Pickman's Rejected Model

I just re-read H. P. Lovecraft’s short story Pickman’s Model in the anthology Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!, which is weird since as far as I can tell the ghouls aren’t undead.

Maybe I’m desensitized, but I found the story more interesting than scary. It would be fascinating to know how Pickman first made contact with the ghouls. Was he freaked out? Did they think he was a weirdo for wanting to photograph and paint them?

Background textures are from my own stock.