Glowing Cave Waters

 Keeping the ideas flowing, it has remained a side goal for enjoyment to use old sketches as elements in illustrations. Look closely, can you tell where these characters are from? If you guessed the first Bionicle sketch dump, you're correct. These old pen sketches have been brought to life with color and environment as planned.

This picture could have a number of stories attached to it; from the top of my head I'd say Toa Tarisa and an Agori explorer have come to the cave of glowing waters to discover the unknown mystery of why the water itself has a form of bio-luminescence to it. Being that the two are both water types, it makes sense for them to seek out the element they're in touch with. After a lot of searching they come across one of the main pools, but the question is where the water source is coming from. Tarisa is even more puzzled by why the cave appears to be leaking; water trickles from the ceiling and spreads along the rocks below, all of it making its way back to the pool at some point.

I couldn't quite pin point why the foreground figure seemed so familiar till I realized it resembled Tarisa almost exactly. This sketch may have been a rough test of her form. I liked that, made color choice easier since I have an existing image of Tarisa and her color scheme. 

Both Tarisa and the background figure (no name yet) were separate sketches, but there was something about size and pose which made them work well together. Even on the sketch page I immediately wanted to combine them into a single illustration. 

 I worked with their poses, despite the fact they're on the stiff side, and made a background they could fit into and seem natural in. I asked myself questions, like why Tarisa's hand is outstretched, what is she looking at/holding? Same goes for her Agori friend; I asked myself what they were touching, looking at, why are they bending over and putting their hand out, what are they observing? These questions helped me decide on environment, this environment being a cave setting with an odd glowing water. At first I thought maybe I would have Tarisa holding a glowing orb of water in her hand, and the Agori might be feeling a rock in the background, but as I formed the cave environment, choices changed and I ended up with something that feels more appealing than original ideas (at least to me).

I think the part I enjoyed the most in making this was the background itself. I've been more determined to experiment and test myself on lighting and backgrounds. Digitally it's less challenging, especially with lots of brushes to choose from including rock formations. I enjoyed the process of trying to make a cave environment, water is still challenging, but for a test I think it came out pretty well. It was especially fun adding the water trickles dripping from and onto the rocks.