Here is your inspiration for the day!
The strong, striking shapes and spotlight draw your eye immediately to the jaguar. But look how else your eye is led around the image - from the dark red lower left corner, your eye moves in waves around the composition until you see the giant reptile rising up behind its prey. This is an absolutely stunning image.
These three backgrounds. Oh my goodness. They were designed for a typical RPG, and are by three different students.
The first, a pirate storage room is, by the room's strange shape, in the bowels of a ship. The immediate eye-catcher is the lizard in the center. We can see why this ship belongs to a dragon hunter! Just looking around this room, it tells you so much about the world! Firstly, that dragons are more realism based than fantasy based here (and therefore the world itself probably operates on the same rules). The one they have (I assume) captured is more like a Komodo Dragon than a giant winged fire-breather from the realms of high fantasy. Such dragons may well still exist in this world, but this ship most certainly doesn't seem to be equipped to deal with such monsters, so I assume that at least where these guys sail, the monster in the middle is their standard fare. This is supported by the weaponry and supplies. We can see harpoons against the wall, which would be effective against small prey, but useless against giant foes. Also, there seem to be a lot of loose valuables such as vases and such that would be knocked around were it the kind of world where a leviathan may rise from the deep and seize this hip at any moment. Therefore, we can see that this must be quite a steady, smooth-sailing vessel. They have ample space, and though the storage room is full, the walkways are kept clear and traversable, so most likely, the ship is quite large and may even have multiple storage rooms. my favourite element to this is the eastern influence prevalent in the small architectural detailing and the decorative props. The characters on the wall hanging, the wardrobes, the shape and the door and its style all show eastern influences.
The second has all of the hallmarks of Steampunk. Elegant Victorian design combined with mechanical contraptions mix the old and new, the familiar and the unfamiliar in an extremely skilled manner. The steam elements are really just bare furnishings. If the contraptions, levers, and the boiler were removed it would be a fairly conventional study. However, details like the painting behind the chair and the skeleton beneath the floor (such a fantastic idea) introduce a fresh spin and a new combination that brightens and lifts the entire concept. They are seamlessly integrated, understated, and yet are without a doubt the focuses of the room. The thought of a Steampunk Victorian world in which dragons and by association other mythical creatures exist and are hunted either for study or glory is one I would long wish to linger in and learn about.
The third environment I chose for the fact that it is such a loveletter to famous RPGs like Diablo. It is absolutely classic, in terms of the rough stone dungeon setting, the crates and barrels that inhabit it, an abundance of chains and prison bars. And then there is the lava spewing skull. It's so over the top, that it's almost a pastiche of the genre. But it looks absolutely great - what a forge! I can imagine the kind of gruff, tough Dwarf or Highlander who would stand sweating by the bellows in a place like this. The low lighting contrasting with the red hot glow of the lava, underlighting everyone and everything in the room, and making even more of a feature of the skull. Colour wise, a dull teal or blue stone would contrast nicely with the hot ocre ambience that would bounce from the lava around the room, hinting of the cold dankness of the rest of the dungeon. Indeed, think how much of a feature this room would be were the rest of the dungeon rooms cold and blue, quiet and ominous. To walk into a room and be confronted with this.... Such a simple, but stunning and memorable, design!
- India
