I've suddenly grown fond of castles. They're magnificent pieces of architectural work, if you think about it. They may contain very annoying creations of the most unnecessary rooms and the weirdest heights, etc...but as a whole, it's breathtaking to look at. Daniel, whom is a friend of mine known through a RP(Role Playing) forum, has created a fantasy world full of planets, wars, mischiefs, dangers & obviously, fictional characters/creatures for his fictional book: The Wolds Series. It is supposedly based on the RP story us forum members take part in occasionally, playing our own personal, fictional roles based on the story plot set in a similar context. There are seven worlds existing in this fictional solar system (I think...well, around 7). Among one of them I have taken an interest of personally. It is called Dakryus. It is the most useless, mysterious, dangerous and darkest world as compared to the other ones. This is the summary of its status:
"Dakryus has barely any position in the World Alliance. Ever since the war nearly a century ago, Dakryus has been kept out of all meetings, gatherings, councils, etc. In fact Dakryus is under moderate control of the Alliance itself. Trade is restricted, Dakryus is not permitted to have an army over a certain number of personnel, their fleet must not exceed a certain number of ships, and the like. Essentially Dakryus has no role in the Alliance; it simply exists."
I really like how Dakryus is completely excluded. Like, it's the black sheep, except it was due to its own fault (as they had lost in a previous universal war, led by the evil Lord Zayen). It provides many possibilities for creativity in storyline, characters and designs.
One particular design I have suddenly taken a liking to is landscape designing. Landscapes, I realized, are what makes the world a beauty as a whole. Character/creature designs are awesome too. I've always loved the amount of diversities many creatures can come to be in fictional designs. You got your common dragons, knights, warriors and the like, probably inspired by English Medieval history. Or there might be others coming from Greek mythological influences (which I might add, I have also grown quite fond of; God of War III anyone?!). But all in all, landscapes are great to look at because it feels like you're looking outside of the box for a moment, to evaluate what resides within. Take a look at Avatar's landscape designs for example:
That was the best image I could find. There are plenty other better ones, but I suppose you would have to scan the published Art books for them (I will scan them later). Oh and this one too:
Amazing. Aren't they? By looking at these images, what can you evaluate or sum up with about the Na'Vi culture? Plenty, I tell you. Obviously they love the nature a lot. In fact, they probably worship/treasure it. Clearly, there is a whole heap of flora and fauna, of which take up a huge part of the Na'Vi culture. They glow in the dark, so it tells you that Na'Vi navigate around the forest different to us humans (i.e. no artificial lighting). I read somewhere in a guide book that the only fire they have is the ongoing bonfire used for cooking their hunted preys. And supposedly? It never, ever dies. From the huge trees seen above it could possibly tell you that they have very efficient survival skills. Banshees, one of the popular Pandoran flying creatures, live high up in the trees. The Hometree (the one that was ruined by the humans) of the Omaticaya clan (the one Jake Sully is in), for example, was the home of the hunters' banshees; they live at the very top for shelter.
Banshees flying above human shooters in Pandora, probably from the Avatar game for PS3.
Landscape designs can really tell you many things. Salvador Dali evidently used plenty of landscape based designs to showcase his distinctive dreams and thoughts (the melted clock one, anyone?) in his Surrealism works. Art is truly magnificent in that sense, because just by one picture: you can receive a beautiful, rich story from within.
That is why I have started to sketch some ideas for Dakyrus. Supposedly, deep inside the ruins of the dangerous, foggy areas of this particular world, resides the Spire, a residence of the previous ruler. I picture this place as extremely old and abandoned, as it has been many, many decades since Lord Zayen has conquered these lands. By the sound of its summary, as mentioned before, it seems this world is very much abandoned, even though some form of life evidently still lives. By creating the castle, I hope I can further explore other available areas regarding creatures, buildings and characters. Maybe this world is not as abandoned as we thought, after all? Maybe it was all a trap? Or maybe...Lord Zayen is secretly planning his revenge?
Who knows? I guess I'm going to have to draw up his previously ruled castle of dictatorship to start it off.
-The Visual Man.
p/s I'm not sure if this should be an official project yet. Daniel's interpretation of Dakyrus is probably different to mine, I think. And I have not collaborated with any of the forum staff before (though I might plan to in future). Maybe they've already created a completely different context for Dakyrus? Maybe not? All in all, I am only exploring these worlds for creativity's sake. Something to focus my artistic practises in. Nothing more. All copyright of the Worlds Series storyline goes to Daniel Koeker.
Monday, June 7, 2010,4:43 AM |
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To those of you IT'S THE MAN YA'LL readers. Welcome back! =]
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This is where I store my work all things Artistic. And yes it could include Music/Stories.
I thought it was too much to handle for my precious "life" blog. So I decided to make another one JUST for Art!
As you can see there really isn't much Art work to display yet. (Except for some new photos from camera. Yay! LINK.)
My blog posts sometimes consist of interesting ideas for upcoming projects. But hopefully this site will be filled with many creative things soon. All my uploaded work will be under the MISC tab in this blog (:
