Dragon Lagoon

Before

Shot with Nikon D3100 – Botanic Gardens (swan lake)

After

After consult

 

Artist statement:

A place that seems real but unreal at the same time. I wanted to show how I visioned the place.

Art direction, fantasy and semi-realistic.

Concept:

Focus:
On the tree at the centre. Using the arch to bring the eyes to the centre.

Choice of Colour:
I chose a more vibrant and brighter colour to make the vegetation look more lush and abundant.

Dragons:
The dragons are there to bring life to the image and create a feral but beautiful eco-system.

Vegetation:
To create more diversity in the species of plants. It also helps to make a more dynamic frame and add subtle details.

Water:
Instead of leaving the water lake green, I decided to switch it to a more lagoon colour. In order to give an impression that this place is in the wild.

Sand:
These borders surrounding the lagoon makes the tree at the centre seem bigger than it actually is in the photo. Due to the compact space between making it slightly claustrophobic.

Waterfall:
Another element to create something surreal but believable in this setting. As making water gush out from trees, is not possible in the real world.

 

Camera:

Nikon D3100

Digital Processes:

 

Artist Reference:

How to train your dragon – Simon Otto

I took inspiration from the colours, composition and texture in this artwork in order to produce my work.

Looking at how the artist uses dark colours as the foreground and lighter shades as the background helps to bring contrast and focus to the midground. Prompted me to follow his method.

I especially love the usage of the bright green as the vegetation bringing in a surreal feeling to the audience.

 

Jungle book – Julian Calle: https://www.artstation.com/handsdigitalstudio

The second image that I took reference from helped me in planning the different type of vegetation I can explore in order to bring in some realism in a painting.

 

King kong – Island of the skull

Lastly, I took reference from this image due to the lighting and how the artist managed to capture such a realistic lighting, however, managing to retain the brightness and vibrancy of the vegetation. Which can never be seen in real life and can only be portrayed by the mind. Creating a semi-realistic environment.

(And some of Dennis Chan works in king kong)

 

My greatest influence would most probably be the first image, however, I manage to infuse the other two colours for vegetation in order to keep it still semi-realistic and not let it stray too much into a fantasy.

How this help contributes your image making process:

Helps me to reference on the lighting and colour of the environment that was used to create the effect of realism but at the same time not.

How to train your dragon helped to inspire me.

The other two, King kong and Jungle book helped me to reference the lighting and tonal value they used.