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As the Garden Gate takes shape everything else that is in the image also needs to be designed. Textures and foliage are fun to experiment with and invent on the fly with brushes and scribbling and even some photo textures. But all of the more important props, the things that can create a rich story world, they have to come from design and research. I’ve realized that I really love the research part- I get to dig in and read history about the various fleeting ideas that had come into my head in the concept phase. Usually when I have an idea it is vague, sometimes even superficial and just based on how something could look- a shape or visual motif. Research helps to develop why it might look the way it does, to add rich details from life, and then, in a forward-looking way, to imagine how it will function and interact with the story. I added a niche to each side of the gate. I thought this could add visual complexity to an important part of the environment, it creates a visual link to the classical architecture of our world, and it serves as a place that has been touched by our characters- they will light the candles that are in front of each sculpture each night. The sculptures will need to be meaningful to this place, they will need to be beautiful- balanced, interesting, symbolic. So I started with snakes, obviously. I read about the architecture and the encoded symbolism of secret societies. The transformational work of these groups was repeatedly mentioned: members would enter as novices and devote themselves to a practice of transformation, sometimes called the great work, usually about a spiritual transformation towards some idea of higher character. The balanced duality of pairs of opposites found in nature was seen as a philosophical goal: how can we unite opposites? The journey from chaos to balance was symbolized through decorative elements of architecture including wrought iron posts and gates with the caduceus as a symbol for balance or unification of opposites.
This felt like a rich visual language that I could use to design sculptures for my niches. I wanted to create a transformation as well: a mixed pair instead of two of the same. My rough ideas are usually shape based and in the end, I essentially have a scribbled, tangled ball of snakes to represent the before chaos and a caduceus to represent balance- very 19th century. As part of building out the world of the Moon Wytch I’ve been designing some additional scenes of the garden and also the world beyond. My design for a view of the garden that includes the Glasswing Luna Moths is set up form a vantage point outside looking in through an arched passageway. The thumb is rough, as usual, so the first thing I have done is designed the archway. I pushed together crescent moon shapes and played with the silhouette until I had a mixture of pointy, horn-like spikes and coiled snakes. I am using snakes as characters and motifs in this story-world. Motif as part of prop designs and characters as part of the spiritual and historical bones of this society. The spiral wrapping shape of the snakes reminded me of some rococo Italian columns that had similar spirals. For this design I focused on the shapes and textures that make up this archway in a theoretical sense- for the painting I have designed in the thumbnail I am imagining that this archway is very old. So there will be some cracks or crumbling of the stone apparent as well as moss and some weathering discoloration. Those will come later in the final painting. This was originally sculpted a few generations back, so the snakes and the messenger role that they must have been playing in the culture at that time could have been more common or apparent in the past, and now it is something that is seen as a relic or only to those who are sensitive to it and are looking out for them. Story specifics don’t really exist at this point, I’m looking to put ideas together that create new thoughts and directions for story.
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AuthorI'd like to share my process including research, designing an image, painting studies, and final painting techniques using both traditional media and digital tools. I am an artist and illustrator with diverse interests including concept art and children's illustration. Archives
March 2020
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