Howl of the Werewolf



Stephen Player

Fantasy Illustration

homework@

You may use this text as the basis of any type of illustration you like.

Howl of the Werewolf

By Jonathan Green

Illustrations Brief

Just as a general note, the entire setting for ‘Howl of the Werewolf’ is like something out of a Hammer Horror film, ‘Van Helsing’, ‘Sleepy Hollow’, or ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ – you know the kind of thing.

Just one note of warning. Throughout the book the hero is trying to stop transforming into a werewolf at the next full moon. Many of the scenes I would like you to illustrate are set at night. As a result, should the moon appear in any of these it cannot quite be full just yet, only close to waxing full. The only full-page picture that should have a truly full moon is picture 30, the final climactic scene when the hero battles Count Varcolac, first of the werewolf bloodline, transformed into the Arch-Lycanthrope.

6 Filler illustrations

1) Defences against lycanthropy

Various items used in the treatment of lycanthropy, or to guard against were-creatures. They include a few sprigs of belladonna, a bottle of potion, a silver cross, a magnificent magical sword and a flintlock pistol with silver bullets.

3) Garoul’s hand-paw

At the start of the book the hero cuts off a wolf’s paw that then becomes partially human. This is the clawed, wolf-man’s paw, half way to becoming a human hand again. It has been severed at the wrist and on one finger is a gold signet ring, bearing the crest of a howling wolf’s head against a full waxing moon.

4) The Transformation

A series of three connected images of a man’s face as he changes into a werewolf. The first shows him as an evilly grinning man, then there is the tortured face of the part-man, part-animal, and lastly the snarling wolf.

30 Full page illustrations

1) Wolf Attack

It is night-time and our hero is facing off against a pack of mangy-looking wolves in the middle of a wintry wood. At the front of the pack, in the middle of the picture, is their leader, a huge black wolf. It is twice the size of any other wolf in the pack and a streak of grey fur runs from the top of its head down its spine. The wolf is snarling, teeth bared, ready to pounce, evil intent burning in its eyes.

2) Ulrich the Werebear

We are in the woods at night again, but now the hero is being attacked by a Werebear. The large, humanoid bear is still wearing the torn garb of a woodsman, having transformed following an attack by the Black Werewolf. Snarling, with terrible claws bared, the monster is ready to tear our hero limb from limb. The corpse of the Black Werewolf lies on the ground behind the Werebear.

3) The Howling

It is night and we are looking across a blighted wheat field towards a straggly line of trees and the dark silhouette of a watchtower in front of the treeline. In the foreground, a smoking iron brazier has a fire burning within it. Drifting across the field is a cloying mist. The tendrils of ethereal, white mist are taking on the form of insubstantial wolf-like creatures, with savage dagger-length fangs and elongated tearing claws. One of these spectres is coalescing in front of our hero, in the shape of a grotesque, phantasmal creature. Everything about it is macabre exaggeration of what a wolf should be in life; horrific dagger-length fangs, shredding scythe-hook claws, blazing coal-eyes and an open howling maw.

4) The Headless Highwayman

It is night again and we are travelling on a lonely road across desolate, windswept moorland. In the distance stands a coaching inn, a lone light flickering in one window. Materializing out of the darkness, in a haze of green-yellow luminescence twenty paces ahead is the figure of a phantom highwayman on horseback. It is as if the night itself is solidifying and taking on physical form. In life he was a flamboyant, over-the-top character and dressed accordingly. A black cape streams out behind the rider and he is wearing knee-length, black leather boots. He lashes the reins of his steed as it tears along the road towards us, foaming at the mouth, eyes burning with eerie witch-lights. As if that were not horrifying enough, there is something horribly wrong with this apparition. The highwayman has no head. The spectre is aiming a flintlock pistol at us and has a basket-hilt sabre sheathed at his belt.

5) Meg the landlord’s daughter

Inside the stable of a coaching inn, the landlord’s dark-eyed daughter is carrying out an unholy ritual of summoning. The straw has been cleared from the middle of the floor and there a sinister, esoteric symbol has been marked out. This large sigil is marked with other runes and zodiacal-style symbols. Candles positioned on top of crates and barrels around the esoteric circle light the scene. Meg, the landlord’s daughter is kneeling at the centre of the circle, chanting. She is no more than eighteen or nineteen, her long black hair a wild, unkempt mess and with grey-ringed haunted eyes. On the cold, stone-flagged floor of the stable in front of her rests a human skull, the grinning death’s-head staring out of the picture at us.

6) Black Shuck

We are on desolate, wind-swept moors at night time. In the distance is a chapel-shrine, perched at the edge of a wind-blown spur of land, the worn path that leads to it following the lip of a rocky escarpment that drops away to the left, one hundred feet to the undulating expanse of moorland below. On the path, between us and the shrine is a monstrous hellhound. It is a midnight-black dog, but as big as a pony, its fur bristling like a wild-cat. One narrowed eye burns red as the sun at sunset, whilst the other is bulging, white and blind, like the orb of the moon. The dog’s slavering jaws are lined with savage fangs and from its heavy paws sprout claws that look like they could gut a man with one powerful swipe. The Shuck is about to attack.

7) The Water-Wyrd and the Daughters of the Drowned

We are now underwater, in a murky forest pool. Emerging from the weedy depths is the horrific Water-Wyrd – think the mythical Jenny Greenteeth. The Water-Wyrd is semi-humanoid and female and yet at the same time it reminds one of a sinister, snaggle-toothed fish. Her bulging, glassy eyes are those of a trout whilst her gaping maw is filled with needle-sharp pike’s teeth. In the background, circling in the water behind the Water-Wyrd, are three beautiful maidens, their long green hair streaming out around them like pondweed and veiling their fish-white pallid nakedness from view.

8) Van Richten, Vampire Hunter

It is night once more and we are in front of a blazing campfire, made within the tumbledown remains of a gamekeeper’s cottage, amidst untended fields running riot with gorse and thistle. All that is left of the building is the ruin of the chimney and fireplace and one sheltering wall. On the other side of the fire, at the threshold to the cottage, stands an imposing figure. He is dressed from head to foot in black. He wears a long leather coat, heavy leather gloves and sturdy black leather boots. On his head is a tall, wide-brimmed black hat, on which shines a silver buckle that holds a scarlet ribbon in place. Only the steely orbs of his eyes are visible beneath the brim of the hat, the rest of his face being covered by a red scarf. The glint of firelight reflects from the polished barrel of a flintlock pistol that the man has aimed directly at you. From a sword-belt at his waist hangs a gleaming rapier blade.

9) Carnivale Master

We are outside the entrance to the Carnivale. Under a hung banner that is embroidered with the word ‘Carnivale’ is a propped painted sign that reads ‘Entrance fee 2 Gold Pieces’. Standing next to it is a wizened little man, almost Dwarf-like in his proportions, barely a metre tall, with a large head, broad grinning mouth full of blunt teeth, slightly pointed ears and spindly limbs. The Carnivale Master is dressed in the most outlandish and brightly coloured clothes you have ever seen, topped off with a battered, black top hat.

10) Murderous Puppets

We are at the Carnivale, inside the Puppet-Master’s wagon. Puppets appear to cover every available surface. Glove puppets lie in piles on the bunk bed, whilst painstakingly painted marionettes hang from the roof beams. Other incomplete puppets, some operated by wires, lie unfinished on a workbench. A gaggle of marionettes is moving jerkily towards you – and no-one is pulling their strings. Wooden-jointed knights and sock-puppet dragons fight alongside grinning papier-mâché skeletons and hook-nosed jester-clowns, all trying to swamp our hero with their multitudinous numbers, their chiselled oak jaws clacking as they try to bite.

11) Serpensa the Snakewoman

We are inside a canvas tent. A lamp hanging from the roof of the tent lights the scene. A hideous creature, a horrific amalgam of snake and woman, is there. The upper half of her body is human, although totally hairless, her fingernails long talons and her face misshapen by strangely snake-like features. From the waist down her body is entirely serpentine, and every part of her is covered with mottled brown and green scales. The monster is fixing us with its orange-yellow ophidian gaze. A forked tongue darts out between its lips, as her jaw stretches horribly wide, exposing two long cobra’s fangs.

12) Golem Hulk

This scene is set at the top of a windmill which has been converted into a Frankenstein-style mad scientist’s lab, in the middle of a thunderstorm, with lightning flashing through the windows. The lab is crammed full with all manner of curious pieces of equipment and mechanical contraptions. There are spinning globes that crackle with the static charge of the storm raging outside and glass-cased gauges, the needles within them quivering around the danger line. Thick bundles of copper wire descend from the topmost part of the windmill and connect all the various pieces of equipment to a tilted metal table on which rests one of the most bizarre and monstrous things you have ever seen. It is at least half the height again of a man and almost as broad across. It appears to be made from slabs of dead grey flesh crudely sewn together and yet in places organic parts have been replaced with mechanical apparatus. Around its ugly head is a band of metal secured in place with a number of unsubtle bolts. Standing next to a bank of steel levers is a tall man wearing a long, once-white lab coat, his eyes hidden behind thick-lensed goggles. Cowering behind him is his hunchbacked servant. A lightning strike is being channelled through the various conducting rods and wires to the tilted table on which lies the scientist’s ungodly creation. The part-flesh, part-machine construct is being violently jolted by the unbridled elemental power of the storm coursing through it.

13) Shiversprite

It is night-time in the forest and we are on a barely perceptible track that runs between spindly-branched trees that encroach further and further onto the path, obstructed by half-protruding root systems and knotty boles. There is a glittering hoar frost on the ground and icicles hang from the branches of the trees, as if it is midwinter. Facing us is a capricious elemental creature called the Shiversprite. It is no more than three feet tall and looks like it is made out of ice itself, its hair upstanding icicles, its nose and chin pointed and sharp, its body, arms and legs long and stick-thin. Its hands and feet end in glinting talons of ice like eagle’s talons. Its mouth is spread unnaturally wide in a shark-like grin, its teeth long as a man’s fingers and pointed like icicles as well. The creature has its head cocked to one side, and is fixing the reader with its penetrating icy gaze. The being’s teeth are never still, constantly chattering. A feral Jack Frost on acid.

14) Reanimated Cadaver

We are in a shadowy surgeon’s operating room. In the centre of the room is a blood-stained table, with a filthy, bloodstained sheet thrown to one side, now half hanging off the edge of the table. The naked, disembowelled corpse that was being dissected on the table has now risen off it and is walking towards us, grasping for us with its bare hands. The corpse’s eyes have rolled up into its head. The illustration should imply that the brain, heart and intestines have all been investigated. Lying on the floor to one side of the table is an unconscious old man, the surgeon Doktor Kafka. He is bespectacled, with a heavily-lined face. His pate is bald, and what little hair he has left is white, wispy and wild. Behind the table on the other side stands Van Richten the Vampire Hunter from illustration 8. He looks the same as before, only his face is no longer covered by a mask and he has his rapier blade in his hand instead of his flintlock pistol.

15) Stained Glass Knight

We are in a large, torch-lit chapel within a Vampiress’ tower. A columned nave leads up to a cloth-draped altar on which stands a golden chalice set with glittering precious stones. The flickering fire of the rush-light torches reflects from a number of exquisitely-painted stained glass windows. The largest and most magnificent of these is set back in an alcoved recess above the altar. It used to show a knight in full armour kneeling in penance before a white-robed priest, his sword held out before him like a crucifix. However, where the knight was there is now a hole in the window and the priest in the picture is shown lying on the ground, slain. The stained glass knight is standing in front of us, glass sword raised ready to strike, flat almost 2D shards of glass taking on a 3D form. Other shards of glass are raining down around us.

16) Werebat and Vampiress

This scene shows the showdown with a Vampiress and her Werebat servant at the top of her tower lair. If there is room to show any background, we are in a grand, high-ceilinged chamber, ornately decorated with heavy velvet drapes of black and red, the dome of its ceiling painted with a zodiacal map of the heavens of Titan. A striking, platinum-haired woman, dressed in crimson and black, her skin as white as ivory, is cowering back against a high-backed carved wooden throne. We can just see the points of her vampire fangs. However, in front of her and flapping towards our hero, taking up most of the picture, is a just-transformed Werebat.

17) The Malice

It is night and we are amidst the ruins of what might once have been a church or temple of some kind but which is now open to the sky. The Malice is manifesting out of the air in front of the reader. It has a leering demonic face, the stuff of nightmares, an amalgam of everything you have ever feared. Vile writhing bodies and hairy spider legs break through tears in the leathery skin of the grotesque gargoyle face. The black hollows of its eyes drip with maggots as the creature scuttles forwards like a spider on multiple, distorted, wrongly-jointed legs that might be arms and grabs for the reader with arms that might be legs ending in horribly taloned apendages.

18) Cockroach Monk

Our hero has just disturbed a mutated monk devouring a corpse in a charnel house mortuary. Human skulls fill row upon row of recessed niches in the walls whilst carved skeletal angels of death gaze down through hollow eye sockets from roof bosses. Several raised stone slabs in the centre of the room bear the decomposing bodies of black-robed monks. The monk you have disturbed is spinning round to face you, the heavy cowl of its black robe falling back from its head in the process. What is revealed beneath is a misshapen, insect-like head with cockroach mandibles that split the monk’s mouth open far too wide. He also has sickly-bulging compound fly’s eyes. Two extra pairs of black, chitin-armoured, insect legs have unfolded from beneath the mutated monk’s habit, in addition to the monk’s two more human arms.

19) Giant Maggot

Wallowing in a wide stone bowl-like pit full of slime, set into the flag-stoned floor of what was once the sanctuary of an Abbey church, is a monstrous maggot that must be twenty feet long from snout to tail. Its tiny blind-head end sways round, whilst its moist white body ripples repulsively. Glutinous slime drools from the monstrous maggot’s incessantly working circular mouthparts.

20) Aranaea the Spider-Queen

We are in a subterranean cave lit by glittering crystals set into its dark limestone walls, the roof hung with stalactites, and stalagmites rising from the floor. This strange luminescence sparkles from a myriad webs strung across the chamber, almost like curtains or drapes. The light also glitters from genuine treasures. Gold pieces lie scattered on the floor of the chamber, along with other, less valuable objects: battered helmets, rusty swords and axes, rotten backpacks and gnawed pieces of leather armour. Across the far end of the broad cavern is strung a large, intricate web decorated with strings of pearls and precious stones. Squatting at the centre of the web is a giant spider, but the monstrous arachnid form having grown from that of a human woman. The abdomen of the monster is a swollen, hairy black pulsating sac with silk-oozing spinnerets. From the waist up, however, the creature looks more human except that she has a total of six arms and two legs which, although they begin in human form become the long, bony black limbs of the spider, each ending in a cruelly barbed chitinous claw.

21) The Vargenhof Beast and Katya Crimson Cloak

It is night once more and our hero has just burst into a clearing between the thick, dark trees of a forest. Lying on the floor of the clearing is a young woman, wearing a hooded cloak and close-fitting bodice and trews, her discharged crossbow fallen at her side. Looming over her is a monstrous creature, thickly-furred and seemingly part wolf, part bear and yet even with some semblance of a human about it. This is the huge, hulking Werebeast of Vargenhof. A crossbow bolt protrudes from the meat of its right arm. This is an important visual clue. Roaring, the Werebeast is preparing to kill the young woman.

23) Scarecrows

It is a dull, grey day and our hero is wading through the rotten stalks of a wheat field. Not far ahead is the perimeter fence of a dilapidated farmyard. Shrieking like banshees, two straw scarecrows are bursting from out of the mouldering crop in front of us. With sharp claws of splintered wood, the animated Scarecrows attack with jerky, almost insect-like, movements. One has a sackcloth face, with ripped holes for eyes, nose and mouth, the other a carved pumpkin head and a battered hat.

24) The Changeling

We are in a rundown farmhouse kitchen. In the background there is a blazing fire in the hearth. There is also an empty baby’s cot with a blanket hanging out of it. Capering around in front of us is the Changeling, which looks like a malevolent imp, a wolfish sprite covered in thick fur, with pointed lupine ears, needle-sharp teeth and bared claws. A grotesque gargoyle smile splits the Changeling’s features as it fixes the reader with darkly burning eyes. The creature has grown to about the size of a Dwarf.

25) Werewargs

The hero is now wandering the rubbish-strewn streets of a village that is more home to wild animals than human beings. Snarling and snapping at each other, two hideous wolfish forms are emerging from around the corner of the street. They are Werewargs, creatures that look like wolf-men, one walking on all fours, the other walking on its hind-legs. We can make out tears in their scabrous hides through which can be seen bare bone, green-grey internal organs, and exposed ribs. Balefires burn in the eyes of these grotesque undead werewolves, cursed creatures trapped in a decaying semi-lupine form and possessed of an insane animal hunger.

26) Witch and Giant Toad

We are in a castle kitchen. A wizened crone stands next to a large cauldron, bubbling and steaming over a roaring fire blazing in the grate. At the witch’s feet hop, scuttle and slither all manner of vile vermin – toads, newts, cockroaches, centipedes, snakes, spiders and rats. There is a spell-book open on a stand next to her. But in front of the witch, between us and the fireplace is a monstrous Giant Toad. It is the size of a pony, pushing itself forward on its over-grown webbed feet, the tip of its tongue darting from its mouth.

27) Wax Golem

We are in a circular turret room. The chamber has no windows but is lit by the light of hundreds of candles, some fixed to wrought-iron candelabra, many stuck on top of the melted remains of others. The guttering candlelight is also reflected back from a circular black mirror on the opposite side of the room. In the middle of the room is a Wax Golem, moving towards us. At first it might be taken to be a mound of discarded candles. It is a great mass of wax, roughly humanoid in shape, plodding towards us. Tallow-wicks still burn all over the top of it, liquid wax running from its melting surface.

28) The Wolf Brides

We are now in a vast banqueting chamber. What was obviously once an exquisitely laid table, with finest bone china, gleaming gilt cutlery and magnificent glittering crystal centrepieces is now nothing better than a dog’s dinner. Platters of rotting food, white with solidified grease, litter the soiled table cloth whilst the carcasses and bones of many passed meals lie strewn across the table and the surrounding floor. It looks like the last dinner guests had the table manners of wolves. There are three women in the chamber, dressed in what were once fine gowns but which are now torn and dishevelled. One of the women is still seated at the table, sucking the marrow from a chicken bone, another is rising from her chair and the third, the closest, is advancing towards you. They are wearing veils which have been thrown back to reveal their hideous, wolfish faces, a hideous amalgam of human being and she-wolf. Unlike the other werewolves their features are blunt, not having protruding lupine snouts. The closest wolf-woman is hungrily licking a long pink tongue across visible canine fangs. All three of the Wolf Brides are looking out of the picture at us.

29) Count Varcolac

We are in an opulent chamber, fine tapestries bedecking the walls and Persian-style rugs cover the floor, lit by crystal chandeliers. However, the tapestries are faded and dusty, the rugs scratched and frayed. Framed by a tall window directly in front of you, covered with heavy claret drapes, stands an ornately carved, dark wood chair, throne-like in its size and level of detailed decoration. Slouched in the chair, one leg swinging over the arm is Count Varcolac, a ruggedly handsome man with a thick mane of tousled grey hair hanging down to his shoulders, run through with a single streak of lustrous black from the middle of his forehead. He is wearing an unbuttoned jacket, exposing a ruffled shirt beneath, fine black trews and knee-length black leather boots. His clothes have something of Old Russia about them in style. He is a hirsute individual, his chest, arms and even his fingers being particularly hairy. He is playing with a pewter goblet in one hand, and on his middle finger he is wearing a gleaming gold signet ring. If any detail can be seen on the ring, it bears the crest of a howling wolf’s head against a full waxing moon. Lying on the floor on either side of his throne are two huge and evil-looking dire wolves. Varcolac is scratching one of the wolves behind the ears, even as it bares its fangs at you in feral hatred.

30) The Arch-Lycanthrope

This picture is really picture 29 but a few minutes later. The two dire wolves are gone and Count Varcolac has risen from his throne. He has now become the most terrible and terrifying werewolf of all – the Arch-Lycanthrope! He has a broader chest, longer arms and fingernails that have become claws. His face is a lupine muzzle, his ears are pointed and wolf fangs have pushed through bleeding gums. His legs and feet have changed shape, ripping free of his leather riding boots. I suppose the image I really have here is your Werewolf, Martin, from ‘Revenge of the Vampire’. The drapes have been pulled back from the tall window revealing the full moon clearly framed within it.

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