Razorthorn Forest
A metallic forest that's deceptively beautiful.
Concept art of all the plants in the scene as well as their scale to the player.
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Created as a reference for the client and as a testing style for the final painting style.
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Plants were designed around the theme of being beautiful but dangerous to players. The gold acts as 'Fool's Gold' to lure the player close to the plant when it's actually the most dangerous part of the plant.
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The moss is bio-luminescent in the same vain of luring the player to dangerous resting spots.
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Because of all the 'Fool's Gold' in the forest, the player eventually distrusts their golden path, the only trustworthy thing in the forest, and strays from it leading to their demise.
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Inhabitants of the forest have adapted to use the plants to their advantage. Often, they'll use the chainmail ivy as armor, or fill the large pinecones with gunpowder to use as a nail bomb.
Progress shots of the piece.
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The bottom gif showed the original image to its completion. After further evaluation, I realized I could produce a much better piece and set into doing metal studies seen below and creating the concept art above. The client was also not a fan of the vignette used for focus so the composition needed to be adjusted to make the scene feel more open.
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With these changes in mind, I re-balanced the composition to be more open and redrew a majority of the plants to match their updated designs.
A fraction of my moodboard to serve as reference as I was painting the metal and lighting the landscape.
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You can see the full moodboard on pintrest here:
https://www.pinterest.com/c953/razorthorn-forest/
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I was heavily inspired by metal sculptures and succulent and desert environment plants as they have a sharp appearance.