This series of plates provides a series of "snapshots" of the development of the "Working Together" image.
I started with an image titled "Disk" (below) that I created when just beginning to do computer art.
The next image (below) is the terrain map used to create the main landmass. The darker the area the lower the elevation and the brighter the area the higher. (The black spire was created from a second terrain map.)
The starting image is almost a testament to the power of Bryce (the main program that I use) to allow just about anyone to create interesting scenes with just a little work.
A few words about my approach to art. I like -- both to admire and to create -- images that show a portion of a scene. The images should trigger questions: "OK, this is what is NOW. How did this come about? What will happen next? What's just off the image to the left?" You get the idea.
The effect that I was after was a "world wall:" a line of rock/hills/mountains that, while clearly a natural phenomena, gives the impression of being a constructed wall. This wall was to have a gap, through which a Viking-style ship was to be sailing.
The starting image had a terrain with a gap, but I've learned a lot about how to do things. So I went to my "Errand" image and copied the mountain terrain and texture (the coloring) from it. A couple of duplications and some rearranging and I had my wall (below).
I thought about it and added a "background" wall behind the gap: I wanted the effect of sailing into a (possible) trap (see below).
I used the same Viking-style ship that I created for my "Joy" image. (Actually, that is backward: I created the ship a year ago in preparation for doing this image. I made up a background image for testing out how the ship looked. Then the rest of the "Joy" image came to mind and I did that one first. Sound familiar, anyone?)
I also added clouds at this point, and brought the "ocean floor" terrain back into view (it was sitting out of sight in the above image). The results are below.
In the above image, I've reworked the ocean floor, both in the shape of the terrain and in the texture applied to it (note the neat whirlpool effect). If you look carefully, you can see the join line where the whirlpools meet the "greenish" terrain. Now, I'm not after photographic-quality images, but I'm not going to leave something this glaring lying around, either.
The below image adds a layer of ground fog. This feature hides much of the join line. In addition, it adds depth to the image...look at the cluster of rocks just visible through the gap. See how they stand out a lot more now?
The final image adds two more elements: a second layer of ground fog and a dragon.
Dragon? Well, I had originally titled this work "Ship" and was just going to have the ship as the focus. However, a 3D model of a dragon had just been released, and I felt that that element added the necessary second focus required to make it more interesting