Cthulu, whittled from ancient nightmares!

As a fan of horror fiction, especially the works of Poe, Howard, and Lovecraft, autumn always inspires meto watch scary movies and revisit my favorite stories.

Cthulu, one of HP Lovecraft's most iconic creations, stands among Dracula, Moriarty, and Darth Vader as one of the great opponents of all that is good. Represented here in a small basswood carving, one might actually believe he can be defeated.

I'm not sure if I'll paint this one, or maybe just give it a coat of linseed oil for a more defined look.

An Ettin for Ezra

Ettins are two-headed giants from fantasy fiction, most famously from CS Lewis' Narnia stories, and the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.

I carved this ettin for Ezra, my friend's three-year-old son. Details on this monster include tattoos, scars, treasure, and a yellow wristwatch. Ezra now has a whole army of whittlied soldiers and wizards. The "bad guys" include a dark wizard, a dragon, and now this ettin.

As always, I used non-toxic materials such as salad bowl finish, acrylic paints, and shellac.