FINAL | WORLDS | 2D | Giants' Well | Ranarh

[ranarh]

And done.

Jennifer S. Lange
eMail: ranarh@jsl-art.de
Website: http://www.jsl-art.de
Facebook: @jsl.fans

[ranarh]

Moved the first post into here after ading the final:
Last week I started making sketches for this challenge and produced several sheets of "okay" sketches, but none was great. Eventually an idea struck me - buildings made from ancient gigantic temple ruins would look cool; but it didn't fit with the mood and lighting I knew I wanted, so I rearranged the basic idea to something more suited. I've been dabbling with the idea of fallen titans for some time, and will try and create my final around that.
These are the very first sketches from my sketchbook, with pencils and ink pens. Next, exploring colour schemes. Input is welcome!
Good luck everybody!

I chose one of the thumbnails and fiddled with the composition some more, lowering the horizon, adding atmospheric perspective and shoving the focal point around. It remained on one of the thirds, and I think I'll leave it there. Then I worked some more on the general impression.

Then I tried some colour schemes. I had this idea of golden greens and a sunset mood; tried some more "garish" colour combinations nonetheless. I like the purple and pink on top, but I think I'll stick with more muted colours and use either the greens from the start or the reds from the second colour idea.

I wonder if making the titans mechs, but the floating stones fantasy, fulfils the demand to stick with either fantasy or scifi. I mean, the ruins and new structures don't have to be the same, right?

[ranarh]

I thought about the world more, and decided the image doesn't tie the ritual place and the fallen giants together well enough. Making the smaller stones marking the ritual place a giant's hand fixes this, and I scribble around using references to place the giants. Most of them will be obscured by haze, but it rarely hurts to at least sketch in even the parts that won't be seen.
The colour scheme now is further along. I remembered how much I like stars visible at day and added some.

Apparently in my world, people are living among the scattered remains of a war fought by creatures much bigger than them; their once-beautiful attire indicates a sophisticated culture that still went down in flames as the fighters felled each other one by one, but at least seem to provide something meaningful to those that came after.

[ranarh]

Yesterday's work. Changed the format.
Sketching further to find a definitive palette, I discover that I fell into an old habit and produced a composition where everyhting's crammed onto the sides and leaves the middle empty. I move elements around until that's satisfyingly solved.
I try making the hand more readable, but my in-house critic say the previous was better so I stick with that.
I still struggle with the giants and their armour pieces. I like the copper patina green they have now, and was looking something like gold for some things like shinguards and helmet, but that might make those elements stand out to much.

[ranarh]

And just when I thought I was done with major changes, I manipulated the colour scheme again. I didn't like how dark it had become, I liked the dusty summer evening atmposhere from before, and with a few days in between, it was easier to figure that out.
I overlaid lots of paint splash textures I made, to get some colour variation and texture.

[ranarh]

Into detail painting now, although I keep making big changes. I want to come up with a cool shape for the spears. Maybe something with cubes.

[ranarh]

Things are finally coming together.

[thakis]

I really like it, can't wait to see it finished! One gripe I have with it is, I am not sure the whole 'rebuilding' theme is present. Other than that, I really like it, very cool idea

[ranarh]

Detail work mostly done. It was suggested to me to put in some vegetation; I'm not sure if I like it, though. It gives the whole feeling a different direction. And it hides my beautiful waterfalls but maybe I'm just afraid to kill my darlings.
Aaand this nagging feeling if there's enough new civilization. We're allowed to show them just starting to rebuild now, but also not to focus on characters, and I'm afraid I struck the exact middle of that. Argh. Some days are left, maybe it'll solve itself.

[thakis]

In all honesty, I think your no-vegetation picture is just fine as it is. If you do want to add some you can of course, but in the last picture it is not working I think. That boulder at the left worked really well to lead the eye towards the floating rock. You can try to make a shorter tree or something similar below the left rock, if that makes sense.

Now about the whole rebuilding thing... I think the problem right now is that the people are barely visible and it's rather unclear that they are trying to build something new. I believe you can keep that to a minimum if you want, just make sure that it is somewhat clear that it's happening somehow. For instance you can show a rough structure or two, or even parts of it somewhere in the image.