World Building Week 4: Trees

Initial Thoughts // References // Inspiration

Trees are subject that i've always enjoyed painting but at the same time i've always found it tough, its really hard to draw a believable realistic tree - they are so random! But you need to make not-so random choices with them to make them work. Here are a few tree artworks and studies that i've done in the past:

These are some *very* quick sketches done recently for a client, they were all done in about 2 hours just to give the client a rough idea of placement and style as these are backgrounds for an animation. The idea was that they must have a very whimsical feel to them but when silhouetted they must also look quite creepy and unsettling without any other changes made - as the same scenes will be used at day and night. I attempted to achieve this by having lots of additions that would effect the silhouettes of the tree and perhaps make them feel less familiar when silhouetted but would still make sense and be believable when lit.

And here is my reference sheet. Again i've tried to find a mix of artwork (and styles) and photography. From looking at references i've noticed that usually there is either one central tree that is the focus and has all of the character and personality. Or the whole forest is used to set the tone and atmosphere through their shape, how they work together and how they react with the light - then the focus is on another aspect of the scene such as characters or buildings, reinforced by the setting (the trees). I think i will do some studies from reference and then do some sketches to test out tree types and shapes before jumping into setting up a scene.

Story Idea

As is evident in my previous blog posts i really like to start with some sort of story or purpose for whatever i am designing- this helps to spring off loads of different ideas and gives my drawings direction which improves the end result.

This is a story loosely based on and inspired by religion. Now i'm really not a religious type and i have very little knowledge on the subject, but from a fictional perspective i love the idea of religion. What has always fascinated me however is how tangible the 'facts' can be yet masses of people will support and believe in a religion, these 'facts' could have easily been children stories made up to scare / inspire children or even the lies of a cheating husband that scrambled up an excuse for being late home one evening to divert attention and to cover up the truth; "Oh you wouldn't believe my day! I was so exhausted  and depleted after a hard day at the forge that suddenly my glass of water turned to wine right in front of my eyes! I couldn't believe it, i just HAD to drink all of it, it was a blessing!... that dear, is why i am now drunk" The gullible wife believed the story and began to spread word of her husband turning water to wine. So this idea of something so big as religion once just being a everyday story or excuse that over time became twisted and distorted so much that it was believed as truth and then became something so much bigger - this idea is the inspiration and bases of my story for this week.

My story idea:

"There once was a village, a small collection of wooden buildings located on a grassy hill surrounded by all needed supplies - wood, stone and water. They started as people of trade, living off the land for food and building materials, trading off any excess that they didn't have a need for. However over the years they stopped trading and instead experimented with their unneeded materials, discovering more uses for them such as weaponry in the form of bows and arrows. Slowly weapons spread through their once peaceful village and became a staple in their education - learning to use the bow from a young age to hunt the nearby animals of the forest, this also increased their income from trading ten fold as they become more efficient hunters. Now many years later the people of the village have become much more narrow minded, respect came through your hunting skills and those few that failed to hunt successfully even at an early age were looked down upon and shamed. The once peaceful and happy village of tradesmen had become tainted.
Born during the height of this age was a boy, his father was a proud hunter and one of the best shots in the village - drunken tales say he could strike a deer's tail from 50 feet with a single arrow. Undoubtedly the boy had a lot of pressure on his shoulders with expectations to be great like his father. His name was Rylan.
Rylan always strived to be a great hunter but he could never get the hang of how to fire a bow, it wasn't in him, despite every other boy in the village being natural at it. He broke off from the group every time he had to go out and hunt - he couldn't handle their taunts and humiliation every time he failed to fire an accurate shot. Instead he found a spot near a river on the far side of the forest where he would sit and fish, he was a natural at this, catching a fish on almost every attempt. What hurt Rylan the most was that he knew he could never tell anyone this, fishing was reserved for the elderly who were too frail to hunt moving targets, it would just add to his humiliation. One day he arrived at his fishing spot however something was different, there was a smell in the air. Closer to the rivers bank he spotted something, on further inspection he noticed that this was an animal that he had never before seen or heard of, it had medium length grey fur, large bulking shoulders and a short snout with long fangs tucked inside. Thankfully it was dead, it had been pierced by something however there was no evidence as to what.
Rylan began to think, this is what he had been waiting for - to hide his embarrassing hunting skills and as an excuse for where he runs off to each hunting session he would always tell tales of heroic events of how he came face to face with many strange creatures that attempted to attack the village, that he had valiantly fought them off and saved everyone from harm. But not many believed him as he never had evidence - until now. He thrust an arrow into the piercing that was already present upon the animals body, mounted it upon his shoulders (it was about the size of a medium sized dog) and set off to his village. Upon arrival everyone crowed around at the sight of this animal - it was unknown, they'd never seen anything so fierce. Rylan relished in this situation and told a mighty story of his heroism, his epic fight with this beast, three of them had ambushed him whilst he was stalking a deer (pointing to cuts in his arms that he had created before hand for added effect) yet even when caught unaware he managed to kill one of the beasts with a well placed shot, the others fled wounded and scared of his presence. He had once again managed to save the village from danger. Everyone was ecstatic and as his story swept through the village he became revered, everyone knew of his heroism and his skills with a bow. His life had changed for the better, he was no longer ashamed.
The next time he visited his fishing spot he was indeed now ambushed by an animal similar to the one that he had supposedly slain, but this was much much bigger, a giant hulking beast. He now realised the body he found previously was but a child. The animal was not happy, it could smell it's young on Rylan's body. He darted through the forest in an attempt to escape the beast but to no avail, it was blood thirsty and wasn't going to stop until it had revenge. The beast was so large that it ran through trees, breaking and collapsing from the force, he created an opening at the center of the forest, blocking any route for Rylan to escape. He was torn part limb by limb by this giant beast but seconds later the damaged trees around them fell hard down upon the beast, slaying him also.
Their bodies were found days later by a search party sent out to find him - since his heroic story he had become much more worthy to his fellow villagers and therefore it didn't take long to realise that he had not returned. The scene that lay before them was a large tree, larger than any other in the forest, singled out by a ring of fallen trees surrounding it. Rylans mangled body at the base of the tree, bow in hand with a monstrous wolf-like creature slain beside him. The villagers believed that Rylan had fought to the death with this giant beast as a last stand to protect them, they started to believe all of his previous heroic tales of how he had protected the village from onslaughts of strange creatures - he truly had now become revered and was thought of as a lost hero. They also thought the large tree was a sign - why had it been the only one not to fall, why did Rylan die at it's base? They believed that once he died at this spot the tree manifested and grew from beneath his body - reincarnating him within this form to continue to watch over the village and to guard them from unknown creatures even after his early death.
The Rylan Tree, as it was now known, was worshiped - every year villagers would leave gifts and items at it's base to show their appreciation. Even after all other trees in the forest slowed their growth, the Rylan Tree carried on growing at a rapid pace until it was easily twice the size of the others, this helped solidify the villagers beleifes and so they took cuttings from the tree in order to plant more that they could harvest for wood to create bows, special bows imbued with the defence of Rylan, or so they believed. Over many years the village grew much larger and expanded into the forest, the tree and its surrounding area was preserved and became the center of the new-found town. Tales of Rylan and the Rylan Tree continued to be told for many years and shaped every aspect of the people and were seen as a history for these people, when in fact they were but the simple stories made up by a young boys mind."

Here are some tree thumbnails of random tree shapes inspired by photos so i can get a good feel for how trees work and look. Next i should really start to refine a few of these further so i have a better idea of which tree shapes to use and then start with some compositions and how the shape should be conveyed in the actual end image.

Some more development of the 4 favourite trees:

And some pencil comps from my sketchbook, if i get the chance tomorrow i will scan these in.

I want there to be more to the scene than just the tree, i want to include other trees and more of the environment so that there are more things to use in contrast. I want the tree to stand out as this beacon of hope, a guardian - the hero reincarnated. So in order to achieve this i want it to be the only tree that still has most of it's colour, having the rest of the scene darker and desaturated will help to amplify this effect. Similiar to Andreas Rocha's tree in my reference sheet.

And here is the final, i need to work onto it much more, adding in many more details and such before i put it into my portfolio. But for the sake of this exercise it is okay - i think it sets up the scene quite well for a quick concept.