Storm Matoran

Stovau, the storm Matoran was an unexpected, but fun project to randomly start while my eyes spotted the picture in the bathroom tiles.

In short, I see pictures in textures, in this case my bathroom floor tiles, and sometimes I like bringing out the pictures I see within a texture. In this case I saw a Matoran's mask, and then the scenes of a stormy sea and an island in the background.

I brought out the picture in black and white first, then added color over top, thought it looked pretty interesting for being something I saw in a couple of tile textures.

After the pictures were done, I created my journal records shown below, choosing to make this setting look like an old journal being written in by my character, Pearllight. Because Pearllight is supposed to be the one writing, I used cursive to tell a story and talk about art process. 

Not everyone may have an easy time with reading the actual pages, so beneath each one I've added the print translation. 

Storm Matoran

There was a story once shared between the Ga Matoran about a male water Matoran named Stovau.

He was said to have been granted the power of a Toa after touching a strange, rare artifact from the ocean. Try as he did to never use such abilities for fear of hurting others, he discovered all too late that his power was no normal one, effecting the weather and not a single element itself.

His emotions at times could get the better of him, his friends feared him ever since he became a “short Toa”. One day when they once more called him this, he could no longer contain his anger, which lead to a mighty storm with lightning, a tornado, and a raging sea. In guilt, hoping to save his friends, he swam from the island as fast as he

could, hoping the unleashed power would go with him and stop the storm.

As he looked back at his island, illuminated by the yelling thunder,bombarded by the raging waters, he was quite literally struck with amazement as a bolt of lightning hit the water near to where he clung for dear life onto a rock.

It’s then claimed that the electricity pulsing through the waters coursed through his body and recognized the elemental power within him. Out there in the ocean he was granted the full form of a Toa.

With the extra boost in power and size, as he floated unconscious over the violent waves, he woke just in time to realize he could bring all his power back to himself and stop the storm. This he did with great determination, then swam back to his island hoping his people were okay.

When he arrived the villagers greeted him and praised him for saving them from a storm caused by their friend. They didn’t recognize him anymore, and spoke about him like he was a stranger, telling this new Toa that their friend Stovau had caused the storm and may have died out at sea.

Rather than showing regret they simply asked if his body had been found, and that maybe the storm stopped because he drowned.

Toa Stovau stared at his friends with a hard, stern glare. “See here, your friend tried to save you by going out to the ocean hoping the storm would follow him, and it did.”

His friends wondered how he knew, then realized their mistake. They asked him to stay, but he realized this island was no longer his home, and left to find a new one.

Ga Matoran claim he was the prototype Toa that lead to lightning Toa being made, and that they too held a weight in their hearts much like Stovau, which is why they’re so temperamental.

Right page written in Matoran-

(His tears
deepened
the sea.

Stovau, the
mighty
Matoa of
storm.)

Before the wide version of the Storm Matoran picture, I had started on a smaller close up image. The illustration, cropped or full, originated from pictures I’ve spotted in the bathroom tiles.

I took photos of the tiles that I see pictures in the most,and then worked over top of them
with digital paint.

- Tile photo.

Somewhere in the texture I spotted an island,and later the mask of a Matoran. Stovau’s mask was the first thing that brought out the rest of the illustration.

I started by painting over the textures to create his mask first, then built upon the picture from there. Stovau’s mask is a mask of weather. The design was adjusted in the wide illustration.

Right page title- (Peeking from the sea).

The pictures on these pages are actually just unfinished prototypes of the full picture.

To create the wide version of the Storm Matoran illustration, I took two tile photos and put them together. These tiles are side by side on the floor, but I had to do some merging of them on the computer.

I like how the texture of the tile becomes part of the illustration when you paint over it using multiply or overlay options.

I’ve always seen a storm and an island when looking at these tiles.

Multiple characters have been spotted in the texture, but the scene has remained the same, a stormy sea with a lightning lit island in the distance.

Many other illustration could come out of this texture, but the Storm Matoran came first.

I realized paint alone wasn’t the best way for me to bring out the picture, and instead I used the burn and dodge tool to bring out the values first.

After patient burn and dodge painting, the results are a stormy, black and white picture that looked pretty cool to me even without color.

After this step was done, though I wasn’t sure how well another could make out the scene as a black and white, I went over the whole thing using a watercolor brush set as an overlay layer. I added extra dodge effect on the gray underlayer where needed.

right page Matoran translation- (The shock of his life).