Sunday, May 29, 2011

Studying from Life

The best artists understand the invaluable process of live research. My goals are to at minimum visit Israel and tour the Arabian peninsula during the course of this project. To really sell someone on the sense of what it's like to live in the desert, you have to live in the desert.

Until I am able to travel to Arabia and the Holy Land, southern Utah will have to do. This week I am taking a trip to study desert rocks, trees, and fauna and to live in a tent. I will be back and update this blog on Saturday.

Please enjoy this piece of a cloudy Jerusalem morning. This olive grove outside Jerusalem is likely where the young Nephi will first pray for a testimony of the truths taught by his father and other living prophets of his day.

A quick concept image like this typically takes me 2 hours.


Friday, May 27, 2011

Background Artwork

I made the background artwork for this blog to accommodate even very high resolution screens. Because of this some of you may not be able to see the whole image. Here it is:


For those interested, here is a breakdown of the characters from left to right:

A demon:
This might be the devil--not sure. I haven't written the story yet so he got in the picture because demons look cool.

A servant of Laban
Nephi and his brothers get chased by servants of Laban. They will probably be fire salamanders, but as with everything, this could change. Unless otherwise noted all animals are native to Israel (according to Wikipedia and other web sources)

The striped hyena
Laman. Big and tough.

The center caracal (type of large cat)
Probably one of Nephi's sisters.

The green "bull" frog
The prophet Jeremiah of course!!

The golden jackal
Maybe Isaiah? Definitely a prophet who has been through some hard times.

The camel
A camel. The extra smart variety. I was thinking of my own dog, Doby, who is big and dumb, but lovable. Then I thought it would be fun to have a giant dachsund, so the camels ended up stubby-legged and not so smart. Comedy relief.

Top left background image
Lehi carrying Sariah to a honeymoon getaway at night. They are small so you may have to look for them.

Top right background image
Lehi and Sariah in Egypt, falling in love.  The scriptures state that Lehi dwelt at Jerusalem "all his days" but how did he learn Egyptian if that were true? I think he traveled some. Scholars agree.

Launch!


The journey to the promised land begins. This is the promotional poster to be used throughout the web. The plan is to update the blog daily (well...weekdaily) with new concept art, so follow the blog and visit often!

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