/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

[Anonymous No.3599870]

How do you draw something "scary"?
What visual elements do people respond to with fear or uncanny-ness?
What makes good horror art?

[Anonymous No.3599877]

Idk go find some pics you find scary and then find some pics that aren't scary but are the same subject matter and see what's different between them

[Anonymous No.3599892]

>>3599870
i was also interested in this topic lately
maybe check out others people horror-art, horror movies with strong visuals, and when you'll be like "that's kinda freaky/scary", analyze it ect.

[Anonymous No.3600140]

>>3599870
sorry for bad england

Anxiety in behavioral psychology is defined as the response to -the possibility- of an unpredictable and uncontrollable danger. The higher the unpredictability/uncontr., the higher the response. For example, anxiety for a heart attack.

Now fear is the response to actually coming in contact with danger, like fire for example. You might be scared of fire but not feel anxious of it

In that sense, one could argue that good horror art depends on the feelings you're trying to evoke, on whether you choose to merely hint at something for its implications or to really depict it on its entirety.

Danger comes in many forms, and we (animals) are constantly checking for it everywhere we go. A bigger insect will always be scarier, same with a darker ambient. Anything that goes against our normal flow of perception and homeostasis means a threat. Things we don't understand, anything out of place and sudden realizations, especially when they involve what we already deemed safe, can elicit the state of fear and anxiety.

Now you have a few ways of translating that in a drawing through composition and the choice of the subject, and you just have to get some reference and try to understand them.

[Anonymous No.3600143]

>>3599870
mainly bug bits i think, people hate bug bits. and corpse bits

[Anonymous No.3600196]

i think one good tip for horror that might be overused at this point but i still like human parts in a non human creature, like human teeth or hands or eyes on something scary looking tends to evoke a reaction.

[Anonymous No.3600249]

>>3599870
Draw things that are averse to human nature. Take something and transform it into something that the mind would never expect and can't make complete sense of. It's that uncertainty that makes something truly scary.

[Anonymous No.3600265]

The best horror leaves a lot up to the imagination imo, pic very related. The individuals mind can come up with way scarier shit then whatever you could put down on paper.

Also humans have the natural fear of the unknown, incorporating that makes for great spooks as well.

[Anonymous No.3600282]

>>3600265
agreed. Remeber you're making one still image, locked in place forever. If you show the monster you can stare at it, and it won't be scary for long. I've heard the same advice for laughing or smiling to big as well. Because they have no time it looks odder the longer it goes.

[Anonymous No.3600284]

>>3599870
https://youtu.be/jq-7S4aMmsA

[Anonymous No.3600300]

Lack of clarity despite skillful depiction. Pic related, though it's not skillful enough, especially for lack of figures.

[Anonymous No.3600301]

>>3600300
forgot to resize

[Anonymous No.3600310]

>>3600301
shit... all I said in the deleted post was "Lack of clarity despite skillful depiction of something, but that pic related wasn't skillful enough for lack of figures"

[Anonymous No.3600348]

>>3599870
I'll just throw this tidbit in here:

I studied stage lighting in college. One of the things we learned was how to use color to convey emotion and atmosphere. Green is the easiest one, and can be used to convey illness, sickness, and creepiness. Purple is also effective, and brown/sickly yellows. Red is used for action, anger, violence, and love. (Ironically)
So your color choices can have a huge effect. Take the image you posted - the imagery is horrific, but imagine if it were all pink hues, not yellows and greens and browns.

We respond to visual cues. It's been studied, and film and theater books regarding stage lighting design and set design go into it. I can't name any offhand right now, but if you start digging into the subject, you'll find it easily enough. We used a book in college that discussed the psychological impact of color on design, if I remember it, I'll post it.

[Anonymous No.3600394]

>>3599870
What Im more interested in is how he achieved those textures with oil paints. Does anyone know? Or maybe have some brush techniques that could create a similar effect? It looks so thick and multi-layered, is it done on a dry canvas?

[Anonymous No.3600457]

>>3599870
Just draw detailed gore pics

[Anonymous No.3600498]

>>3600457
I believe ambiguity is very important for fear, like Masahiro Ito's creatures - it's difficult to tell if they are human or inhuman, they are at an uncomfortable point between the two. This is related to the uncanny valley effect. He has also talked about using the ideas of simultaneous repulsion and attraction, the creatures of look deformed and corpse like but also have emphasized sexual features and are sometimes shown acting sexually. The idea of ambiguity can be used in lighting as well, you can use shadows to hide things and make the image less clear.

[Anonymous No.3600501]

>>3600498
didn't mean to reply

[Anonymous No.3600516]

In some ways stark lighting can definitely adds to the sense of unease. Probably because it creates deeper shadows, so your contrast is pretty high kinda like fever dreams. I think >>3600265 is a really good example of that. The dark outside the door is impenetrable because the light in the room is so sharp

Twin Peaks uses this whenever the characters are in the woods at night. Their flashlights are very bright and sharp, which makes everything else completely dark.

[Anonymous No.3600519]

>>3600498
This. Also, check hans bellmer's work

[Anonymous No.3600560]

>>3600519
>hans bellmer
good taste

[Anonymous No.3600564]

>>3600560

[Anonymous No.3600566]

>>3600564

[Anonymous No.3600703]

>>3600566
I'll fuck it

[Anonymous No.3600882]

>>3600348
this book?

[Anonymous No.3600884]

>>3600564
>>3600566
NOPE

[Anonymous No.3600951]

>>3600884
Yes.

[Anonymous No.3600976]

>>3600566
brapman

[Anonymous No.3601023]

>>3600394
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2juUJ81iYs

[Anonymous No.3601024]

>>3600882
Nah, it was a book that covered stage lighting for everything, the horror/creepy part was just one chapter - although this book looks good.

[Anonymous No.3601025]

just draw ur mom
haha

[Anonymous No.3601032]

unless your making a comic or animation it won't be scary
it's almost impossible to make a truly horrify atmosphere with a single image
horror needs context, ambience and anxiety
a single portrait can only insight so much fear
take that cursed portrait that was made by the suicidal painter
I think it was called The Flayed Man
id you just see the picture it'll give you a creepy vibe but the story behind it amplifies that vibe 10x fold

[Anonymous No.3601076]

>>3601032
I disagree, for example I find images like this make me very uncomfortable, they can be hard to look at.

[Anonymous No.3601077]

>>3601076

[Anonymous No.3601078]

>>3601077
and of course it is possible to tell story through a still image

[Anonymous No.3601493]

>>3601023
Thanks alot anon!

[Anonymous No.3601506]

>>3599870
>human features on non-human objects or entities (e.g. an animal with human teeth)
>removing one or two facial features from a human face
>play around with eyes, their size, colour, and the pupils too - animal eyes on people are creepy
>long and thin body proportions (works for animals and creatures as well as humans)
>sea creature like entities usually work well (jellyfish, squid, sharks)
>unsaturated colours
>mystery/enigma/the unknown
>subtle human sexual traits (look at geiger's work, some of del toro's)
>lots of whitespace
>anything that's meant to be inside a living thing appearing on the outside (saliva, blood, snot, shit, piss, organs etc.)

these are some things i see working quite well.

[Anonymous No.3601539]

>>3599870
>What makes good horror art?
Things you can't do nothing about yet they stick around - imprisonment, death, eyes watching you, especially things that somehow relate to the truths and primal human instincts. Horror is one of the most difficult genres imo.

[Anonymous No.3601546]

gory stuff always do the trick

[Anonymous No.3601665]

[Anonymous No.3601673]

[Anonymous No.3601676]

[Anonymous No.3601679]

You draw something completely normal and add/omit one thing

[tom bombadil thread No.3602307]

pessimism,doom,things that portray everything being over with no one being able to do anything about it no matter how strong

[Anonymous No.3602526]

>>3599870
By having terrible, unclean, and over rendered art

[Anonymous No.3602587]

Very interesting question, a difficult one to answer too. In order to understand what makes "scary" art "scary" you have to understand the nature of fear and how we as humans perceive reality. How our pattern recognition works. Generally - unknown. elements of unknown. The area outside of the fire lit cave is the unknown - the night. That turns on our threat recognition, makes us alert e t.c.
Doesn't necessarily mean that you have to make everything dark and undecipherable - think more broadly - elements of unknown, for example the silent hill monsters have in them something that we know and something we don't. Think about it.

[Anonymous No.3603061]

>>3602526

[Anonymous No.3603797]

>>3599870
Familiar plus alien/unknown. Let's take the image you've posted as an example:
>more fucked uip Voldemort (a recognizably human face but lacking nose etc)
>real world buildings in the background
>spider humanoid skeleton things (note how you can just barely make out what they actually are)

Another great example in >>3600265, very common normal house setting, with a common pet, but you have no idea what's behind that doorway, and the dog is obviously on guard due to something.

[Anonymous No.3603862]

At this point I am convinced that there is no scary picture or drawing.
sure you can draw disgusting things like bugs or corpses that makes people go "yikes" but that not what fear is

[Anonymous No.3604216]

>>3603862
I believe you'd have to be acquainted with the feeling to be afraid when seeing an image