Task 4.2 – Draw Crystal Cave Layouts

I began the task by colouring the different layers/objects in. I chose the cave colours based on the ‘art style research’ references found further below. The crystal colours were picked based on the crystal reference below. The colours range from bright to pastel shades.

Shown below is the coloured sketch.

Art Styles Research

I decided to begin the painting process since I finished colouring the layout quite quickly. Before I began painting the crystal cave, I decided to research some different art styles I thought would be suitable for the game. I was looking for a fairly simple style that didn’t possess too much detail. Shown below are the styles I chose as references to base my style on.

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Art Methods Research

Additionally, I also watched some videos of ‘digital cave paintings’ so that I could see the process and gain some insight into the different methods one can use to paint caves/rocky surfaces.

Digital painting progress with Photoshop – Cave explore
https://youtu.be/T2xpvmEAZPg

Cave. Quick sketch with Krita.
https://youtu.be/zDAblK6JFXw

Rock Painting Tutorial – Digital Painting Basics – Concept Art
https://youtu.be/bFB9FE18POY

Shown below is the crystal cave in the early stages of painting. I experimented with different methods of painting rocks/rocky textures to see which would look best. For the crystals, I chose to use a simple painterly style that I could later decorate with sparkles/glows. Regarding the water, I did a quick, simple shading for it as a start – I wanted to research more about methods of painting water before deciding on a style.

Crystal Cave WIP

After painting the crystal cave a bit, I stopped to look at the design and thought that it looked too crowded and the colours seemed too chaotic – they didn’t complement each other or the cave well. I planned on solving these issues by scaling down some of the crystals so that they took up less space and altering the colours of the crystals to make them appear more cohesive.

However, I decided to leave it be for now and present it to the group to get more feedback before making any changes.