A long time ago (29 years!), some guy called Edvard Toth sat down with two other guys with the intent of making a computer RPG. He had seen a brilliant image the other day, a painting by John Harris, and it inspired him enough to craft the evocative world of Perihelion: The Prophecy. The game is set in a postapocalyptic desert wasteland full of mutants and cyborgs, beautifully rendered in a two-tone color scheme of grey and orange. You can see an in-game screenshot above, in the middle.
Likely you're asking why this matters.
Today I have for you a piece inspired by Mr Toth's work, and further back by Frank Herbert as well. The worlds of Dune and Perihelion are vibrant and full of flavor even though they are set in the most inhospitable biome known to man- a desert. My assignment this time was to create a 3D model, and then draw over it to create a finished piece. While thinking about it, I found a piece by Sparth (the third image above!) that worked for me like Harris's piece worked for Toth... and it all suddenly clicked. I decided that I wanted to capture the essence of these works in a painting. A city in a desert. Lethal suns. Rock and bone and dust.
To start, I envisioned what the endgame would be: a sprawling metropolis, but only a sliver of it visible thanks to massive, imposing walls. Just as the desert holds secrets, mankind too hides itself from the world. My models were made in Maya, and a camera was set up so I could begin to work on the composition of the scene.
Unfortunately, I'm still new to painting digitally, so I had to cheat a little. I used Maya lighting to simulate the twin suns and figure out where shadows would be.
Once the models were finished, I had to settle on a color palette. Perihelion used only two colors but it would be a shame to limit things here, so I took a while getting the colors and shadows set up properly.
Once the colors were blocked out, it was time to begin mixing paint to create gradients and softness. This was easily the most time consuming part of the process.
And finally, here is the end result!
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