awfulhospital

Mortasheen - more sketches

Early takes on the new biomecha concepts, and some other thingies, including an idea for an insect-based writing system.

Mortasheen - new biomecha sketches II

This one's public, in case non-patrons wonder what they're missing and if it's worth at least a dollar!

Some of these may be used, as part of unrelated lines to the previous sketches.

Mortasheen - new biomecha sketches I

The  large middle one and the bottom left are possibly going to be finalized.

These are huge biomecha that use a sleeping "pilot" as an extension of their brain.

Patron sketch request - oozoskeleton

Arthropods with slime shells!!

patron sketch request - Margo!

a Mortasheen OC whose head is the canister she was grown in!

Patron sketch request - Lobster Moth Arthropoid

Whoops, the pokemon sketch left an imprint on this paper...maybe I press a bit too hard

Patron Request: a pokemon that's "secretly" another pokemon after something terrible happened

Inspired by the cubone-kangaskhan connection, the idea was to come up with another pokemon that's actually an existing pokemon after undergoing some sort of tragedy.

So, it would never be "confirmed" either in or out of canon, but "Wendisnow" here would really be the defoliated remains of an impossibly old, maybe even petrified Abomasnow. Grass/ghost with an ability that absorbs ice attacks as HP.

Hi-res Mortasheen Art and Concept Notes: Crepugnant

I just brought this monster up in a recent tumblr post, and realized I may have never shown it in high-resolution detail; it's definitely one of the most meticulously detailed monsters I ever illustrated for Mortasheen.

Crepugnant's concept started as a "catoblepas"-inspired monster, a beast that hid its "ugly" face and could cause harm just by being seen. This is also reminiscent, to me, of the more innocent "squonk" from North American folklore, so I came to think of the monsters as a blend of both.

Around the same time, I had a concept for a bipedal turtle Mortasheen whose head could be sent out on a long, long neck, but it really didn't feel strange or ghoulish enough for a Mortasheen creature, and the turtle's actual powers and abilities kept changing.

The two monsters blended together pretty abruptly one day, and I still like the idea of a turtle using its shell to hide its "hideousness," but a literal turtle wound up feeling too ordinary for this creature. Instead, it took on a pale, eerie humanoid body that, to me, had a sort of "silent hill" vibe to it, and I liked the notion that it would appear to be almost faceless, with nothing but a mouth, until it revealed the true head and face inside its body cavity.

I'm actually not quite satisfied with how the head turned out, exactly; it's a little more round, fat and bulbous than I really like, and I wanted it to seem much more like a withered, almost vulturine face covered in many long feelers and hairs. Maybe some day I'll give it a second try, but it would be even more of a pain to draw that way.

The flesh dangling down between the eyes is inspired by the "snood" of a turkey. That's what that thing is called that dangles off a turkey's face. A SNOOD!

I'm also not sure how obvious it is, but the creature's eyes are very, very gelatinous, rippling like pools of liquid when at rest.

The fine, random biological details making up the skin surface are how I always imagined "shoggoth" type creatures to really look like up close.

March Requests!

Put them in if they apply!!

Patron Request - Dr. Phage offshoot

Phage manifests in many different ways that blend in to different layers of reality.

Patron Request - Pitcher Plant Monsters

Patron Sketch Request - a Mortasheen equivalent to Pikmin

Still as tiny as canon Pikmin

Patron Request - Radioactive Frog

A hypothetical Mortasheen being that would be named Kerobyl!

Mortasheen concept sketch - Bat Cave Monster

Mortasheen - possible new "Jabbersnatch"

This monster was originally a black silhouette, which will not display very well on my site without its own background, so this new version is a little more colorful.

I'm tempted, though, to retcon Jabbersnatch as an Ectosaur class, but this would also mean changing its name to something ending in "geist," and dropping the Jabberwock/Bandersnatch gag.

This might be for the best because Jabbersnatch never had much to do with the monster I named Banderwock, and maybe the name Jabbersnatch should rightfully go to something more related to that one?

Hi-Rez Foulmonella + Concept Details

It's been a few years since I made the Fectoid class, and this artwork honestly looks pretty bad to me now. I could do so much better (by my personal standards) in 2019!

I don't know what it is about "dead fish" I love as a monster theme, but Foulmonella is the embodiment of that. Obviously the tail is a fish skeleton and the two-lobed head is an abstraction of a fish head, but it's also meant to look like an entire pair of fish, as well as two sacs of fish roe or 'caviar:'

http://www.eatmedaily.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/trout-roe-sacs.jpg

Together these ideas form a creature deliberately shaped like a trilobite, partly because trilobites just look cool, partly because trilobites were scavengers of the earliest fish, and partly because trilobites are, themselves, the deadest possible sea life.

You can also kind of interpret the monster as a "brain" atop a spinal column, though that wasn't completely intended.

I was originally going to make it obvious that there was an eye on each side of each lobe, giving the monster four eyes in total and further driving the motif that those are a pair of fish, and I could probably still go back and add that in easily enough...but maybe it would be too busy?

I like the idea that this monster slithers flat on the ground like an actual trilobite, but when it needs to, it walks or runs on its two lobs and uses the tail like a third leg or like a "trunk" held in front of it.

When it swims, it does so on its "side," waving through the water like an actual fish.

I don't know how evident it is, but the overall feel of the Fectoids was also inspired a little by Evangelion angels. I like to think that when they first appeared in Mortasheen, it was in their kaiju-sized forms, one by one, until they were defeated by other monsters and split apart. Don't quote me on that as canon; I simultaneously prefer to think the origin of every monster is kind of ambiguous and likely to be thousands of years in the past, which is why when I mention an origin story in a Mortasheen profile I'll usually use terms like "it is believed" or "it has been said."

Hi-rez Magdolene and Exclusive Info!

This is going to be your new $5 and up reward, and I'm sorry I hadn't even thought of it sooner! Not just full-size art uploads, but all the details I can think of that I haven't really shared before!

FOR INSTANCE:

-Magdolene is literally exactly as old a concept as Doctor Phage. Both of them were doodled on the same exact sheet of paper many years ago while I tried to think of character ideas for a friend's game concept.

-Initially I thought Magdolene would be "funny" entirely because she's got a stereotypically Sexy Lady sort of shape, but made out of what people tend to regard as the absolute creepiest of all possible "bugs."

-I can't honestly remember why I decided she would have a sort of "country gal" personality, but that wound up bleeding into Awful Hospital's other maggot character, Maggie, which kind of was a super-subtle hint that Magdolene would also show up in the same setting.

-In Awful Hospital continuity, Magdolene qualifies as Hospital staff because maggots are, technically, something that has been used as a medical tool.

-The human skull in Magdolene's core has no particular origin, but I think of it kind of like Phleboto Mizer's humanoid body or Gynnie's tongue and eyeball; most of the doctors have at least some organic anatomy beyond just the "tools" they represent.

-Magdolene's maggots and flies are sort of only quasi-literal. They are the "idea" of maggots and flies, not restricted by the same biological needs or vulnerabilities or physics.

-The maggots Fern found in Jay's corpse stash did in fact originate from Magdolene, remnants of her mass surviving where they could after they were separated from her skull.

-Years ago when the comic first started out, I'd actually had an idea for Magdolene to permanently join Fern at some point. This was before I even came up with Eyeslob/Isaac, so the main party would kind of be too crowded now.

-I had also planned that if the players had overwhelmingly chosen Magboil maggots to rebuild Magdolene, she would slowly become more monstrous and dangerous to Fern. I was going to illustrate this by having her get larger, and I hoped it was going to be just slow enough that people would take a while to notice anything up. I'm spoiling this now because the window for it to happen is now permanently closed!

February requests!

Sorry to post them on the very last day of the month, but I'll catch up to them as I'm able! Even if you can't be a patron in March, February requests will go up public anyway so you should still be able to see them by checking back here!

Mortasheen - Zappergeist

This was a rather sudden idea and I feel like the art came out a bit rushed, though it's difficult to really get shading, highlighting and detail into such a thin design.

I also worry that this design somehow detracts from the Shivergeist, since it's an even spindlier Ectosaur with even more snaggly, weird jaws going on.

Q&A Thread

I already answer all sorts of questions on social media for free, so I'm still trying to come up with something better for $5 patrons and up, but in the meantime, feel free to get your money's worth: I'll answer absolutely anything $5 patrons ask me, here or in private, no matter how strange or silly or even kinda intrusive you think those questions are, no matter how many questions, no matter how long it takes!

TEXT FILE DOWNLOAD: Mortasheen Plants and Fungi

An expanded document on noteworthy Mortasheen flora, both harmless and not so much!

Full Size Jerry (and concept notes)

I kind of ran out of other forms of bonus content for Patreon, so how about uploads of Awful Hospital stuff at high-resolution along with never-before-shared background information?

Jerry's design is heavily inspired by the aesthetic style of artist Mark Powell's gruesome, meaty nightmare dioramas, which were also the basis for SCP-610, or "The Flesh That Hates."

610 obviously has a lot more in common with the Parliament of Old Flesh, but it wasn't the main inspiration. There have been many other instances of creeping, spreading, monstrous biomass in popular fiction, especially video games including Starcraft, Halo, Dead Space, Warframe, Terraria and many others.

What I've never personally seen, however, was this type of Evil Flesh Moss given any relatable personality or imagined into characters with any streak of humor to them.

Jerry is the kind of "person" who might live in an all-consuming biomass the way some bored working class schlub lives in a sprawling city. He's a cog in a machine, and he doesn't really care either way except to complain about it.

Patron Request - Chica!!!

How she would look as an Awful Hospital character!

Mortasheen - Festerupt

This name was originally made for a completely different monster in the same "family," but that concept has been majorly reworked and will be called something else now!

Patron Request - BOPPIN'!

The main characters from this bizarre puzzle platformer.

Their in-game mission is to save all the enemies and bosses kidnapped from all the other games!

Patron Request - Cinerblock with Muscly Limbs

She's MAD!!!!!!!!!!! But that's what makes her HAPPY!!!!!!

Patron Request - Sugarplum Fairies

Patron Request - Toad Head Goldfish Video Game Enemies

Both the bubble-eyed and "celestial" goldfish breeds, and how they attack!

Patron Request - Cactus Boy

This is an obscure character from an old internet zine!

Patron Request - Reverse Spoyd

How would spiders portray a human in a way that would be "cute" to them? Maybe like this I guess!