Scale world: my second story

2nd STORY:

(Backstory)

Bigs are running out of space on their world due to constant technological development and they're preparing to invade the Smalls' world.

Midi not present (just like above), their world is obscured by clouds and space dust.

No Big or Small that ever ventured down the scale made it back to tell the story.

Midis are just a myth.

Bigs can physically assimilate parts of their environment and they communicate through high pitched noises.

Bigs are thelepatic

Main character:

- the runt of the Bigs' world:

-a bit of an outsider because his shoulder crystals are smaller than average

-moss growing on the side of his face (unkept allure)

-has a bit of a flower power spirit

-shorter than others because he's been spending too much of his childhood in the mines, fascinated with the beauty of the ore

-in his spare time he polishes different stone parts of his body

-dreams of becoming a sculptor

-plasma crystal-based life form

(Story below)

Story follows the goofy Big marching to Small world

We see propaganda posters about Smalls

Our main Big doesn't really believe that Smalls are that bad and once on their world, saves a lonely scared Small

Scale World: my first suggested story

As the group didn't want to change much about the world we were given, my two stories had to keep the scale part a bit too literal for my liking so I decided to work around that and focus on the story.

1st STORY:
(Backstory)
With the purpose of keeping true to the scale idea, the Midi world does not appear in the middle of the scale but is rather situated at the base of it, long forgotten by the Bigs and Smalls.
Both Bigs and Smalls perpetuate their species by asexual reproduction(once per life cycle maybe).
Bigs and Smalls come from the Midis of the bigger world underneath (explaining the gravity pulling down the two worlds) and are the result of a disease.
The Midis built the scale to keep Bigs and Smalls from contaminating the others and separated them in order to avoid the possibility of conflict between them.
Midis now exist in Bigs and Smalls culture only as a myth.
Smalls have discovered a cure for the disease (by accident) and are slowly reverting the process of getting smaller and smaller.
The Bigs are too proud to accept anything from the "despicable" Smalls as they believe logic and knowledge will reveal the cure to them
Smalls are afraid that the fast expanding cities of the Bigs and their constant increase in size will tip the scales and destroy both their worlds so they insist on giving them the cure

(Story)
The story follows a Small diplomat as it travels to the world of Bigs in order to give them the cure
We see  a few Bigs trying to sculpt their legs smaller, in contrast with other Bigs that are obviously proud of their imposing statures.
One of these Bigs listens to the Small and travels back to Mini world with them in order to get cured.

Tonal illustrations for future reference

As a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's work I can't believe I wasn't aware of his "Hansel and Gretel" book.

Last Friday when my group didn't show up for our meeting, instead of having all my time wasted, I decided to look around a book store in hopes of finding some fresh inspiration - and that's exactly what I found!

Pictures taken from the internet because my phone was dead.

Photography project - tonality

Click here for all the pictures

Pumpkin contest

My entry for the Blizzard pumpkin contest.

It was a great tonality exercise

UPDATE:

I'm one of the 5 winners and I can't believe it!

So much excitement, definitely no sleep for me tonight!

Blizzard pumpkin contest winners

Mother nature - Shadow world: inspiration/research

It seems logical that in a world in which shadows can become dangerous, all bioluminescent life forms are greatly treasured. They must learn to work together with the tree creatures in order to survive. 

Note: tree creatures are not the only ones affected by the wave of new life, but most plants and other beings too.

Inspiration for the new plant forms

Waitomo glow worm caves - New Zealand

Swee Cheng's luminous mushrooms

Glowing mushrooms 

(thee creatures could grow them on their backs/arms)

Red Sea living polyps 

Bioluminescent Jellyfish 

(modified into a land life form and kept as pets by the tree creatures)

UPDATE:

Based on Caitlin's idea of a ram shaped earth golem I looked at golems everywhere (ex below) and could not think of a new way of making it different from all the ones I've seen. The group eventually decided to drop the idea, which I agreed with even though I was very fond of having an entire civilisation live on a moving city. The golem would take 1 step a day (due to its size), thus there was going to be an entire culture developed around that time of day when the creatures Caitlin wanted to introduce would have to follow a daily routine of preparing themselves for the "step earthquake".

Mother nature - Shadow World: tonality week

Given the task to draw out our characters in the environment they inhabit got me thinking of Caravaggio's theatrical paintings and the thing they were most famous for: use of chiaroscuro, which not only seems appropriate for the project, but necessary considering the shadow creatures.

My suggested story/ explanation:

The group liked the idea of the souls coming back themselves through the rip and spreading across Earth so I started working on it. I'm thinking of it as a gradual expansion of the shadows.

(Above - using Beata's tree designs)

(Below - using mine's)

As opposed to the traditional painting techniques of making the furthest points the darkest, I personally prefer the darkest elements in the foreground. I feel that it gives the scene a certain dramatic effect because the viewer seems to be placed in the shadows as well, creating tension, a creepy feeling of something lurking, prowling.

Example of dark foreground technique found across multiple mediums

Thomas Gainsborough

John Poon

Johannes Vermeer

(here we can clearly see the dark foreground framing the point of interest and guiding the eye towards it)

Dragon Ball Z

(here we have the darkest and brightest points in the foreground)

Samurai Jack

Slawek Fedorczuk
(artist recommended by Beata)

UPDATE 22/10/2016

More tonality work - details/ environment