Concept Gallery: The Victim from "I Am Nothing"

All right, so I've been away from here for a while, and I apologize. I've been busy with reviewing, school, drill, and a project I've been debating starting for pretty close to nine months. The project is I Am Nothing, a post-Cthulhu horror that people have tried to describe as the deranged love-child of H.P. Lovecraft and Silent Hill. In I Am Nothing, the city of Minxton has a secret. Several secrets, actually, according to the people who've suffered inside its borders. At times, the fine folks of Minxton shows their true colors; they become creatures that represent what they suffer or how they made others suffer. Each story of the I Am Nothing mythos follows a person that tries to escape, or ends up in the town unwittingly and is struggling with survival.

Unlike Goria, I Am Nothing has a mix of realism with a surreal aesthetic. The citizens aren't the only surreal part of the town, as the town can seemingly become a living being as well. But, more on that. Here, I want to talk about some monster concepts. Since it is extremely rare that I draw monsters, feedback is appreciated. Happily, this the blog where I get positive feedback, too.

Let's start with where I started: "The Victim." Initially, I made her look like a female silhouette from a distance, with her knees touching, arms crossed, and slouching. Upon closer examination, clear veins course her black body, pumping a viscous, white fluid through her body. Her face, marked with the veins, has one eye, wide in perpetual expression of fear, yet seems to glaring as well.

Everything for the initial pose of the Victim suggests what she has suffered: she was raped. The notes on the sketch reveal some secrets, though. When her prey is turned away, her arms unfold in a fluid motion, and her legs separate, though stay bent at the knees. What I don't have in the notes is the blade that comes from her pelvic area. When she attacks, she tackles her prey, and... well... do I have to spell it out?

At first glance, while scary looking, the Victim seems harmless. The character sees her, is scared at first, but puts their guard down when she seems to cower away from them. When she attacks, though, her method can suggest something worse than our first impression. Is the Victim waiting to take revenge on anyone that represents her attacker? Or is the Victim the attacker, suffering a punishment for their crime, yet driven to do it again out of pure rage caused by the punishment?

This may be controversial, but that's part of what makes I Am Nothing scary. Topics that are taboo are put to light (I'm currently working on one with a closeted gay main character, a trio of college students who made an amateur porn site, and a convict who killed his own mother), and the characters beliefs, warped or not, are shown by both the monsters actions and appearances. Keep an eye out for more on this topic, because next time, we're talking eating disorder.