Conjure Brief:

• Create a Conjure based on sleep paralysis, that is grotesque and malicious in appearance.
  • Heavy use of sinews, ligaments and tendons in the design
  • Sharp, piercing eyes
  • Maybe shades of either a desaturated purple or murky yellows/greens?
• Do lots of experimentation to fully realise the design, deviate from brief is necessary
• Make references to sleep somehow
  • Person sleeping in bed with demon atop them?
  • Demon in the corner of bedroom?
  • Demon looking in at person through the bedroom window?
  • Moon in the background?

Sketches and Ideas

I initially started out with the idea of Nightmare being a grotesque, demonic entity, which I was inspired by. However, after I went out on a jog during the night, I ended up taking some photos of an alleyway that I thought looked cool. Immediately after I took those photos, a cat on the wall of the alleyway jump scared me. It was friendly so I stayed with it for a minute. After I got home, I checked the pictures and saw the cat actually coming up to me without me even noticing.

This little encounter inspired me to alter the direction of Nightmare to that of a less serious, more playful idea. Simply put, what if the demonic and horrific sleep paralysis demon was just a magical cat playing around? I immediately began thinking about a variety of hilarious, cursed images of cats from around the internet that further sold me on the idea, including pictures of cats messing around with their owners as they’re trying to sleep. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, and the more I felt inspired to go for it. I thought it’d be funny to have a cat Conjure that simply gets up to random shenanigans every night, and just so happens to be able to paralyse people. I don’t usually do less serious character concepts, so I’m looking forward to it!

This little encounter inspired me to alter the direction of Nightmare to that of a less serious, more playful idea. Simply put, what if the demonic and horrific sleep paralysis demon was just a magical cat playing around? I immediately began thinking about a variety of hilarious, cursed images of cats from around the internet that further sold me on the idea, including pictures of cats messing around with their owners as they’re trying to sleep. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, and the more I felt inspired to go for it. I thought it’d be funny to have a cat Conjure that simply gets up to random shenanigans every night, and just so happens to be able to paralyse people. I don’t usually do less serious character concepts, so I’m looking forward to it!

Designing Nightmare

1. Adding the basic shapes. I opted to make Nightmare’s actual body a shadowy blotch, with the edges being clouded by a purple haze.

2. Adding a window with the moon in the background, to sell that this is a bedroom at midnight, and to create some atmospheric lighting.

3. Experimenting with effects on Nightmare’s body.

5. Adding some glitchy effects to the piece, to heighten the spooky nature of a sleep paralysis demon (he just wants a friend).

5. Trimming the glitch effect down to fit within the windows, providing greater contrast with Nightmare itself.

6. Refining the effects.

7. Adding shadows and additional atmospherics.

8. Trialling the effects outside of the window pane instead, which I didn’t like.

9. Further refinement, this time on Nightmare’s shape, including some highlights on its fur.

10. Atmospheric tweaks such as bloom, moodier lighting, and noise in the background to fill the empty space further.

11. Continued refinement and colour alterations for readability purposes. This one took a long time, but I’m very happy I stuck it out, as Nightmare is now easily one of my favourite Conjures.

Final Default Artwork

Lifeline Protocol

I had a few ideas in mind for the Lifeline Protocol, but I didn’t really resonate with them particularly well, and I felt they were a bit too similar to the default art.