I am sooo done with this project!

Bioshock & Journey inspired.

The assignment was to pick an existing game and draw an environment based on it. I chose Bioshock & Journey, because I couldn't make up my mind.

Progress work:

I first started out with thumbnails, just to get the general composition of the illustration. I liked the buried look for my building, so I came up with these three. I liked having the pillars frame the scene. I wasn't sure what kind of pillars, but definitely something Art Deco, for the sake of Bioshock. The idea was that I would have some kind of Art Deco architecture in a Journey like desert environment. I kept a faint backstory idea that the ocean had dried up, and turned into a desert.

I decided that Journey alone wasn't interesting enough, because the main goal of this concept art was that I would eventually make it in 3D. I didn't see enough sculptural detail in Journey for it to give me the opportunity to have a portfolio worthy scene. Journey looks more like a lighting and physics game, than something that showcase high poly modeling.

Once I chose which thumbnail to develop further, I started with a line drawing to begin my blocking.

I felt that the dome was taking up too much of the visual space, so I trimmed it into a cylinder shaped "dome". I also added a tiny "dome" in the background to balance the composition.

I wasn't quite feeling the last drawing, and my teacher suggested to lower the character to make the dome feel BIGGER! I went back to the round dome just because I liked that shape better. Moved the smaller dome closer, and turned the pipes in the last drawing into glass walkways.

Then I started coloring it! I found out that I had some trouble trying to develop a scene completely in black and white. I normally can draw a scene in value with my pencil, or even on Photoshop, but I was in quite an artist rut! The only time things seemed to have been going right was when I just went straight into blocking flat(ish) colors. I added some water to emphasize the dried up ocean idea.

As I entered polishing stages with my illustration, I realized that logically, there would be trees and bushes around the desert stream, but I didn't want to add that kind of visual noise. Journey is completely void of nature and almost empty. So I removed the water, researched more Art Deco styles and architecture, and sweetened up the illustration!

Any Questions on my process? Email me! elovedesign@gmail.com

Alternate concepts:

Some alternate ideas that also came from thumbnails, but decided to not go thru with it.

Now on to finishing my Realistic environment! Soooooo much to do still with that, and it's due on Monday. Oy!