FINAL | WORLDS | 2D | The Silence of The Giants | VolenCK

Final Illustration

Concept Sheet

Process - Hope this is helpful

Details
Name Volen CK
Email ck.volen@gmail.com
Website www.inpursuitofart.com
@Youtube https://www.youtube.com/inpursuitofart
@Facebook https://www.facebook.com/volenck

Thanks very much to all the judges - I've learned so much from so many of your tutorials. Thank you very much for stopping by

---------------------BEGINNING-------------------------

Hey guys I'm a bit late, but I think it will be fun to try and get something done. I'll try and finish in about a week, to keep it interesting with some pressure and not being able to change my mind too many times

I'll be updating the top post here with the process and how it's developing, so it can all be in one place and be like a tutorial if anyone finds it useful. Please let me know if there's anything that would be useful to you that I've not mentioned

I've written a short story for the concept, I'll probably have to shorten it still, but this helps put me in the world and give me ideas for the painting.

------------------------- CHALLENGES -------------------
Finish within a week - no constant back and forth.

More painting, less photos & 3D - I want to practice my painting, so there will be a minimum of photos used, I can be very over-reliant on reference.

-----------------------------STORY------------------------------
They say it happened in a flash.
A blink of the eye and it was over.

Skyfire some legends called it - hot enough to melt through spear and bone, but meant to do less harm to stone.
It burned through everything.
When it was done - no men, no women, no children were there.
Only the silence and the sky buildings – The Stone Giants.

They say that before the Great Madness The Stone Giants were covered in stars. That our ancestors lived there - inside each star. Now - there are few stars left and they are slowly disappearing. They say we made the Skyfire, that the Great Madness drove us to use it - greed and fear and hatred. We don’t know what happened, but we do know that the anguished spirits live there now – Radiation they call them. Even the strongest men come back ashen, their spirit draining, never to recover. We have not visited for generations.

Maybe that is punishment for what our ancestors have done - or maybe it’s all legend, tales to frighten children. We do not know. But The Stone Giants are real, and something catastrophic did happen. Now, all that’s left are the stars – brighter than the ones in the skies, slowly going out. And if you close your eyes -all you can hear is a faint, constant hum, like crickets in the wild - The Silence of The Giants.

--------------------------THUMBS-------------------------

----------------------------WIPS---------------------------------------

-------------------------------PROCESS--------------------------
I started with a story to go with the brief, something vague, loose and open to interpret visually. Since the brief called for a mix of old & new tech, I though it would be interesting to separate them - I decided I'll keep a world that's almost intact, or at least looks that way - tall buildings still there, electricity still on, but deserted, empty and irradiated.
As opposition to that I'd have some old world tech - inspired by tribal cultures, no electricity, but still mixed with some elements left in the environments, like cars, road signs, left overs from before the apocalyptic event.

I thought a color contrast would work nicely to create the separation - blues and greens for the electricity and radiation, oranges and warms for the native people and their older tech.

Sep 10 - Day 1
This is as much as I have so far, I've made some thumbs after writing the story, thought about how to try and tell the story within the frame. I'll most likely not be able to do everything I'd like to or just not do it well enough - but that's how it goes, have to try anyway

Sep 11 - Day2
Making some decisions. After the thumbs are done and all the options are there - it's time to eliminate some options, otherwise I'll always be going back and forth wondering what would be best. Finalizing the big shapes, establishing the main colors and contrasts, then starting to populate the scene.

Sep 12 - Day 3
The Middle part. Having some major issues with lighting and making things readable. The process images don't really show the thought process on making choices - I was really struggling to decide on the ambient light - how light or dark the shadows should be and how to separate the teepees from the ground plane, since they're about the same color and value.

Sep 13 - Day 4
Almost done. Added some more storytelling elements. I thought of including the radiation in the image, maybe turning it into something like a legend for the natives.
Worked on the lighting quite a bit more, tried to get a nice separation of forms. Can always be done better, I really need more practice in that area.
Need to do some final tweaks now. This is the hardest part for me right now. The small things that either enhance the image and give it something special, or completely ruin it... we'll see how that goes.

Sep 14 - Day 5
Final done... version 1 at least. Like I mentioned a few times - I'm having lots of trouble finishing at the moment, figuring out what works, what doesn't - when to stop, when is it too much. I think I've gone into "too much" territory right now, so I'll leave it for a day or 2, have a look again with the older pieces to have some context to judge by and will decide on the final. The final won't be the best... it'll just be what I can do right now.
Would appreciate some feedback

Oct 05 - Revision 01
Hey everybody Took some time away from this, looking at it again with fresh eyes. Addressed some of the feedback from the amazing community here, also revised the story a bit to clarify a few things and try and keep it short.
Failed on keeping it short
Cropped the image slightly and adjusted the figures over, there was too much empty space on the left, even though I do like a very wide canvas - couldn't fill it well enough.
That's about it for now, will post final next week.

Oct 13 - Final
Another awesome critique by @hebronppg... I was just about to post the final as well I'd merged the foreground and midground, initially I thought I'd have a small ridge in front where the main characters would be - but I really hadn't done that well, so my main figures seemed gigantic... So strange I couldn't see that until it was pointed out to me... Thanks so much for the help everybody

Thanks very much for stopping by

Thanks so much @swtme Really appreciate you taking the time to drop me a comment and thank you for the kind words, hope to not disappoint

Updated the main thread with the painting process for each day, some more progress images & a brief summary of what I've struggled with so far. Let me know if there's anything that would be useful or interesting to you and I will try my best to cover it

@hebronppg - thanks so much man, of course no offence - you're helping me Thanks so much for the feedback, would really appreciate it if you could stop by again in a few days and let me know what you would change about the final. Thanks again man

Updated again today... Almost done. Only the tiny, small details left that make everything awesome or ruin your image completely... I'm normally in the second camp unfortunately

Aaand final v.001 posted Time to step back now for a little while and decide whether I've gone overboard. I don't think I can improve this much further though at my current skill level, so I find I'm not making much meaningful changes any more while working on it.
Would appreciate any feedback you guys may have Thank you!

Hey @jonatan-moonchild, thanks so much man, those are some really solid points. I really did notice that I hadn't done the entire sticks on some of the teepees - those could definitely use some better shapes on the background ones, thanks so much for pointing that out.

I'll test out some more layers of buildings. I keep struggling with the idea of what's too much and what's too little. I try and keep things simple, because I normally tend to over-complicate everything and over- texture - I'm really not sure when it's just right or enough So I'll test out some extra layers, but I may decide to keep it as a wall - have that part of the city be simpler and have the layering happen where the character is pointing.

The aurora is also a great idea, I'll think about it, though with the green of the radiation already there I'm not sure if I can put more green lights in the sky, as it might read either as more radiation or the radiation might read as more of the aurora.. Like I said - I tend to overthink things

The entire sky might need replacing, I think it may have too much of a brushy texture going on, not sure it matches well with the rest of the image.

Thanks so much for the feedback, really great ideas and will definitely implement.
As for finishing, I might just call it done and have a look at it again in 2-3 weeks before calling it final - final. I just know I tend to reach a certain place with a piece where almost nothing I'm doing is moving me forward, so in terms of getting better - I think it benefits me more to start a new piece and attempt to execute it better with the lessons from the previous one.

Thanks very much Jonatan!