The Grifter
In 2009 I created what became one of my most successful pieces of horror fiction ever: The Grifter. I was bored one August evening when I decided to do some light trolling on 4chan's Paranormal subforum, /x/. Little did I know that I was about to create an Internet urban legend. The name itself was a corruption of The Grither, a creature from a Tales from the Darkside episode that I saw when I was very young and couldn't quite remember. The concept of The Grifter was inspired by a similar urban legend, a rumored arcade game called Polybius.
I started the thread with my /x/ username, the_solipsist, but afterwards decided to reply to myself anonymously, giving readers the impression that many people had seen this "Grifter" video. Soon enough, it piqued the interest of the board and gained its own momentum, with people replying to ask what it was and how they could see it. I provided a few descriptions of what the video was like, but to take it one step further I decided to source and slightly modify some images from Little Otik, a very obscure film by Czech surrealist and stop-motion animator Jan Švankmajer. In the two weeks that followed, The Grifter took /x/ by storm with nearly every post inquiring to the video's existence. Needless to say, not everyone on /x/ was happy with me about this.
Eventually I put it all together with the image you see below, which still has some people coming to /x/ to this day to ask where they can find The Grifter video. There isn't an actual Grifter video, but there have been some artist's representations that can be found on YouTube.
In addition to this, I have created several horrifying photo manipulations in Photoshop throughout the years. These can be seen below. Click the images to expand them.
Probably one of the most circulated images that I've ever created.
I don't find this one particularly good but I see it reposted here and there.
I didn't do much to this one; the girl was already photoshopped to look like that so I just stuck her on the other side of the window.
My attempt at making a photograph of a cryptid.
Unlike the others, this one was not sourced from any other images. It was done entirely with brushes, but I like the way it turned out.
A quick sketch inspired by the following creepypasta: "Daddy, I had a bad dream." You blink your eyes and pull up on your elbows. Your clock glows red in the darkness — it is 3:32 AM. "Do you want to climb into bed and tell me about it?" "No, Daddy." The oddness of the situation wakes you up more fully. You can barely make out your daughter's pale form in the darkness of your room. "Why not, sweetie?" "Because in my dream, when I told you about the dream, the thing wearing Mommy's skin
This one is a bit silly but it was also one of the first creepy images I ever created.