Sometimes creating something creepy is like a Rorschach test. Take something that is familiar and comfortable, then completely turning that on its head. You kind of want to invoke a subconscious feeling of being attacked. You are in between recognising something but at the same time questioning if you are safe. Experimenting with faces is the best example and is the fastest way to learn this. Tweaking little things so that they're just slightly off. The uncanny valley feeling is rooted in our ability to recognise each other. We store peoples faces in our brain, which is why you might see random faces occur in your dreams. There is a theory that the uncanny valley feeling is built into us because in history we encountered something that looked similar to a human. Obscurity and exposure are two different techniques that can be helpful when creating a creepy face. For obscurity, you would want to hide your subjects face, which makes the viewer feel stalked by a predator and then on the opposite side for exposure, you would want to have your subject out in the open, brightly lit and in your face, making the viewer feel outwardly attacked. It is a more aggressive and visceral approach where the audience can't hide or run away. Creepy art often invokes our primal fears - It's all about what emotion you want to convey from your subject and what reaction you want to elicit from your audience. I hope this was a little helpful - I like to apply this methodology when I create my own art 🤸 I really like this video, it's really helpful and you can actually see the results of what you are explaining
This paragraph was totally worth reading, you provided a very straightforward process for creating uncanny art. I greatly appreciated its detail. I hope you’re having a great day.!
I think part of why we find things that have been twisted and distorted so creepy, is that oftentimes you think "Were they always like this?" And the answer can easily be no. So the fear comes not from the maimed creature one is encountering, but instead from the idea that something maimed them in the first place. "Is it a threat?" "Did something else do this to them?" "Is my encounter with this creature, indicative of an encounter with that thing ?"
"Were they always like this?" reminds me of a very good post about deer monsters and the distinction between "Isn't anymore", "never was", and "Isn't anymore and maybe never was" fear. They're all different types of uncanny that send different messages and require different approaches, but are worth the payoff
I think the hardest part about getting art to read as creepy is getting it to read creepy in context. It is harder to portray something as ‘off looking’ in a stylized setting. For example, I’ve heard the power puff girls character designs are meant to be sort of literal. They don’t have fingers, their eyes really are big etc. But even if that’s true, they never look offputting to us because the setting they’re in is stylized already, so those elements are lost. More goes into it of course, but there’s gonna need to be a lot of ingenuity for certain styles if you want your designs in such contexts. Still working on this, personally.
Well, they don't have fingers, so wouldn't giving them fingers be an interesting start towards making them look creepy? Maybe eyes slightly too detailed for the setting, colors that don't fit the bubbly Powerpuff Girls pastel world and so on.
I'm autistic so uncanny valley doesn't affect me much if at all. So when I was younger I used to look up what people found creepy because I genuinely had no clue what was considered creepy/ uncanny and it never worked because I didn't actually understand/ feel it
That's wild cause uncanny valley is such an intense fear for me. A short glance at the image of the guy from everyone's dreams can leave me panicked and paranoid for the rest of the day
im autistic and i felt this way too. ive also heard people call autistic people "uncanny" because "theres something off" with us even though i cant find anything unusual
If you really wanna make it unsettling do scribble art. I’ve used a ballpoint pen for a long time and it’s pretty easy to start but can look super good once you do it for a while.
A solid idea- I used to do a lot of automatic drawing while scribbling! I’m not huge on ballpoint pens anymore personally, I definitely prefer something like a micron or a felt tip pen. I think it really depends on the mood you’re trying to capture
I love making scribble art with pens so much bc you have to morph your drawing with your mistakes, and often, it ends up even creepier bc of your mistakes
something that i dont see enough people talking about is that the existence of the "uncanny valley" implies an evoluntionary need to fear something that looks human but isnt
well, actually the answer to that is quite simple. you can see it often in art thats creepy. distorted looking skin and flesh, vacant eyes, impossibly anatomy. the answer to a thing that looks human but isnt that we are evolved to avoid, is corpses. corpses and diseases. however, theres another way to pull it off that isnt to make it look like a corpse. the other way is to put features of our natural predators on humans or other animals. sharp teeth and glowing eyes can still look creepy if done right. (smile dog is a good example of this) similar to this, you can also create an uncanny valley affect by simply making a human that looks like an angry one thats gonna kill you. that would be bared teeth and tiny pupils.
I know this comment is old so sorry for the necro, but I see this repeated a lot, and as a fellow fan of use of the uncanny valley in horror I thought I'd share some footnotes on this line of thinking. 1: The uncanny valley is sometimes blamed for the instinctual aversion that the vast majority of people have to corpses, which may be recognizable as human but are notably "off" even when fresh and not obviously dead at first glance. This serves the purpose of not only avoiding the spread of disease, but putting distance between yourself and whatever may have turned that person into a corpse, which may still be in the area. 2: It's worth noting that there is likely some truth to "something that looks human but isn't". Other hominids. Modern humans once shared the planet with several dozen other species of human, which we were in direct competition with. Being able to identify your own species readily was probably very useful in guessing how likely it is that the person in front of you is about to murder you with a rock. Humans are also hard wired to look for faces around them; this is the thing to blame for the face people see on mars, or if you see a face in the shapes that the shadows make in your room at night. Your brain is always looking for faces both so it can identify other humans and so it can identify possible threats, so when something distorts the patterns it recognizes as familiar or friendly, it causes feelings of fear or aversion. All this to say, your statement is definitely true, but not quite true in the way most people probably like to think of it when they hear it. But it is indeed a very basal, primal type of fear, and that's what makes it so effective!
I think its interesting how different people can percieve something. How this doesn't necessarily invoke creepy or fear to me but rather sorrow, I kinda just feel bad for what I'm looking at; I would like to help it.
I drew something that was so creepy it filled me, the artist with dread. Because i allowed the scribbles to form the pattern of the creature, i simply filled them in later with ink which gave me this very unholy monster. Sometimes scaring yourself is better than scaring others with your art.
Really awesome video here! Incredible job on explaining that delicate balance on something that looks 'wrong' will always be more creepy than something that is outright 'scary'. Will definitely take this advice for future drawings
Thank you- it’s something I picked up on and was a huge game changer for how I approached creepy drawings! It also cuts down on the actual time it takes to draw something
A super great example of this I've run into recently is Doctor Salvador in the RE4 Remake. Really all you can see of his head through the bag is his eyes, but they're so far away from where they should be it makes my skin crawl.
Honestly such a good example! The original game was a huge inspiration to me when I was younger, the regenerator was one of the first instances of uncanny monsters that really stuck with me!
This was so nice to watch. I love drawing odd/creepy faces and love that you're proud of your work and do what you enjoy. I've pretty much stopped doing creepy stuff because all my friends/family always tell me "you're talented, why do you draw that nonsense. Draw something nice, etc" But this has somehow inspired me to just create weird stuff, for myself that I won't post on social media lol. Thanks so much! All the best.
I feel lucky to have so many people support what I do lately! Don't be discouraged by friends or family. I was told all the time by loads of people "Why don't you draw nice things? Is your life so bad? This kind of work is so depressing." I started posting under a fake name so that I would be spared the judgement of a lot of people, it helped give me a lot of confidence and made me realize there is a HUGE audience for scary content. Most people just don't do it because they're afraid of how others will perceive them. Hope that wasn't too long winded, but good luck on your journey!! Don't let anyone tell you what to draw
I just want to get into analog horror and more because I’ve given up on anime chibi art and I hate this Earth so much I have the urge to cause terror to people
That makes sense. Thank you for explaining and condensing it to such a nice palatable length. Like I LOVE long in depth videos but there have to be some here and there to just get something in between.
I'm actually working on a horror game myself right now! I'd love to talk with you about horror game development. If you'd like to shoot me an email at pc@pitchcanker.com I'd love to chat
I like how the artwork completely illustrates all the points made that the average human can’t really describe what’s happening and their mind is only left to guess. The part that my mind mostly questions in this piece is whether that white line in the middle of the face is the top of the mouth or if it’s the entirety of it. Great stuff.
I would never have thought that a dude with such a comfortable voice would explain such a topic by drawing a very uncomfortable thing. thanks bro, it was helpful! hi from russia!
For a project I'm working on, I want my fantasy race to instill a sense of uncanniness in their designs, but unlike the sense you may derive from some sort of monster. I want them to not look quite right, but to be unnerving because of how human they actually are in spite of their superficial appearance. They have emotions, desires, and aspirations like we do, but they aren't exactly human, and I want that empathy to be unnerving I'm not sure how much this particular video applies to the approach in design philosophy I'm looking for, so any further advice with it in mind would be greatly appreciated
I can't help much with the art aspect of it, but what you described really reminded me of robots in the film "The creator", so if you haven't watched it I'd recommend it since maybe it'll help you :)
It’s funny you say this, because I’m currently working through a fantasy graphic novel! The way I approach an uncannily human creature, is usually to draw the thing as inhuman as possible, and then add one or two human features. Usually eyes or mouth! A cool trick is that a creature would normally have eyes on the side of its head, put them facing forwards. Realistic hands can also be very expressive! Maybe I’ll do another video on this
Okay the drawing is absolutely epic and so good but I literally imagined that creature screaming because of a cockroach or a kid that’s trying to hug it. Anyways the distortion does make a piece more creepy but for some reason like art that is supposed to be scary doesn’t actually scare me that much, I just look at it and I imagine the creature doing some goofy stuff. Again the art is amazing and I love that it looks like a goofy man screaming, and thank you because now I can fill my procreate with spooky goobers.
Thank god the algorithm. I've been picking up drawing again and i have tried doing some intent of creepy drawings, but i never really got them to be creepy and this is just perfect. You drawing looks really creepu but poor guy, they only had a couple of imperfections and we are dooming them for it
Dude that makes me so happy to hear! Honestly like anything it will just take time to make your work creepier, but you’ve got this! I think a core concept of creepiness is sadness, you’re right- we doom monsters for their imperfections
A great point about detail. But to add to this, I can say that our brain has also got problems with making sense of overly detailed things also. If you cannot grasp the idea of what a thing really is and make out its defining features, you will be both horrified and interested in it.
Sometimes you can get inspiration from things you think you see at night, or when you try to describe depression (to me works), or from medical stuff. The medical stuff trully is hororrfying. If you dare to look at them i mean.
this vid is SO helpful and informative! (i do wanna note that the uncanny valley effect comes from corpses, not other human species. we heavily interbred w them and modern humans still contain their dna! )
Idk why but when i draw something creepy, its just makes me less stress and calm(and also became more brave) The things that i used to draw is mostly Japanese urban legend and rn im interested on the uncanny valley trend
Never in my life have I felt so unsettled than the time they were renevating my house when I was little and walking into my room at night while it was completely empty, no carpet or furniture. Everything felt distorted and I sensed danger all around me for no real reason.
The only problem I stumble upon is that I feel like I've gotten used to creepy things, so when I try to make something creepy, it just doesn't feel that creepy to me. I know that I can ask people like my mom if the thing is creepy, but I also feel like some things are always creepy for some people, so I have trouble to be satisfied with the creepy things I create. Still, thanks for the video, it is really useful advice
Hey, thanks for that! I am absolutely FASCINATED with the concept of fear, and I love to draw, so I always try to draw creepy things. This helped me so much!
Just found your channel today and I adore it. I’m huge on horror art (both looking at it and making it) and your works are a huge inspiration for me. Definitely subscribing
Your Art is actually creepy i love it, its so difficult to actually draw something creepy you can see that by trying to look for creepy art and theres so little thing that can actually creep someone out i hope i can draw stuff like you!
Dude I also find it so hard to find other creepy artists! Like genuinely frightening concepts. I’d definitely like to do more videos on this subject and flesh out more of what I think is creepy
Because you gotta understand color pyschology. Not everyone is wired to create creepy art ...no matter how much they try too, it's not in them ...plain and simple !
That has to be why creepy things in 3d movement is difficult to achieve. How do you avoid giving away too much information away when the entity is moving in 3d space? Elements like depth, general shape, movement speed, all these things ground us. How does one go about determining which properties to break... I need to go look for any animated creepy things. The shortcut I can think of most often is to have the entity shake in a way that makes distinguishing features difficult, and only occasionally possible.
Your uncanny valley example makes me think that you could get really good at this by starting with something friendly and making tweaks that make it increasingly sinister feeling. The contrast between friendly and threat feels like a lot of interesting dynamic range
I know this might sound like I'm simplifying the art, but it seems like still a human body...just so decayed, it's unrecognizable. Which I guess gives off the fear of not just death, but also being forgotten (in a sort of existentialism.)
oh my god I've been obsessed with your art for a while, follow you on a couple of social media sites, but never knew u had a RUclips !!!! I'm so excited to hear you talk about creepy art, it is by far what drew me the most to start making art and I deffo wanna get better at it !!! TYSM for the content
Dude I just really started taking the channel seriously, I’m happy the algorithm delivered you here!! Thanks for being a long time supporter, I hope talking through these projects helps you with your own journey!!
Often when i try to learn or get things about horror i try to come up with terms to better understand it I came up with two terms for Uncanny valley Creepiness and freakiness Creepiness is mystery, fear and A void that you try to fill with your own mind, where you're more likely comfortable with knowing than not knowing But freakiness is the exposure To something you feel Mentally unprepared of Or Feelings that are to hard to process or explain in that exact situation Which makes you feel attacked The feeling of creepiness makes it feel like everything comes together And suddenly makes some kind of sense But freakiness just makes you freeze their waiting for the next move If anyone got anything to tell me about please do so
Maybe also add something from the daily life into the art.. like maybe McDonald’s. Everybody has been to macdonalds and maybe even passes one on their way to work or school. This way, the viewer is personally affected and your art will create some damage and a lasting impression and that’s one of the most exciting things, knowing that you’ve affected someone, maybe scarred them or even just made an impression on them and knowing that they will think about your creation randomly. Maybe even for a while maybe just for a couple seconds. Who knows
Kinda reminds me of this phenomenon with games, where those PS1, low poly, crunchy textures and wobbly rendering made the games on that era far more scary than realistic HD monsters that just look ugly but don't inspire fear at all. The less you understand, the creepier it gets.
Edit: I made the clown reference before I heard yours, sorry! The key difference between being creeped out and being scared is the depth. What I mean is, when you're scared, you know exactly what you're scared of and why you're scared. If something is creepy, it looks perfectly fine and yet dangerous at the same time. An example of fear would be a rabid dog. It's snarling and gnashing its teeth, which invokes a feeling of, "This is dangerous, I need to get away." An example of creepiness would be a clown. They don't necessarily look evil, but the objectively incorrect features of their body makes you think "I don't know what this is, but I don't trust it."
Woah! - That our brains won’t look away because it’s still assessing threat possibilities. No shiss, that’s seemingly obvious now that you say it, but I’d never put those facts together before and love having it in my consciousness now. Man that’s good. ❤❤❤❤ new subscriber, all notifications, for sure. Thank you!! ❤❤❤
I found a few recommendation on yt abt horror art including yours honestly I’ve wanted to atleast try draw those horror artstyle (idk if that’s what u call them lol) But since I love horror games including the arg i also like to try different styles that I rlly like as an artist it can be challenging on how you make the viewer feel the fear through the image, honestky ive never done this style before but It would have fun making distorted faces since u can make the proportions so off and uncanny just like that, but again I had to make the viewer feel that certain “fear” which is hard since I supposed some or most ppl wouldn’t rlly feel that through an image 😕 Again tysm for the tips and ur art is amazing, I love it sm keep going man 👍
There is one image that freaks me out to the point I can’t even look at it. The only hints I can give on what image that is are that it comes from a Japanese urban legend, it’s of a girl whose neck is stretched out with this creepy face, and the colors on the image are also black and red. Other people I know who have seen it don’t get this same reaction that I do. It’s weird too, because the character in the image itself doesn’t look like she could harm me, but my brain tricks me to think that and so every time I see the image, I have to click away from it ASAP because it just freaks me out that much
I feel like that’s such a universal feeling! Sometimes things scare me that are totally innocuous- but it’s either something genetic or mental that makes it totally repulsive
@@prestcraft7038 Had to look up the image, but yeah, I can definitely see how it would make you have the same reaction. But then again, I've seen this image before and even when I saw it the first time it didn't freak me out, but I can definitely see how it could freak you out
i think good references to study thus type of art could be imitations of what a stroke looks like in the eyes of the "victim"(?) It looks familiar, you can almost recognise the things you see yet you never do Just a though i had randomly lol
Your description of creepy faces reminds me a lot of Masaaki Nakayama's work. Big recommend, I love his manga. It's all collections of short stories with recurring elements.
i'm so confused as to why i only got a youtube recommendation from your channel! i follow you on twitter and your ideas and art have definitely inspired me and gotten me out of art slumps edit: grammar?
My fears are rlly basic yknow being unblinkingly stared at,”not alone in the dark”,someone breaking into ur house but u just don’t notice till it’s too late
Saw this image on Reddit 1time and it was of a person taking pics and later on they realized that someone was inside the same building without em knowing
Sometimes creating something creepy is like a Rorschach test. Take something that is familiar and comfortable, then completely turning that on its head. You kind of want to invoke a subconscious feeling of being attacked. You are in between recognising something but at the same time questioning if you are safe. Experimenting with faces is the best example and is the fastest way to learn this. Tweaking little things so that they're just slightly off. The uncanny valley feeling is rooted in our ability to recognise each other. We store peoples faces in our brain, which is why you might see random faces occur in your dreams. There is a theory that the uncanny valley feeling is built into us because in history we encountered something that looked similar to a human. Obscurity and exposure are two different techniques that can be helpful when creating a creepy face. For obscurity, you would want to hide your subjects face, which makes the viewer feel stalked by a predator and then on the opposite side for exposure, you would want to have your subject out in the open, brightly lit and in your face, making the viewer feel outwardly attacked. It is a more aggressive and visceral approach where the audience can't hide or run away. Creepy art often invokes our primal fears - It's all about what emotion you want to convey from your subject and what reaction you want to elicit from your audience. I hope this was a little helpful - I like to apply this methodology when I create my own art 🤸 I really like this video, it's really helpful and you can actually see the results of what you are explaining
Yeah I'm not reading that.
@@yoboibeerus1387 Thanks for your intellectual contribution man 🤙
This paragraph was totally worth reading, you provided a very straightforward process for creating uncanny art. I greatly appreciated its detail. I hope you’re having a great day.!
@@makaiibanez8122 No it wasn't.
@@makaiibanez8122 Thank you so much! I'm glad it could be useful in any way. That's all I want. I hope you have a great day too! ☺️🤸
I think part of why we find things that have been twisted and distorted so creepy, is that oftentimes you think "Were they always like this?"
And the answer can easily be no.
So the fear comes not from the maimed creature one is encountering, but instead from the idea that something maimed them in the first place. "Is it a threat?"
"Did something else do this to them?"
"Is my encounter with this creature, indicative of an encounter with that thing ?"
I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s a great observation. Definitely something I’ll consider for a future piece!
And more importantly, "can that happen to me too?"
@@TheFaqvideos Yep!
"Were they always like this?" reminds me of a very good post about deer monsters and the distinction between "Isn't anymore", "never was", and "Isn't anymore and maybe never was" fear. They're all different types of uncanny that send different messages and require different approaches, but are worth the payoff
I love how it looks goofy and then it’s just nightmare fuel. This man knows his stuff
There is a fine line between silly and too silly
it looks like his mouth is unhinged, but then it looks sad when you don't imagine the rest.
@@pitchcankerthis looks like what vibingleaf would make
I think the hardest part about getting art to read as creepy is getting it to read creepy in context. It is harder to portray something as ‘off looking’ in a stylized setting. For example, I’ve heard the power puff girls character designs are meant to be sort of literal. They don’t have fingers, their eyes really are big etc. But even if that’s true, they never look offputting to us because the setting they’re in is stylized already, so those elements are lost.
More goes into it of course, but there’s gonna need to be a lot of ingenuity for certain styles if you want your designs in such contexts. Still working on this, personally.
Well, they don't have fingers, so wouldn't giving them fingers be an interesting start towards making them look creepy? Maybe eyes slightly too detailed for the setting, colors that don't fit the bubbly Powerpuff Girls pastel world and so on.
I'm autistic so uncanny valley doesn't affect me much if at all. So when I was younger I used to look up what people found creepy because I genuinely had no clue what was considered creepy/ uncanny and it never worked because I didn't actually understand/ feel it
That’s interesting! It’s definitely something I would like to research more
I'm also autistic and Ive noticed that uncanny valley doesn't affect me much at all too. I think this should be studied bc it's really interested
That's wild cause uncanny valley is such an intense fear for me. A short glance at the image of the guy from everyone's dreams can leave me panicked and paranoid for the rest of the day
im autistic and i felt this way too. ive also heard people call autistic people "uncanny" because "theres something off" with us even though i cant find anything unusual
Oooh I thought this was a me thing, now it all makes sense
If you really wanna make it unsettling do scribble art. I’ve used a ballpoint pen for a long time and it’s pretty easy to start but can look super good once you do it for a while.
A solid idea- I used to do a lot of automatic drawing while scribbling! I’m not huge on ballpoint pens anymore personally, I definitely prefer something like a micron or a felt tip pen. I think it really depends on the mood you’re trying to capture
I love making scribble art with pens so much bc you have to morph your drawing with your mistakes, and often, it ends up even creepier bc of your mistakes
+ it can reminiscent of a schizophrenic patient’s artwork in a lot of cases
something that i dont see enough people talking about is that the existence of the "uncanny valley" implies an evoluntionary need to fear something that looks human but isnt
It’s been popping off lately I think! I’m excited to add my piece to the conversation
well, actually the answer to that is quite simple. you can see it often in art thats creepy. distorted looking skin and flesh, vacant eyes, impossibly anatomy. the answer to a thing that looks human but isnt that we are evolved to avoid, is corpses. corpses and diseases. however, theres another way to pull it off that isnt to make it look like a corpse. the other way is to put features of our natural predators on humans or other animals. sharp teeth and glowing eyes can still look creepy if done right. (smile dog is a good example of this) similar to this, you can also create an uncanny valley affect by simply making a human that looks like an angry one thats gonna kill you. that would be bared teeth and tiny pupils.
I know this comment is old so sorry for the necro, but I see this repeated a lot, and as a fellow fan of use of the uncanny valley in horror I thought I'd share some footnotes on this line of thinking.
1: The uncanny valley is sometimes blamed for the instinctual aversion that the vast majority of people have to corpses, which may be recognizable as human but are notably "off" even when fresh and not obviously dead at first glance. This serves the purpose of not only avoiding the spread of disease, but putting distance between yourself and whatever may have turned that person into a corpse, which may still be in the area.
2: It's worth noting that there is likely some truth to "something that looks human but isn't". Other hominids. Modern humans once shared the planet with several dozen other species of human, which we were in direct competition with. Being able to identify your own species readily was probably very useful in guessing how likely it is that the person in front of you is about to murder you with a rock.
Humans are also hard wired to look for faces around them; this is the thing to blame for the face people see on mars, or if you see a face in the shapes that the shadows make in your room at night. Your brain is always looking for faces both so it can identify other humans and so it can identify possible threats, so when something distorts the patterns it recognizes as familiar or friendly, it causes feelings of fear or aversion.
All this to say, your statement is definitely true, but not quite true in the way most people probably like to think of it when they hear it. But it is indeed a very basal, primal type of fear, and that's what makes it so effective!
I think its interesting how different people can percieve something. How this doesn't necessarily invoke creepy or fear to me but rather sorrow, I kinda just feel bad for what I'm looking at; I would like to help it.
I’ve been getting that a lot actually! Maybe I’ll do a video on emotional terror
@@pitchcanker Emotional terror is such a good term, I wasn't familiar with it. Please do make the video!
i wanna hug that background drawing, dude looks so sad :
Lmao my whole portfolio could use some love 😭
I drew something that was so creepy it filled me, the artist with dread. Because i allowed the scribbles to form the pattern of the creature, i simply filled them in later with ink which gave me this very unholy monster. Sometimes scaring yourself is better than scaring others with your art.
is there a way i could view this image?
I'm too used to drawing cute things. Recently i've been on a creepy kick and it's been hard lol. So thanks for the tips!
Creepy and cute can go hand in hand pretty well!
I absolutely love your drawings, they are an inspiration to my paintings. It's amazing
I am always honored to have the work called an inspiration! Keep making what you’re making- I don’t think there could ever be enough art
@@pitchcanker thanks! It's an honour for me, your work it's absolutely awesome.
same i love your art
Really awesome video here! Incredible job on explaining that delicate balance on something that looks 'wrong' will always be more creepy than something that is outright 'scary'. Will definitely take this advice for future drawings
Thank you- it’s something I picked up on and was a huge game changer for how I approached creepy drawings! It also cuts down on the actual time it takes to draw something
A super great example of this I've run into recently is Doctor Salvador in the RE4 Remake. Really all you can see of his head through the bag is his eyes, but they're so far away from where they should be it makes my skin crawl.
Honestly such a good example! The original game was a huge inspiration to me when I was younger, the regenerator was one of the first instances of uncanny monsters that really stuck with me!
Something I like doing is looking at child’s drawings and distorting them further into something horrifying
So that's why I really liked how my xenomorphs in the dark turned out, while not digging regular monster doodles
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!! i love your art sm and i think its fantastic to be able to be inside your mind a little while you draw!
Dude of course thank you for watching! I’m excited to do more videos like this and express my process more
This was so nice to watch. I love drawing odd/creepy faces and love that you're proud of your work and do what you enjoy. I've pretty much stopped doing creepy stuff because all my friends/family always tell me "you're talented, why do you draw that nonsense. Draw something nice, etc" But this has somehow inspired me to just create weird stuff, for myself that I won't post on social media lol. Thanks so much! All the best.
I feel lucky to have so many people support what I do lately! Don't be discouraged by friends or family. I was told all the time by loads of people "Why don't you draw nice things? Is your life so bad? This kind of work is so depressing."
I started posting under a fake name so that I would be spared the judgement of a lot of people, it helped give me a lot of confidence and made me realize there is a HUGE audience for scary content. Most people just don't do it because they're afraid of how others will perceive them.
Hope that wasn't too long winded, but good luck on your journey!! Don't let anyone tell you what to draw
Lol u stop cuz of them? Lol what a loser .
I just want to get into analog horror and more because I’ve given up on anime chibi art and I hate this Earth so much I have the urge to cause terror to people
That makes sense. Thank you for explaining and condensing it to such a nice palatable length. Like I LOVE long in depth videos but there have to be some here and there to just get something in between.
I'm trying to keep my videos between 8-20 minutes! There might be some longer ones but I really think 8 is digestible
Aspiring horror dev here. Thanks for making this, you’ve got my gears turning! Now I know what to do for monster designs and similar stuff.
I'm actually working on a horror game myself right now! I'd love to talk with you about horror game development. If you'd like to shoot me an email at pc@pitchcanker.com I'd love to chat
I like how the artwork completely illustrates all the points made that the average human can’t really describe what’s happening and their mind is only left to guess. The part that my mind mostly questions in this piece is whether that white line in the middle of the face is the top of the mouth or if it’s the entirety of it. Great stuff.
I would never have thought that a dude with such a comfortable voice would explain such a topic by drawing a very uncomfortable thing. thanks bro, it was helpful! hi from russia!
It’s always who you least expect-hi from New England!
Yeah I agree
Hi from Canada!
hi FrOm AmErIcA
For a project I'm working on, I want my fantasy race to instill a sense of uncanniness in their designs, but unlike the sense you may derive from some sort of monster. I want them to not look quite right, but to be unnerving because of how human they actually are in spite of their superficial appearance. They have emotions, desires, and aspirations like we do, but they aren't exactly human, and I want that empathy to be unnerving
I'm not sure how much this particular video applies to the approach in design philosophy I'm looking for, so any further advice with it in mind would be greatly appreciated
I can't help much with the art aspect of it, but what you described really reminded me of robots in the film "The creator", so if you haven't watched it I'd recommend it since maybe it'll help you :)
It’s funny you say this, because I’m currently working through a fantasy graphic novel! The way I approach an uncannily human creature, is usually to draw the thing as inhuman as possible, and then add one or two human features. Usually eyes or mouth! A cool trick is that a creature would normally have eyes on the side of its head, put them facing forwards. Realistic hands can also be very expressive! Maybe I’ll do another video on this
OH THIS IS COOL
name them Sillians
Idk he looks like he's about to say "PREPARE THYSELF!"
USELESS!!!
Okay the drawing is absolutely epic and so good but I literally imagined that creature screaming because of a cockroach or a kid that’s trying to hug it. Anyways the distortion does make a piece more creepy but for some reason like art that is supposed to be scary doesn’t actually scare me that much, I just look at it and I imagine the creature doing some goofy stuff. Again the art is amazing and I love that it looks like a goofy man screaming, and thank you because now I can fill my procreate with spooky goobers.
your art is insane I love it so much. I love how you create all these unsettling, awesome pieces, so cool. thanks for letting us in your mind a bit. ❤
Dude thank you for watching! I’m excited to explore the work more 🙇
Dude I love your art so much its so cool I wanna draw like you so bad keep up the work and I really like scary art especially when I see yours
Thank god the algorithm. I've been picking up drawing again and i have tried doing some intent of creepy drawings, but i never really got them to be creepy and this is just perfect. You drawing looks really creepu but poor guy, they only had a couple of imperfections and we are dooming them for it
Dude that makes me so happy to hear! Honestly like anything it will just take time to make your work creepier, but you’ve got this! I think a core concept of creepiness is sadness, you’re right- we doom monsters for their imperfections
Вот про природный камуфляж это прямо в точку, искал это самое видео пол дня, чел, спасибо ✊🏻
Чувак, пожалуйста! Я рад, что вам понравилось мое видео. Извините за мой плохой русский, я пользуюсь переводчиком.
I’ve been trying to search these types of videos for months now! I just couldn’t find the right one. Thank you so much!!!
Thank you for watching!! I'll stay making more so hopefully the search is easier!
A great point about detail. But to add to this, I can say that our brain has also got problems with making sense of overly detailed things also. If you cannot grasp the idea of what a thing really is and make out its defining features, you will be both horrified and interested in it.
Not everyone is detailed .
Exactly what I need, I want people to be terrified but, in a way, can’t look away
OMG THX I NEEDED THIS, im making a webtoon and the main silly monsters look silly not TOO silly but this helped A LOT
Sometimes you can get inspiration from things you think you see at night, or when you try to describe depression (to me works), or from medical stuff. The medical stuff trully is hororrfying. If you dare to look at them i mean.
Dude inspiration is everywhere, I think a genuine skill is being able to pull an idea from anything in your surroundings
I could get used to such consistency in video release. Great new vid its just getting better.
Hey man thanks for noticing! Trying to make this a normal part of my routine :) thanks for watching
I’m trying to design creatures in a Victorian Gothic horror style, and this helped a lot. Thanks!
Idk what it is abt ur art but I can just feel raw emotion from it in a way other art can’t really replicate
this vid is SO helpful and informative! (i do wanna note that the uncanny valley effect comes from corpses, not other human species. we heavily interbred w them and modern humans still contain their dna! )
Idk why but when i draw something creepy, its just makes me less stress and calm(and also became more brave)
The things that i used to draw is mostly Japanese urban legend and rn im interested on the uncanny valley trend
The uncanny trend is popping off right now! It's really exciting to be drawing horror right now
Never in my life have I felt so unsettled than the time they were renevating my house when I was little and walking into my room at night while it was completely empty, no carpet or furniture. Everything felt distorted and I sensed danger all around me for no real reason.
I've been looking around for a video on how to draw creepy/uncanny analog horror type stuff, and this somehow kind of helped lol
I’m glad to hear it dude! I’m definitely going to work on more of these
The only problem I stumble upon is that I feel like I've gotten used to creepy things, so when I try to make something creepy, it just doesn't feel that creepy to me. I know that I can ask people like my mom if the thing is creepy, but I also feel like some things are always creepy for some people, so I have trouble to be satisfied with the creepy things I create. Still, thanks for the video, it is really useful advice
Maybe ain't creepy lol 🤣
@@Moodboard39 Who knows
Hey, thanks for that! I am absolutely FASCINATED with the concept of fear, and I love to draw, so I always try to draw creepy things. This helped me so much!
Just found your channel today and I adore it. I’m huge on horror art (both looking at it and making it) and your works are a huge inspiration for me. Definitely subscribing
Dude so happy you’re into the work! I’ll be doing a lot more deep dives on horror and the uncanny
Oh my god i found my people i finally feel related i love drawing eyes
Your Art is actually creepy i love it, its so difficult to actually draw something creepy you can see that by trying to look for creepy art and theres so little thing that can actually creep someone out i hope i can draw stuff like you!
Dude I also find it so hard to find other creepy artists! Like genuinely frightening concepts. I’d definitely like to do more videos on this subject and flesh out more of what I think is creepy
Because you gotta understand color pyschology. Not everyone is wired to create creepy art ...no matter how much they try too, it's not in them ...plain and simple !
Thanks for the tips!! I love your artwork it's hauntedly beautiful!
Of course, thank you for watching!!
That has to be why creepy things in 3d movement is difficult to achieve. How do you avoid giving away too much information away when the entity is moving in 3d space? Elements like depth, general shape, movement speed, all these things ground us. How does one go about determining which properties to break... I need to go look for any animated creepy things.
The shortcut I can think of most often is to have the entity shake in a way that makes distinguishing features difficult, and only occasionally possible.
For some unknown reason when ever I try to draw something I instinctively make it look horrifying..
Is that good thing???
Same dude!! Some of us just have that dog in us
to me it look like a person dying from unimaginable pain
ur so talented!!
Thank you! Trying my best!
I just really want to learn how to make my human characters look intimidating or uncanny
Maybe I’ll do a separate video on that
Thank you so much you inspired me to start drawing again
Dude that’s awesome! You’ve got this, stay consistent
Your uncanny valley example makes me think that you could get really good at this by starting with something friendly and making tweaks that make it increasingly sinister feeling. The contrast between friendly and threat feels like a lot of interesting dynamic range
Congratulations, you can now make mandela catalogue characters.
that series did a great job bringing these types of characters into the mainstream!
I drew along with you as you discussed how you make creepy art.
I know this might sound like I'm simplifying the art, but it seems like still a human body...just so decayed, it's unrecognizable.
Which I guess gives off the fear of not just death, but also being forgotten (in a sort of existentialism.)
Omg ilysm ❤❤❤❤ your art is amazing and I aspire to be like you!! ❤
Hey thank you so much!!! You've got this, you'll be a great artist if you want it!
thank you, i can make basic creepy now
This is the first video I've seen of yours and it's so cool, I love your art and thanks so much for the tips!!!
Of course! Thank you for watching!
oh my god I've been obsessed with your art for a while, follow you on a couple of social media sites, but never knew u had a RUclips !!!! I'm so excited to hear you talk about creepy art, it is by far what drew me the most to start making art and I deffo wanna get better at it !!! TYSM for the content
Dude I just really started taking the channel seriously, I’m happy the algorithm delivered you here!! Thanks for being a long time supporter, I hope talking through these projects helps you with your own journey!!
Literally straight to the point
Tysm
Reminds me of the vibe of the Repulsive album cover. Well done
I love repulsive but am not familiar with the album cover! I’ll have to check it out
I’ve been following you on instagram for years. I had no idea you had a RUclips channel too!
This helps with me making uncanny art 👍
Often when i try to learn or get things about horror i try to come up with terms to better understand it
I came up with two terms for Uncanny valley
Creepiness and freakiness
Creepiness is mystery, fear and
A void that you try to fill with your own mind, where you're more likely comfortable with knowing than not knowing
But freakiness is the exposure
To something you feel
Mentally unprepared of
Or Feelings that are to hard to process or explain in that exact situation
Which makes you feel attacked
The feeling of creepiness makes it feel like everything comes together
And suddenly makes some kind of sense
But freakiness just makes you freeze their waiting for the next move
If anyone got anything to tell me about please do so
Maybe also add something from the daily life into the art.. like maybe McDonald’s. Everybody has been to macdonalds and maybe even passes one on their way to work or school. This way, the viewer is personally affected and your art will create some damage and a lasting impression and that’s one of the most exciting things, knowing that you’ve affected someone, maybe scarred them or even just made an impression on them and knowing that they will think about your creation randomly. Maybe even for a while maybe just for a couple seconds. Who knows
Kinda reminds me of this phenomenon with games, where those PS1, low poly, crunchy textures and wobbly rendering made the games on that era far more scary than realistic HD monsters that just look ugly but don't inspire fear at all. The less you understand, the creepier it gets.
This made me feel dorceless
damn you don;t even have 10k subs yet? I guess I stumbled upon a gem, hope you get the recognition you deserve soon, awesome art!
Edit: I made the clown reference before I heard yours, sorry!
The key difference between being creeped out and being scared is the depth. What I mean is, when you're scared, you know exactly what you're scared of and why you're scared. If something is creepy, it looks perfectly fine and yet dangerous at the same time. An example of fear would be a rabid dog. It's snarling and gnashing its teeth, which invokes a feeling of, "This is dangerous, I need to get away." An example of creepiness would be a clown. They don't necessarily look evil, but the objectively incorrect features of their body makes you think "I don't know what this is, but I don't trust it."
I just think of what my nightmares look like
That's actually the video I'm uploading today
Didn't know Charlie could draw
Woah! - That our brains won’t look away because it’s still assessing threat possibilities. No shiss, that’s seemingly obvious now that you say it, but I’d never put those facts together before and love having it in my consciousness now. Man that’s good. ❤❤❤❤ new subscriber, all notifications, for sure. Thank you!! ❤❤❤
Thank u thank u thank u
Ofc homie
I found a few recommendation on yt abt horror art including yours honestly I’ve wanted to atleast try draw those horror artstyle (idk if that’s what u call them lol)
But since I love horror games including the arg i also like to try different styles that I rlly like
as an artist it can be challenging on how you make the viewer feel the fear through the image, honestky ive never done this style before but It would have fun making distorted faces since u can make the proportions so off and uncanny just like that, but again I had to make the viewer feel that certain “fear” which is hard since I supposed some or most ppl wouldn’t rlly feel that through an image 😕
Again tysm for the tips and ur art is amazing, I love it sm keep going man 👍
I may be new but I finally find my favourite art style ❤
A huge compliment, thank you! I have hundreds of pieces like this across my socials if you ever want to see more
@@pitchcanker no problem i wish I could draw like this I’ve got tons of ideas but idk how to start them
There is one image that freaks me out to the point I can’t even look at it. The only hints I can give on what image that is are that it comes from a Japanese urban legend, it’s of a girl whose neck is stretched out with this creepy face, and the colors on the image are also black and red. Other people I know who have seen it don’t get this same reaction that I do. It’s weird too, because the character in the image itself doesn’t look like she could harm me, but my brain tricks me to think that and so every time I see the image, I have to click away from it ASAP because it just freaks me out that much
I feel like that’s such a universal feeling! Sometimes things scare me that are totally innocuous- but it’s either something genetic or mental that makes it totally repulsive
I feel the same way with the Russian sleep experiment image
@@prestcraft7038 Had to look up the image, but yeah, I can definitely see how it would make you have the same reaction. But then again, I've seen this image before and even when I saw it the first time it didn't freak me out, but I can definitely see how it could freak you out
I follow you on IG but didn’t know you had a channel. I’m so hyped
my normal art looks terrifying
Then you're on the right track in my opinion!
WAIT WHATTT I FOLLOW YOU ON TWITTER AND JUST NOW FIND OUT YOU HAVE A RUclips CHANNEL WHATTTT
i think good references to study thus type of art could be imitations of what a stroke looks like in the eyes of the "victim"(?)
It looks familiar, you can almost recognise the things you see yet you never do
Just a though i had randomly lol
Your description of creepy faces reminds me a lot of Masaaki Nakayama's work. Big recommend, I love his manga. It's all collections of short stories with recurring elements.
My problem is everything i draw looks creepy, even when i try not to lol
honestly homie same
Why did I laugh at the drawing so much I thought it looked goofy
i'm so confused as to why i only got a youtube recommendation from your channel! i follow you on twitter and your ideas and art have definitely inspired me and gotten me out of art slumps
edit: grammar?
Love your style!
I love iiiiit!!! I was wondering where can I get ur brushes 😩
Thank you! And my brushes are available in my patreon :)
Hope everyone doing good and staying safe. If you need to talk to someone or need help, there are people who care. Sending support and hearts. ❤❤❤
Got myself another art mentor. Thank you!
I'm here if you ever have any questions!
I like what I see. :) Pretty expressive art!
wonderful thank you for sharing
Thank you for watching! 🙇
I can’t believe I played the game 3 years ago without ever seeing the extra aerith scene before rescuing her 💀
its 3 am for me ill watch that tomorrow.
Good call homie
I tried to pay attention, but that art... *wow...*
I think it's much harder to make a set character scary or creepy than just scribbling away at a canvas and hitting just the right spot.
PLEASE COLLAB WITH A HORROR GAME MAKER THESE LOOK SO UNSETTLING AND TERRIFYING BUT AMAZING!
I’m currently collaborating with two devs!! The game is about THE MINOTAUR, should I make a devlog here?
@@pitchcanker I’m sorry if I understood wrong but if you’re asking about showing your progress, please do!!!
2:14 YOU'RE USING AN IPAD?? (teach me your ways i am incredibly jealous)
holy shit pitchcanker on youtube!!
I’m really out here man!
Omg ive followed you on insta for years, but didnt realize you had a yt channel 😭😭😭
Most of the things that have scared me have been just being looked at while half of the face/body is kinda blocked out
My fears are rlly basic yknow being unblinkingly stared at,”not alone in the dark”,someone breaking into ur house but u just don’t notice till it’s too late
Saw this image on Reddit 1time and it was of a person taking pics and later on they realized that someone was inside the same building without em knowing
That is what frightens me personally,like the clown from gumball who is watching always and u don’t notice that ur in danger until it’s too late
And by that I mean human fears are very basic but human alien fears are always so incomprehensible that it’s stops being frightening for me
As in putting a monster in the place of a intruder or stalker/killer that is more scary than some creatures coming down to earth