February/March 2014 Lite Challenge: East of the Sun and West of the Moon

[Xeonicus]

I've really been wanting to enter a lite challenge! Anywho... I've been flipping back and forth between two different ideas and finally settled on one. It's the Norwegian folktale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. I think it's a really beautiful tale. I have something started that I'm relatively happy with. I'm still a bit iffy on how I'm planning to depict things, but we'll see how it goes.

EotSMotM.png

[Jalyha]

What a wonderful idea

And it looks beautiful already!!!

[Xeonicus]

I decided to go a slightly different direction, more of a perspective view. It's coming along pretty well. I need to start working on the land details below. The floating island has been giving me a bit of a headache. I went through a bajillion different version of it. I'd like the ocean around the floating island to have water falling off into the clouds. I'm going to have to see if I can do that... Originally, the clouds were heavier, but I couldn't see the continent below, so hohum.... I'm sorta happy with the moon area. I have to do some work on the black left side area. I want to add some stars and maybe some ambient glow from an off camera sun. Errr... and I think the border is temporary, not sure. I really like the fractal I made awhile ago, but it doesn't seem to work when tiled. I might do a new one if I get to it.

Here's the new version....
EotSMotM_rev2.png

[Bogie]

That is a cool perspective!

[The_Buce]

That looks really cool! Can't wait to see more

[Xeonicus]

Thanks guys. I think I have the terrain looking okay right now. I might experiment with it slightly, but it's close to what I wanted. I think I skipped an embossing step though... I'll have to retrace my steps. I'm going to do the terrain work on the island next (should be quick). Then all the nifty little details start!

One thing I'm unsure about... does the orientation of the floating island look correct? I know with 1 or 2 point perspectives, a floating island above the horizon would be sort of "tilted upward". That's not the case with what I did. Maybe it doesn't apply in this case and I got lucky and drew it correctly?

### WIP ###
EotSMotM_rev3.png

[Azélor]

Shouldn't the moon be black?

[Xeonicus]

Like a "new moon"? I don't know, doesn't it change all the time, or would it be black viewed from such a perspective (since we're sort of "looking down from the heavens")?

[Xeonicus]

Sorry for the double post! I wanted to post an update. I am a little disappointed in the water falling from the floating land mass, it doesn't look right to me but I'm not sure how to fix it yet. I'm also flipping back and forth between the slightly convex horizon vs. this straight one. Please let me know what you think....
I think the terrain looks flat on the floating island too.... I think I need to tweak the lighting.

### LATEST WIP ###
EotSMotM_rev4.png

[madcowchef]

I liked the curve better. If that's the sun behind the moon, then as the light source, the shadow on the moon would be facing the viewer unless the moon was further to the side. That said I think how you have it lighted is more interesting.