Thumbnails, Art Process and Setting the Mood

I made some thumbnails of how I imagine my world to look set out. I put a lot of time into them hoping to capture what I intend to create for my final illustration even though I can’t give much more than that as I obviously haven’t made them yet!

For the first one it’s the empty world ready to be built. As I was painting I decided to add a natural landmark feature instead of a man made one, as it would be more iconic and inspiring to look at. To see how the world changed around it instead of how it changed the world.
I added a planet with moons in the sky to show this may be a very simple looking world but it’s also a science fiction one. This is another planet, maybe the people that will be in this image are crashlanded explorers!
I’ll add more detail to the story of it for the final piece, as I don’t know what will be inspired as I’m creating it!
I added a silouhette at the front of each image, to show where the character will stand. Though I didn’t add details in to show it. I now have a good idea of what each scene will have as a character.
For the first image, the character will be an explorer. I’m not sure if I want them to be crashlanded or purposefully exploring yet, that’s for the final piece. But they’re scouting out this zone for whoever their companions are, to build a new home.

For the second image, I wanted to show the city in it’s prime still. I added a viaduct, inspired by my own hometown area of the Peak District, we have loads of them scattered around, and my home town of Buxton has one going right through it! When they were built they were a sign of civilisation and progress, and I wanted this to have that same feeling.
There’s some perspective to be worked out with it, but it’s staying!
I added houses and buildings, there will be market stalls, many more in my final piece, and people everywhere. The character in this scene that I’ll be focusing on will be a parent holding hands with a child, maybe walking home or doing some shopping in the markets!
I intend to add flags and symbols to show civilisation and society. Because with a city you don’t just get buildings, you get people and beliefs and hopes and dreams. The people in this city found solace under a strange sky, so their symbol is the planet and its moons that hover above them. As I’m writing this I think maybe I’ll add the viaduct to the flag on the final piece too, to combine nature and progress.

I purposefully didn’t create a thumbnail for the final piece, as it would be incredibly similar in layout to the second one, just destroyed, and I’ll build my art piece on top of that to keep it more consistent. But the character in the final piece will be another explorer, this time a group of them. Exploring the crumbling city thousands of years after it was emptied. The ground has risen, and one of the moons will be gone. The idea is that the planet and moons are keeping the ecosystem on this planet balanced. The moon crashed into the planet due to gravitational pull, and knocked it slightly out of orbit which affected the neighbouring planet, and the city’s home. It took thousands of year for the ecosystem to balance out again, and now the explorers and archaologists are discovering the history that’s now buried here.

I also made a tiny 10 second clip of music in bandlabs hoping to set the mood of the series.

I chose E major, as it’s hopeful and slightly mystical sounding. I wanted to capture the idea of discovery and adventure but also comfort and home, the peace of a silent planet and a new world. It’s only small but I hope it conveys the message I want it too! I’m not a musician (self taught piano only) so it was an interesting challenge to try.