SquiddyTreat on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/squiddytreat/art/Guardian-s-Den-457525792SquiddyTreat

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Guardian's Den

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Steam rose from a bubbling pot beside the fireplace, wreathed in roots so ancient they were commonly mistaken for elaborate stonework.
Roots and smooth stone bathed in calming firelight formed a cozy enclave despite the chill draft coming from the skylights.
As a weary knight stepped through the threshold, the den's convalescent inhabitants roused themselves to greet her.


The Witcher 2 OST - A Quiet Corner

I've spent a good chunk of time (if you count roughly a full week [as in 170 hours] as a good chunk) playing Dark Souls 2, and I've found myself greatly admiring the architecture of the Fire Keepers' home at the beginning of the game. It's a very comforting area, and I decided that I wanted to recreate that feeling, so this build was heavily inspired by it, but with a considerably more primal notion.
This is perhaps my most detailed small-area scenebuild to date that isn't just completely full of greenery and foliage, and I'm very happy with the result.

I had originally planned on populating the scene with characters reminiscent of the Fire Keepers, but I felt that a better way to populate it would be to throw in only a few characters that added to the feeling of it being a refuge, somewhere far way where the weary could rest up for a time. And there's also a goat.

Also, I had a hard time finding any decent candles or other cozy lower class clutter for the scene, so I ported a bunch of stuff from Skyrim, which you can grab here for Source Filmmaker and Garry's Mod:
Download!

Garry's Mod, Photoshop

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© 2014 - 2024 SquiddyTreat
Comments15
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Satanbanan's avatar
Generally I love your pieces, but I think that this one seems to be a bit "busy" visually. When my eyes fell upon it for the first time, I was not sure where to look because there was no point where my eyes would be drawn. The foreground is fantastic, but the background is very obscured by the blur effect and I think that the lack of focus point ends up creating a certain... chaos? 

As an advice, I would suggest that you use less blur on backgrounds/backdrops that are relatively close to the viewer. For example, in your work here: squiddytreat.deviantart.com/ar…  the blurred background is not hurting the eyes because it's kind of abstract and far away, while on works like the one on this page, or for a clearer example, this one: squiddytreat.deviantart.com/ar…  
I think the easiest way to explain what this blur effect does is that it makes me feel like I'm short-sighted, because in other contexts, be it in games or real life or movies, normally you can see that far. Being unable to see the details of the people walking by on creates a sort of eye-itching effect, especially the fact that the Geth figure on the right is closer to the "camera", yet it's blurred.

Dont be afraid that you will lose focus if the background is not blurred, try to instead achieve this focus or "eye drawing" effect via using lights and shadows.

Overall, your compositions are fantastic and natural looking, the static ones look balanced while the action-filled ones look very dynamic while still retaining a certain sense of natural movement. Keep up the good work.