When Architecture Speaks in Eldritch Tongues

A Lovecraftian escape from architectural slop

If you’ve been following my notes, you’ve seen me sharing previews of my Lovecraftian artworks. While reading Lovecraft’s fiction, I found that his architectural descriptions spoke to me far more vividly than his blasphemous fish monsters and tentacled Old Ones. As I worked through his complete fiction, I took note of passages that left a lasting impression—and turned them into digital art.

These pieces have been featured on various websites by fellow H.P. Lovecraft enthusiasts, but this is the first time I’m sharing them in full resolution—exclusively for paid subscribers (the link is at the end of this post).

I know it’s early to start posting paywalled content, but since I already have one paying subscriber, I felt bad not offering something exclusive.

If you enjoy my work but can’t commit to an ongoing subscription, you can always upgrade for a month, download the full collection, and then switch back to free—no hard feelings. So, without further ado, here’s the collection. Each artwork preview is accompanied by the passage that inspired it.

The Dunwich Village

This is one of my first Lovecraftian artworks (2d & 3d). Based on Lovecraft’s ‘Dunwich Horror’, it depicts the tenebrous covered bridge leading to the ominous village. In Lovecraft’s own words:

When a traveller in north central Massachusetts takes the wrong fork at the junction of the Aylesbury pike just beyond Dean’s Corners he comes upon a lonely and curious country. The ground gets higher, and the brier-bordered stone walls press closer and closer against the ruts of the dusty, curving road. […] As the hills draw nearer, one heeds their wooded sides more than their stone-crowned tops. Those sides loom up so darkly and precipitously that one wishes they would keep their distance, but there is no road by which to escape them. Across a covered bridge one sees a small village huddled between the stream and the vertical slope of Round Mountain, and wonders at the cluster of rotting gambrel roofs bespeaking an earlier architectural period than that of the neighbouring region. One dreads to trust the tenebrous tunnel of the bridge, yet there is no way to avoid it.” – The Dunwich Horror” by H.P. Lovecraft

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Another one of my early works (full 3d), following a detailed description of Innsmouth:

“It was a town of wide extent and dense construction, yet one with a portentous dearth of visible life. From the tangle of chimney-pots scarcely a wisp of smoke came […] The vast huddle of sagging gambrel roofs and peaked gables conveyed with offensive clearness the idea of wormy decay […]. There were some large square Georgian houses, too, with hipped roofs, cupolas, and railed “widow’s walks”. […] The decay was worst close to the waterfront, though in its very midst I could spy the white belfry of a fairly well-preserved brick structure which looked like a small factory. […] A sandy tongue had formed inside this barrier, and upon it I saw a few decrepit cabins, moored dories, and scattered lobster-pots.” - The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft

Make sure to check out my other Innsmouth artwork with the two wicked deep ones.

Lovecraft’s Providence

Another full 3d artwork inspired from HPL’s ample descriptions from his novel, ‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’:

“One of the child’s first memories was of the great westward sea of hazy roofs and domes and steeples and far hills which he saw one winter afternoon from that great railed embankment, all violet and mystic against a fevered, apocalyptic sunset of reds and golds and purples and curious greens. The vast marble dome of the State House stood out in massive silhouette, its crowning statue haloed fantastically by a break in one of the tinted stratus clouds that barred the flaming sky. […] Sometimes, as he grew taller and more adventurous, young Ward would venture down into this maelstrom of tottering houses, broken transoms, tumbling steps, twisted balustrades, swarthy faces, and nameless odours; winding from South Main to South Water, searching out the docks where the bay and sound steamers still touched.” – The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, H. P. Lovecraft

The Strange High House in the Mist

You know this story. 3d rendering + matte painting. In the full res section you can see a version with a square format and a slightly different composition.

“In the morning mist comes up from the sea by the cliffs beyond Kingsport. White and feathery it comes from the deep to its brothers the clouds, full of dreams of dank pastures and caves of leviathan. […]
Now north of archaic Kingsport the crags climb lofty and curious, terrace on terrace, till the northernmost hangs in the sky like a grey frozen wind-cloud. Alone it is, a bleak point jutting in limitless space. […] Nevertheless there is an ancient house on that cliff, and at evening men see lights in the small-paned windows. The ancient house has always been there…” - The Strange High House in the Mist by HPL

Rue d’Auseil - the Music of Erich Zann

Perhaps my favourite short story by HPL. 2d matte painting showing old Erich carrying his viola. Make sure to check out the cyanotype version as well.

“The Rue d’Auseil lay across a dark river […] Beyond the bridge were narrow cobbled streets with rails; and then came the ascent, at first gradual, but incredibly steep as the Rue d’Auseil was reached. I have never seen another street as narrow and steep as the Rue d’Auseil. It was almost a cliff, closed to all vehicles, consisting in several places of flights of steps, and ending at the top in a lofty ivied wall. Its paving was irregular, sometimes stone slabs, sometimes cobblestones, and sometimes bare earth with struggling greenish-grey vegetation. The houses were tall, peaked-roofed, incredibly old, and crazily leaning backward, forward, and sidewise. Occasionally an opposite pair, both leaning forward, almost met across the street like an arch; and certainly they kept most of the light from the ground below. […] It was the third house from the top of the street, and by far the tallest of them all. My room was on the fifth story; the only inhabited room there, since the house was almost empty.” – The Music of Erich Zann, H.P. Lovecraft

Greenwich Village - He

Another 3d artwork inspired from ‘He’, one of Lovecraft’s heaviest stories. It’s part of a series of 3 images showing the exact spot in different historical times. Check them out in the full resolution section.

“After traversing a horrible unlighted court where my guide had to lead with his gloved hand through total blackness to a narrow wooden gate in a high wall, we came upon a fragment of alley lit only by lanterns in front of every seventh house. This alley led steeply uphill—more steeply than I thought possible in this part of New York—and the upper end was blocked squarely by the ivy-clad wall of a private estate, beyond which I could see a pale cupola, and the tops of trees waving against a vague lightness in the sky. In this wall was a small, low-arched gate of nail-studded black oak, which the man proceeded to unlock with a ponderous key” - He by H. P. Lovecraft

The Doom That Came to Sarnath

Full 3d artwork (except for the camels and golden elephants)

“The wonder of the world and the pride of all mankind was Sarnath the magnificent. Of polished desert-quarried marble were its walls. […] In Sarnath were fifty streets from the lake to the gates of the caravans, and fifty more intersecting them. With onyx were they paved, save those whereon the horses and camels and elephants trod, which were paved with granite. […] The houses of Sarnath were of glazed brick and chalcedony, each having its walled garden and crystal lakelet. But more marvellous still were the palaces and the temples, and the gardens made by Zokkar the olden king. […] Many were the pillars of the palaces, all of tinted marble, and carven into designs of surpassing beauty. Lofty and amazing were the seventeen tower-like temples of Sarnath, fashioned of a bright multi-coloured stone not known elsewhere” - The Doom That Came to Sarnath, HPL

The White Ship

You know this one as well, one of HPL’s early, more poetical works. 2d matte painting.

“Out of the South it was that the White Ship used to come when the moon was full and high in the heavens. Out of the South it would glide very smoothly and silently over the sea. And whether the sea was rough or calm, and whether the wind was friendly or adverse, it would always glide smoothly and silently, its sails distant and its long strange tiers of oars moving rhythmically” - The White Ship by HPL

The Temple

Full 3d artwork inspired by Lovecraft’s epic short story with the same name.

“What I did see was not spectacular, not grotesque or terrifying, yet it removed my last vestige of trust in my consciousness. For the door and windows of the undersea temple hewn from the rocky hill were vividly aglow with a flickering radiance, as from a mighty altar-flame far within. As I stared at the uncannily lighted door and windows, I became subject to the most extravagant visions—visions so extravagant that I cannot even relate them. I fancied that I discerned objects in the temple—objects both stationary and moving—and seemed to hear again the unreal chant that had floated to me when first I awaked.” – The Temple, H. P. Lovecraft.

In the paywalled section, you'll get:

✅ Full-resolution versions of all my Lovecraftian artworks
✅ More exact passages from Lovecraft’s fiction that inspired each piece
✅ Exclusive access—this collection won’t be published anywhere else

If you’d like to explore the full set, consider upgrading to a paid subscription—even if just for a month!

Upgrade Now to unlock the full post.