From Beginning to End and Back Again

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to guest on a creative Twitch stream with the wonderful Stacy J. Garrett. How did this happen? What started out as a joke while she was live streaming one day, she had commented to her audience that if a certain donation goal was met, that she would get me as a guest for a future stream. Off camera, she sends me a private message if I was alright with even guesting. Of course, I said yes then through out the question of if she would like me in some sort of Steampunk costume for the hell of it. Like a great many times where I randomly say something and people take and run with it, this was no different. It was in several short moments that we agreed to a Steampunk themed art stream. 

Rough concepts for painting

Alas, what to create? I put it out to her community to choose one of three possibilities so I had some kind of direction of what they would like me to do. Of the selection (Steampunk environment, Cthulhu/Dark Steampunk, Other [suggest] ), a Cthulhu or dark Steampunk themed piece ended up with the most votes. Now that I had my direction, it was time to get sketching on rough drafts. I ended up coming up with 2 possibilities and both concepts made me think that they should be covers for a book or showing scenes from an appropriately themed mystery novel. Once again, I left it up to Stacy's community to place a vote on which one they would like to see me work on during the stream. Though many let me know that they loved both concepts, they knew that they needed to pick just one. The winning concept? Option 1 - A young man carefully wading through trash in what possibly could be sewer or filthy waterway. 

Painting at end of stream

On stream, I was able to get started on many of the base colors and block in the heavy use of shadow this piece was going to have. Of course, by the end of the stream, I had let everyone know that I would be finishing the piece in the following days then share the end results. What I didn't tell them was that I was going to take progress shots as I went along so that I could share the images with them so that they could follow along. Another little something I had never mentioned to them was that I have never done a piece with this kind of lighting/dark shadows before in my life. In all honesty, most of it I was winging. Compared to so many of my earlier pieces, where the lighting was gentle and had a good balance of shadows. Even with the classic vehicles I've done, there seems to be a balance. This piece is the first where the shadows were giving the sense of anxiety or impending danger. Considering the setting of the piece, It was perfect. 

As I started getting closer to completion of the piece, an interesting suggestion came up in conversation. Since the setting was inspiring several in the community, why not set up a writing prompt? What Stacy and I had explained to her community is that I'm not much of a story teller in the traditional beginning-to-end sense. I am much more the type who can create an entire world, environments and give glimpses of the happenings via character journals. Of course this made folks even more encouraging over the whole situation. What kind of journal entry would this young man have? What was his world like? Where would they take the answers to those questions with their own stories? I found myself pondering the possibilities and found myself entertained.  So I made the decision to actually do a 'journal entry' to be with this piece. Of course this also came with me doing a rather quick set of notes to myself of what the calendar system of this possible world would be like and a rough idea of the world layout. So, quickly grabbing the nearest piece of paper, I scribbled down notes and figured out a few things:

Winter - King of Sleep (64 days)
Spring - Queen of Awakening (120 days)
Summer - Lord of Insight (90 days) 
Fall - Lady of Preparation (93 days)

A. The Kingdom of Onyxia 
(mountains, temperate rain forests) 
B. Undivided States of Melckorr
(temperate rain forests, valleys, river ways) 
C. Isles of Fonseca
(woodlands, shrublands) 
D. Raliuga
(woodlands, shrublands, mountains) 
E. Dolosais Empire
(forests, mountains, tundra)

So I present to you the finished painting and its companion journal entry! 

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56 of our Lady of Preparation

I have followed the trail to the older section of the Onyxian capital proper. What few rumors I've been able to keep my ears open to has lead me to take a look at the catacombs on this part of the city. Why steal an ancient relic from the university then

dump it in a place like this? The logic completely eludes me. The catacombs is nothing more then the remains of the old city which was converted to be part of the waterways once the expansion of the capital occurred. Now it is nothing more then then flooded hallways that some of the citizens here had been using as a dump. Attempting to find anything in this place will be next to impossible. 

Even as I stand at the entry way into this place, I can smell the sickening sweet smell of decay and rot. I know that the putrid rancid aroma will only get thicker the further I go in. My only hope is if the relic was tossed in here, that I am able to locate it quickly. If not, I fear that I may suffocate in this stench or loose my way. I have been warned by some of the older inhabitants of this area that there are rather sizable vermin and water serpents that I need to be cautious of if I was fool enough to enter this place. May the gods grant me guidance. I am certainly going to need any assistance I can get at this point.