Forest Stories

This project was born from a desire to surprise and inspire the lovely people from Stoic Studio. I wanted to create a dynamic and emotional scene involving some members of the team.

When concepting the illustration, I remembered a picture that hung in my grandmother’s house for ages – “The Hunters at Rest” by Vasily Perov. What I remembered most about it were the excellent face expressions and gestures that set the mood.

I carefully analyzed the illustration, noting the dynamics between the storyteller and audience, the challenge of conveying mood without zooming in too close on the faces or positioning the subjects too close to each other.

The gaze is naturally drawn to faces in an illustration like this, but the surroundings had to reinforce that focus. The Eywind Earle and “Banner Saga” style illustration was perfect for achieving that.

I mixed the two styles together to create something that is not too stylized, and can mesh well with the more realistic human figures. Following the influence, I mixed solid elements with subtle textures, simple bushes with intricate tree bark.

The resulting combination hides a lot of layered, intricate detail that forms a cohesive whole when viewed from afar.

The key to not losing focus with so many details was color strategy, depth of field and lighting. When set up in the correct way, even the most detailed and complex elements play in tune with the aim of the illustration as a whole.

I’ve recreated the forest elements several times, until I reached a resemblance to the source inspiration.

Since this was a passion project, I let it grow and evolve over time. I iterated endlessly on some elements, until they fit in to the overall scene and their quality was up to par.

This resulted in a work that successfully marries several styles while still being interesting and engaging.