In the past few weeks, I’ve put a lot of time into polishing my ideas and researching different concepts. When I first started this project, I created a timeline for myself to make sure I finish my project by the end of the semester, and I gave myself a lot of time for research so I can begin my concepts and sketches following spring break, which has finally arrived.
The largest chunk of research I’ve done is finding different art for inspiration with pieces that I feel could really fit into my fantasy world, and I will be showcasing those different works of art in this post. For my project, I decided on building up three different environments for my world, so I will have three final concepts in different parts of the fantasy world. I will be creating a forest, a mountain range/valley region, and a village/homestead area.
For my forest, I have found several pieces that I really like and would love to take inspiration from.
‘Radiant Grove’ by Lorenzo Lanfranconi on ArtStation.
I love the colors and greenery in this environment, and I also love the perspective that makes all the plants look large and full of life. My source material has a heavy emphasis on magic that uses life energy as the source of power, so a world being so full of life would make a lot of sense.
‘Mystical Forest’ by Adrian Bara on ArtStation.
I love the use of blue in this environment that adds to the magical feel of the forest. The staff that I created, which is made to look like it was handmade from the knotted wood of a tree, has traces of magical blue glow peeking through the wood. Using blue in my forest environment would add a lot of meaning to my weapon I have already created.
‘Guild Wars 2 - End of Dragons’ by Sergii Golotovskiy on ArtStation.
This environment also has a “larger than life” feel, even though it’s not much of a forest, it still has some life and trees within it. I just love the giant feel of this environment space.
Next, for my mountain range, I don’t have quite as many ideas but I’ve found several that I would love to take some ideas from.
‘Fantasy Landscape - Class Demo’ by Hue Teo on ArtStation.
I love the colors and the art style of this landscape. Again, there are large flowers and plants present in this environment, and tons of greenery, which I would love to incorporate into my environments in any way possible.
‘Mountain Above the Valley’ by Quentin Regnes on ArtStation.
This is the type of landscape I immediately thought of when I first started planning out my project. Wide mountain range enveloping a flat valley full of plants and life.
Finally, here are some ideas I have for my village environment.
‘Aziya Village Panorama’ by Ann Maulina on ArtStation.
I fell in love with this environment concept when I first saw it. I absolutely love the colors and art style it uses, as well as the magical feel it portrays with the colors, crystals, and floating portions of landscape. I also love the use of the crystals, because it reminds me of my crystallized sword from my weapons concept. This would be a great addition to my concepts as a way to add a connection between the two.
‘Alchemist’s House Concept Art’ by Mary Davydova on ArtStation.
I love the combination of the large plant life with the mushrooms, and using them as homes. I would absolutely love to create a giant mushroom themed village, because it also portrays a connection between my axe and the environments. The concept of the axe I created is meant to look handmade, and has mushrooms growing on the handle.
Overall, I’ve gathered nearly 100 different pieces of artwork to use as references and inspiration, however these are some of the ones that have stood out to me the most as I’ve researched. I hope to incorporate a lot of what I’ve found in these artworks into my own concepts.
I presented these ideas to my class this week, and received a lot of great feedback. I was told I should try and connect each environment concept to each other, for instance, maybe create an area rich with crystals that trades these crystals with other areas and place those traded crystals inside another concept. Speaking of trading, I was told to put thought into making different areas trading ports and specialize in certain things to bring life into my world.
I feel I will also take some inspiration for my world building and environment concepts from the show ‘Arcane’ on Netflix. My thoughts first go to the city of Piltover, which created hextech as a source of man-made magic and exports the technology to other parts of the world. I would love to build a world with a huge exporter in a similar way.
Overall, I’ve began putting a lot of thought into what I want to do with my environments, and now it’s finally time to begin putting pencil to paper and begin my concept creation over the next few weeks! :)