The exchange program at the University of Brighton allows it's students to start one, self-directed project as a means to build a body of work and visual language for one's portfolio in the following years. Having been informed of this ahead of time, I knew that I wanted an exercise in worldbuilding. Looking back, I can remember being inspired by various works such as Luigi Serafini's Codex Seraphinus, Wayne Barlowe's Inferno, Gurney's work on Dinotopia, and C.M. Kösemen's All Tomorrows.

As I had come with the express intent to build a stronger body of concept artwork and character-integrated environmental illustration, I attempted to structure my project to accomodate. The vision was to create a faux project pitch for a story-driven game of my design, which meant a body of work that could communicate a sense of setting and story in it's broadest strokes.

The story and world of Purveyance and Prise is one that I have been percolating on for some time. In previous iterations, I have explored my ideas in both scriptwriting and game design -- I am fascinated by the idea of exploring a world in various timelines, particularly when linear storytelling is thrown to the wayside. This is a world which I have come to know through it's prehistory and bronze age before it has come to it's current state, in both the figurative and literal sense, and so this current iteration feels rather solid. In these past months, I have become quite close to the project, and am rather happy to admit that it is nowhere close to being finished.

My speedpaints are a window into the final steps of a piece for this project. Typically, I start by formulating ideas in my sketchbook or ideating in a google doc (or notes app, if I'm on the go). There, I'll ideate and reflect on what I want to improve on, before taking it to my drawing tablet to paint.