is moldy with vacuum and infested with the scuttling hives of silent, gnawing leviathans eating away at the foundations of reality while below claw and crawl stages that wind down, down, down, down to sludge, to a oil, to compressed exoskeletons the size of slouching infinity abysmally underfoot. It stares at you unblinking and unfeeling as it's cathedral thorns unfurl and unleash and blossom in horrendous reverse as it enclasps constellation jaws around you and you scream and scream and your wife sees you staring into the dying, degenerating universe that inhabits failed marriages and listless drives and static infested televisions even though the guy at the looming church of BestBuy told you this fucking Goliath of glass and plastic would never have static but there is static of course, staring into your soul as monstrous possibilities across undead cosmoses howl at you in your cubical nightmares

I'm bored😗