Concept Art

As our first task, we were instructed to create a piece of environmental concept art inspired by the newly released The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series on Netflix. We were advised to first collect reference photos of locations and textures around the campus, followed by a hand drawing that acted as a foundation for what we would later create in Photoshop. This task was daunting to say the least, being someone with minimal experience with Photoshop or digital art itself.

So there I was - on a bench overlooking the outdoor cafeteria - with various options of scenery to consider as elements of my artwork. Would I create a natural scene using trees and grass? An evil setting using the canopy?

After a few failed attempts at sketching the canopy, I settled on the building itself. You might be drawing blanks on what this could possibly have to do with a fantasy setting, but hear me out. I had concluded that the irregular shapes of a tree or the canopy would be too difficult to recreate in Photoshop (put down the pitchforks Photoshop veterans; I'm new to this, remember?). Using this, I created a rough sketch of the building, with a dark, industrial fantasy style that - while not quite in the style of The Dark Crystal - suited the building well and would be easier to create.

Here is the finished product:

I encountered a few issues when making this. At first, the textures all blurred together, which I remedied by changing the brightness of some of the textures to maintain the 3D look. Regrettably, I was unable to add much detail in the time constraints, so a collage of brick textures will have to suffice. I used the gradient tool to sculpt that awe-inspiring gloomy red sky.

Looking back, I am quite happy with how the project turned out. It might not be the best thing that has come out of Photoshop, but I learned a lot about the software making it and I don't think I did too badly considering my unfamiliarity with it.