Forbidden Lands, Fallen Empires & Ancient Guardians

I think I'll call this done! I could work on this some more, there's definitely a lot of places that I would like to improve and touch up, but I'm conscious of the deadline. Had a lot of fun on the journey through this one!

More process on the final image. Towards the end of the process I enlarged the statue which I think has made it way more imposing and make it stand out more visually. The original sketch didn't have much in the way of story, other than two warriors looking at living statue. The narrative eventually became two graverobbers biting off more than they can chew! Who knows if they'll be able to get away from the statue catches up, will they leave their spilt plunder behind?

Progress on the final piece p1

Still a lot of experimentation and changes going on at this stage. I wanted to emulate Egyptian statues a bit more closely, but also worried that maybe the pose will be too stiff

After working on that coastal one, I went back to thumbnails, trying to go a bit crazier with the colours, just because I love slapping a bunch of paint around.

My fovourite was (10) here, because I felt like that contrast between the pyramid and sky worked well to lead the eye down to the statue guardian and then the people in the foreground. When sketching this out I was keeping Egyptian pyramids in mind, but tried to give them a less conventional shape, whilst still being recognisable as pyramids

I worked on this concept for a while, and although I still really like it, I felt like it didn't quite fit the brief to me. I'll probably work on this more in my own time though! The idea of people going to forbidden places for clout just amuses me

Here are my first thumbnails for the challenge. Mostly spitballing ideas, but I think the main concept of "big guardian thing in the background" never really left me when doing these!

1 - The first was focusing on the narrative, with two people on a sort of fantasy honeymoon travelling the world in an airship, going to an ancient land with ruins dotted all over the place. 

2 - I wanted this to be a giant overhanging cliff with a temple-like building on top. In terms of story I was imagining this congregation of people are trying to summon a fire guardian. The direction wasn't too clear on this one so I didn't go for it.

3 - For this I wanted to show two explorers arguing over a map - "It's here I swear!" "Some map reader you are!" and the structure is actually beneath them ho ho ho

4 - I based this on a photo I took whilst in malta earlier this year, before the end times that we find ourselves in. On this stretch of coast in real life, a sea stack and popular tourist attraction recently collapsed into the ocean. So for this concept I wanted to show the last remnants of an old civilisation in the form of a guardian statue on the verge of disappearing.