I have always taken fondly to creating new environments and worlds. I’ve always been fascinated by the amount of detail or sometimes the lack of thereof that is included within concept environment pieces. I’ll admit I have attempted to design an environment piece here and there being younger, but I always felt that the process of developing an environment being extremely daunting and overwhelming. The idea of creating a world for a narrative to take place would feel like an impossible task to do right.
Having learned more about image-making in general and more about the development of backgrounds/ environments, I realize that there is more nuance involved when creating environments and other worlds for narratives to take place. When it comes to developing an environment or concept illustration for that matter, there must be a level of being not too descriptive or explicit in the illustration as this will prevent the viewer or reader from wanting to explore further and to leave a level of nuance. I particularly enjoy this part of designing concept environment illustration as I feel that it allows me to have more freedom in what I can choose to leave in and leave out of the piece to provoke interest and curiosity within the viewer to want to explore more.
My approach to creating concept illustrations for environments currently has led me to develop a strong concept/ theme first and foremost for the message and story being told. To follow on focusing on depicting the concept from the first illustration, I took the same processes from the first illustration but instead of just copying the foundational subject matter and characters for the concept, I have instead chosen to further develop on the concept itself. This requiring to further self-reflect/ introspect on the concept and think about how the theme, feelings, and mood should be visually represented and further developed in the environment. This process then allows me to truly think about how this environment would present itself and the possible terrains it may have. For this particular environment, I explored the concept further and experimented with various designs and subject matter to attempt to depict the truth of the concept and what felt best suitable for the terrain for such.
For this environment, I particularly envisioned an abysmal, bleak, and confusing environment to navigate. I inspired the visuals for the environment illustration from swamp terrains, ruins, mirrors, shifting textures, and submerged terrains. Featured is the main character of the story, who has a very shy, quiet, timid approach and personality when facing challenges and this will be further developed within the story. Reflecting on the creation of this character, they may accidentally represent me in some shape or another, since the theme of this story inherently comes from deeply personal feelings and experiences. I then took these inspirations/influences and experimented with suitable compositions, styles, and subject matter that both combined the original concept illustration and these in-depth influences. After combining my ideas, guidelines for myself, and influences I was then able to come up with the final composition seen. For this illustration, I decided to finish with the same materials/media used for the original illustration, to continue with the stylistic quality of the materials used, and for continuity purposes. Although creating a concept environment illustration can seem a daunting task at first for me, some of my favorite pieces as of yet have originated from the development process of creating an environment.
Stay tuned for next time as I will go into my final process...
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