Idea Generation and Inspirations
For my story idea I want to do a fully rendered digital 2D illustration, since that’s what I want to do after leaving uni. High quality single pieces.
I knew I wanted to do an illustration, but that’s an incredibly vague start, even illustrations need a story behind them. I spent a few weeks honestly just sitting around waiting for an idea to come to me and ended up with three and had to narrow it down.
I decided to make my pieces landscape, not portrait, as I want the focus to be on the story of the world, not just the characters.
My first idea is a tomb in the desert, underground in a cave, and a lone explorer with a torch rediscovering it. On the wall there’s an ancient door, circular and marked with runes that match up with two giant statues, one fallen and crumbling, either side of the door.
The story behind this image could be interpreted in so many different ways, and that is how I want to do whichever illustration I end up creating.
What I would imagine the story of this would be is a moment captured in time before the explorer attempts to open the door to a vault inside, perhaps turning the runes on the door to match the order of the statues.
Which is where my next idea came from, instead of one illustration, two to three to show a progress to the story. I still want my illustration to be up to the person viewing it to decipher because that’s what I find fascinating about art in general, that what one person sees isn’t what everyone else does, but by adding one or two more illustrations to my plan it adds both depth and an urge to discover more or spot things in the illustrations that may not have originally been noticed.
For this one I imagined the tomb to similar to things found in Columbia. Statues carved and buried in caves underground.
The paintings in the Tierradentro in Columbia were made on volcanic rock and covered with red and black paint. Which would be great for pallette inspiration.
My second idea was a bit more action, a ship on a stormy sea, it’s capsizing and wrapped in the arms of a Kraken. Sailors are sliding off the deck into the beasts crimson maw, reaching their arms out to a siren on the other side of the ship, what they believe is their salvation, but is just another arm of the Kraken shaped to lure them in.
This story couldn’t really have two parts the way I now want to do things, but it’s an intriguing image nonetheless. It also doesn’t leave much up to interpretation the way I really like art to be. Though it would have a lot to look at and guessing what the siren truly is, or how they got into this situation could be considered a mystery story in itself.
I also discovered while searching for reference that the idea has quite honestly, been done to death.
Kraken and sea monsters have appeared throughout history a lot, and I’m not sure I could put a unique enough twist on it for it to be worth it.
My third idea, and the one I think I’m going to go with, but I won’t be sure until I start the second half of this project, is a two to three part illustration series of a city through time.
The first image would be the city being built, structures surrounded by scaffolding and people helping each other build up the city. In the front centre of each image I want a character, for this one I was imagining workers, maybe hauling some bricks or something heavy. In the back centre I want to put a landmark structure, in the first image this would be being built. Though I’m not sure what this will be yet.
The second would be the city in its prime, full streets of markets and goods, with the landmark structure fully build and majestic, bringing crowds of people to the city. In the middle of this scene for the character I would have a parent and child looking around toward the markets, maybe waving to some smaller character in the distance, a friend or family member. I want this to really show the city alive.
The final image will be far in the future. I want to go back to the buried in the sand from my first idea. The city will be empty, crumbling, no one is there anymore. It’s fallen down and half buried in the sand. The landmark structure still stands but it’s seen better days. In the centre of the image the characters for this final illustration are two explorers. With big bags on their back, maybe on a long journey to find sanctuary in what is now a destroyed world. The markets are long gone, and the sand has taken over.
For each of these illustrations I wanted each centre character to have a defining feature. An item or clothing that I could add to other illustrations. Like for the second and final images for example, the child could be holding a small toy, that is shown buried in the sand in the final image.
The third idea is the one I thought about most, combining everything I had already thought up, I’m not sure of the style, whether the city will be futuristic, or perhaps desert sand something similar to Aurora, in Fable 3, one of my favourite RPG stories. It would be nice to have a call back to this somewhere in the image just for fun.
As this is a storytelling art-piece, I’ll probably keep the idea of a series, to keep a narrative in what I make.
References
HD wallpaper: fantasy art, Kraken, ship, tentacles (ND) Available Online: https://www.wallpaperflare.com/fantasy-art-kraken-ship-tentacles-wallpaper-ytbyd Accessed: 28/11/2022
Lionhead Games (2010) Fable 3. Microsoft Game Studios: Xbox 360. Available Online: https://www.kinguin.net/en/category/98875/fable-iii-complete-edition-gfwl-download-key?nosalesbooster=1¤cy=GBP&noff=1&gs=true&countryCode=GB&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1ZGcBhCoARIsAGQ0kkosK8ZO6ilfWGA6H4FprJpAhsoV7CMW-bnAdUMbtTWT8u9LXwZCPKoaAkH0EALw_wcB
AncientPages.com (2021) Huge Subterranean Pre-Columbian Shaft Tombs In Tierradentro, Colombia. Ancient Pages. 28/4/2021. Available Online: https://www.ancientpages.com/2021/04/28/huge-underground-tombs-of-tierradentro-colombia/ Accessed: 28/11/2022