Stelt

[Soran]

Howdy,

 

Back with another digital painting. This time it's my imagining of the landscape of the island of Stelt. I went ahead with the MNOG style again for this one as I felt it worked well with landscapes, especially as far as BIONICLE was concerned. Here's the results.

 

 

Link to larger resolution

Link to background alone

Link to background without text

 

The inspiration for this one mainly came from the description I had read regarding the Stelt landscape, which was that it had an almost ancient Greece type environment, with a hierarchy system, coliseums and gladiator battles. It was described as having structures that were often built and shortly thereafter destroyed. I decided to reflect that with the various buildings as well as the coliseum itself as looking ruined in some manner. 

 

This also was a test on perspective to see how well I could make a scene using perspective as the focal point. I think it turned out okay. 

 

There definitely are some things I'm less excited about in regards to the picture. For one, there really isn't a clear light source. My excuse is that there is no sun inside the robot so… Totally counts. Two, Soran looks a bit off here. The rough draft drawing of him had the pose working much better but I was unable to recreate it in higher detail without it looking… off. And lastly, I actually was going to make more buildings and potentially add some more life to the picture but I ran into some issues. Those being that I was having trouble creating more original looking crumbled buildings, and I have not yet designed Sidorak's species, in relation to my own art style. That and I was having issues with setting up things for them to be doing in the background. 

 

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with this drawing, I think it turned out well. There are some mistakes here and there but It's more or less pretty okay. I think it's one of the better backgrounds I've made so that's something I suppose. 

 

Materials:

 

Gimp 2.6 and laptop trackpad.

 

Extras:

 

For those curious, here's the rough drawing/idea

 

Hope you guys enjoy!

 

Comments and critiques are appreciated as always.

 

~Soran

Edited April 27, 2016 by Soran

[Taria Pakari]

I love your background work, Soran. Its absolutely stunning.

[Mr. Cod]

To being with, I love the feel of the picture, the composition is great and you nailed the style. My issue is more of an architectural one, with a few inconsistencies between building types (though judging from the original text describing it as ancient Greek and then including amphitheaters that's more their fault then yours).

[Zidonaro]

I think you could have made a more stylized coliseum, but I really like the desolated and destructed feel you put into this piece!

[Erasmus Graves]

It's a good piece. However, I think the palette is a little too cheerful in its brightness, even though there is no humour in the situation. It takes the gut feeling away from the desolation. Perhaps muted November shades would have been more appropriate. Anyway, it's a great picture - the subtlety of the rising smoke is great, and there's something about Soran's pose that indicates the question "How can sentient beings do this to one another" that is superb.

[Soran]

I love your background work, Soran. Its absolutely stunning.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.

 

To being with, I love the feel of the picture, the composition is great and you nailed the style. My issue is more of an architectural one, with a few inconsistencies between building types (though judging from the original text describing it as ancient Greek and then including amphitheaters that's more their fault then yours).

 

The architectural inconsistencies I actually have an explanation for. I wanted the draw to the picture to be toward the coliseum. This is why it's design is more pretty compared to the others, even in its own ruined state it has this awe inspiring look to it.

 

To make sure that it's the focus of the drawing, I decided to make the surrounding buildings much simpler in appearance. I figured that with how quickly the buildings were said to be built and destroyed, they weren't going for something complex, they wanted it rigid and solid and easily replaceable. Thus all the other buildings are designed to be similar to how medieval towers and strongholds were created, as during a time of war that's what I envision. Also, since I was trying to replicate the mnog style, I couldn't simply use focus blurs to bring the attention to the coliseum.

 

I figured that if the coliseum was being built that something that grand of a scale was attacked during the building process but was ultimately free from attack once realized what it was supposed to become, represent, and do. Because of this, I assume it would be the more intricate looking compared to the others since it's free from massive destruction (but not total destruction as apparent in its state). That's more or less my explanation. 

 

I think you could have made a more stylized coliseum, but I really like the desolated and destructed feel you put into this piece!

 

I did tone down the tinier details in the drawing that were in the model that I used. Mainly because something that tiny and intricate I felt wouldn't match up with the MNOG style which was more focused around broader details. I understand what you're talking about though, had I not tried it in that style I would've upped the details throughout the drawing.

 

Thanks.

 

It's a good piece. However, I think the palette is a little too cheerful in its brightness, even though there is no humour in the situation. It takes the gut feeling away from the desolation. Perhaps muted November shades would have been more appropriate. Anyway, it's a great picture - the subtlety of the rising smoke is great, and there's something about Soran's pose that indicates the question "How can sentient beings do this to one another" that is superb.

 

That was actually something I was considering in the process of assigning colors to it. Since the drawing is based off of MNOG, most of the color palette from the game was filled with these cheerful and higher contrasting colors. Although I too felt that it probably should've deserved more somber color choices, I decided to stick with the inspiration for the style instead of going with my gut. Whether that was a mistake or not, who knows. Regardless I can change the colors rather quickly if need be.

 

Thank you, when I was first drawing his finished pose I was pretty unhappy with it but looking back it doesn't look nearly as bad as I remembered. I too liked the smoke as a little detail. In a way it shows activity and destruction as something had to start the fire. It also points toward the broken bits of the coliseum to somewhat highlight the purpose of it. 

 

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone,

 

~Soran

[Hidron Nuva]

How do you have the time to make so many beautiful works?
Seriously, they are a lot and each one is stunning, I'm getting envious

 

PS. You did this using the trackpad? Wow.

[Soran]

How do you have the time to make so many beautiful works?

Seriously, they are a lot and each one is stunning, I'm getting envious

 

PS. You did this using the trackpad? Wow.

 

Procrastination, mostly. 

 

Thank you, I try to make pretty things sometimes. And yes, I exclusively use my trackpad. I have a bamboo tablet somewhere but I never got the hang of using it, it's much too different from pencil and paper that it messes with me. It's very patient work and relies more on shape recall/memory vs muscle memory. 

 

Perhaps if I'm bored I'll finish up the other rough drafts I've got. I made one for each of the major islands in the BIONICLE universe. 

 

Thanks,

 

~Soran