Café de Nuit

We've seen lots of threads on music as inspiration and/or accompaniment for Ravenloft stories, or on recommended books, short stories, movies, etc. But what about visual artwork? Does anyone have a favorite painting, artist, graphic novel, album cover or whatever, that's inspired them to write an adventure, or that they've shown to their players as an in-game visual aid...?

Boris Vallejo is one of my favourite artists, along with the classic artists like Luis Royo, and V. Frances everyone knows.

One visual aid that I found a multitude of uses for are some of the more illustrated gothic Tarot decks (like The Favale deck, and decks by Karen Mahony). The sheer volume of characters, poses and settings these decks have is quite incredible.

I once ran a campaign inspired by the artwork from a deck, with each card being a different NPC or aspect within the world. When the campaign wrapped up we all looked through the deck together, remembering the NPCs and events tied to each card.

- "Ghost of a Flea" by William Blake
- the Goya painting of a dancing goat during a Black Sabbath

A lot of Henri Fuseli's art would work pretty nicely, as well as Gustave Moreau's.

Stephen Gammel of "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" remains one of my favorites for art that's not just scary, but Gothic. The spidery and stringy manner he draws always (not to mention the subtler elements in every picture) I just loved as a kid--there were stories I had to block the pictures just to read them. This image in particular has always made me envision a dungeon under a house, where some madman conducts grotesque experiments and props up his work like a morbid gallery.

Anything by Edward Gorey-for that 'Dark Faery Tale' ambiance.

Just about anything by Gustave Dore of course.

My absolute personal favorite though, is the 'Horsemen of the Apocalypse' by Albrect Durer-gazing at that wonderful lithograph never fails to fill me with perverse inspiration...

For a more modern artist, the late Lee Brown Coyle- I was first introduced to his work in Manley Wade Wellman's compliation Worse Things Waiting(the Carcosa Press hardcover). The illos are effin' creepy...it's rumored that Berni Wrightson was inspired by Coyle's style in his early years, I could definitely see that occurring.

Oh man, good call on Stephen Gammel, Mikhal. This particular picture was my nightmare fuel for a long time.

Theodore Gericault might be pretty good as well for less supernatural varieties of horror, especially, Head of a Guillotined Man.

Jeez!! That picture was one I had to cover up as a kid! Even today it still makes my skin crawl.

I'm not so sure about the other picture, though. It feels...almost clinical to me. Like something I'd see in a medical documentary. But that's just the one picture. I'll take a look at other pictures by the artist.

I can see what you're saying there, but personally the sort of detached nature of it is part of what I find horrific. Most of his work deals with non-supernatural horror though, like the Reign of Terror or shipwreck victims, refugees, and the like. I could see using them in a Falkovnian campaign.

Speaking of Clinical, though, I think some of the old Medieval or Renaissance anatomy woodcuts might be a good source. A lot of them were done portrayed as if they were still alive, so that you'd have a woman lounging in a chair with her thoratic cavity displayed and labeled. For example (might be NSFW). In context, it might not be that horrific, but I think they can serve as the basis for some particularly gruesome undead, especially if you're running a campaign with a sort of "body horror" angle.

Brock Marsh Runoff wrote:I can see what you're saying there, but personally the sort of detached nature of it is part of what I find horrific. Most of his work deals with non-supernatural horror though, like the Reign of Terror or shipwreck victims, refugees, and the like. I could see using them in a Falkovnian campaign.

Ah, I see. I find things like crime, war, genocide, and disasters horrific, yes. But not scary. Things that defy our understanding of reality--the undead, in particular--are what scare me. Real life horrors are just atrocious and loathsome, if sadly an established part of the human experience.

Its not fine art but I really always loved Cypress Hills album cover for black sunday

I cant vouch for whatever site this was on, it was google image search.

Doesnt get much more gothic, hey isnt that Azalin behind the tree...