Environmental art
Environments
Introducing the locations
The boarders between each place look like silk sheets in the sky, and as you pass through is is entirely different to the other side.
-Resolus- This is the main city for the sentry. Its large, grand and beautiful.. It sits on a series of floating islands connected by bridges, all shrouded in clouds. There are large ancient statues and staircases with glimmering waterfalls which flow off into the valley below. There are towers, palaces and arches. Much of the city is gold and shimmering. The sky is an ocean of stars and nebulas with the mysterious skywhales gliding across the skies. It is a tidy and well-kept place.
-Vigilence- a glistening ice city surrounded by glaciers and mountains. There is a large monument at the center of the city where there is a friendly market and cathedral. Unlike Resolus, across this boarder the whole city appears in a constant state of low-sunset, with the sky a clear deep blue.
-Valerience- the only city located directly on the coast. The lives of the people there revolve around the water (fishing is popular) and there is a large harbor. The town is built up against a large mountain and is covered in plant life and ancient water ruins.
-Mulerium- a place where evil and dangerous creatures hide. There are a lot of poisonous things there, The air is thick and hot, there are a few unpleasant villages and settlements. Many criminals hide out there. Most of the area is thick forest which is hard to leave once you're inside.
others - Absconsus (uncharted territory, mostly barren or intense natural biomes) Rhiver (beautiful, peaceful land with friendlier inhabitants and a purple sky), Imperious (lake city) and Moment (a unpredictable, mind bending land where everything and nothing happens at once, time is most unusual and the weather is crazy)
This is a concept for a tower across a lake in Mulerium. Like the other response for this location this place as bio-luminescent qualities-
-the water is glowing and reflecting onto the rocks.
-I wanted this place to have the same ancient untouched vibe as the spaceship hut image I did.
-I used a similar colour pallet to the woods picture and looked through images of caves to see how water is reflected on stone walls
-I haven't quite got the hang of understanding light source in all my paintings yet, but it was difficult because there is no obvious light source in this image. I did however learn from my first environmental piece and I blurred the background to focus on the foreground. There are places in which it looks a little 2d but generally I am happy with how this turned out.
- there were a few differnt versions along the way- it started out with a golden colour scheme, and it was meant to be for a different location, but as I edited the colours and built up the image I felt that it belonged in Mulerium.
- one of the planets seen in the sky in Resolus (Eterion)
I followed a tutorial for how to create a planet using textures on Photoshop. It was quite useful because I hadn't thought to warp an image and use filters to blend it. I learned new ways to use Photoshop, which will help me later.
This is a concept for a location in my story called Mulerium. It is a place where all the bizarre and dangerous creatures reside. Its filled full of magic and illusion. its not a pleasant place so I gave it a poisonous look- the air looks heavy and muggy, there are mushrooms, the water is muddy and glowing. The plants and trees have a bio-luminescent appearance that allow them to glow at night. There is a blue fog that glitters through the trees- suggesting magic. The trees also fade off towards the top of the painting and merge together, creating one mass of texture. This was designed to create the illusion of the forest being dense, hidden and covered.
Finn is stood on the grass by the river looking out towards the sunrise. This would likely be the edge of the forest, a welcome sight for him after a long night trying to navigate the dense woods.
The process of making it was similar my first attempt but I put a little more detail in this one. Painted this on Ps from scratch- I started by doing a vague sketch of the kinds of things I was going to include (river, tree) I then blocked in colours and shapes and started to build up the image. I decided to add Finn in at the end and it was difficult to decide where he should stand and what size he would be relative to the landscape- however with the finished result I think it looks how it should. Again it is very exciting to see my ideas and visualisations in real life and I think I really nailed this one.- it looks exactly how I hoped it would.
The original was a portrait image because I'm used to working portrait- however I thought that this is a movie concept piece therefore it would make sense for it to be landscape. So I expanded the canvas and painted the surround areas. Instantly I felt that it was deeper, more submersive and made more sense.
This was a concept for the statues in Resolus. It would be very large (50-70 ft high) and stand either at the entrance to the city or in the large halls of the palaces. It is based off of a cross between druid/warlocks and guards/soldiers. The duty of the sentry is to guard Orecaspius from elemental threats, but as time has passed they have functioned more as politicians and police.
-It has a marble texture
- gold like the city
I move a 3d model of a man in various guard positions to see which would make the most sense. I thought about what kinds of weapon he would hold- this statue would be very old so I thought what weapons were used centuries ago -spears
This concept painting was inspired by the Crystal Palace botanical garden in Spain. I have transfrmed it into a sanctuary in Resolus. This is at midnight when all sorts of glowing creatures congregate around the water.
The hardest part was making the water look reflective but after working it out I made some notes for next time:
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waves/ ripples are curved
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use colour dodge on places where light hits the water
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leave some areas dark
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take a point on the horizon of the image and flip it then use liquify to warp waves into it, then add a layer of blue.
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concept for Finns house
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small
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filled with artifacts, equipment, book on Orecaspian history, potions
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mix of modern and old
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cozy
making it:
I made this on the build mode of the sims game- I downloaded a bunch of items I think would be in his home and put them in. This is his study. I went in with Photoshop and edited the image and painted over a few of the things I wanted to add or change.- and just to give you the full idea, here are the rest of the screen shots I took of his house. (unedited)
Finn's house
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kitchen
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living room
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living room (back)
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study (left)
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study (right)
Original
Also made using Sims- this is my idea for one of the sentry meeting rooms in Resolus. It is large, old and has inspiration of a Cathedral. Many of my ideas for this came from my visit to Durham Cathedral
More inspiration from photos of Causey Arch