With thirteen days ’til deadline for the Blizzard Art Contest, I’m pulling together the scraps of paper I’ve been doodling on and notes and sharing them before I put paintbrush to paper. You can check out my sketches & concepts here, and please feel free to comment / critique / add your two cents worth…
Parameters for Warcraft 2D Environment (Sub-Category): Sketch or illustrate an original 2D environment inspired by the Warcraft Universe. Your 2D environment creation can be an existing Warcraft environment, an existing Warcraft environment that incorporates your artistic twist on it, or even a brand new environment you think would fit within the Warcraft Universe

Background to concept : Quoted excerpts from the Warcraft I Website

“The reclusive Night Elves were the first race to awaken in the World of Warcraft….The Night Elves’ reckless use of magic drew the Burning Legion into the world and led to a catastrophic war…their wondrous homeland was shattered and drowned by the sea. Until recently, the Night Elves closed themselves off from the rest of the world and remained hidden atop their holy mountain of Hyjal for many thousands of years. The Legion’s invasion brought the Night Elves out of their long period of slumber. They now have renewed interest in shaping the world, and for the first time are allying themselves with other races to insure the continued survival of Azeroth…”

Dnarassus : “High atop the boughs of the great tree Teldrassil lies the wondrous city of Darnassus, the new refuge of the reclusive Night Elves…”

My Concept : The Dark Elves return to their lost homeland below the surface of the ocean to regain a secret artifact help stem the tide of war. They return to find their abandoned, ruined homeland anything but that…it has merged with the sea, and welcomed new inhabitants akin to the Dark Elves. I hope to capture this legendary lost city as it would live below the surface of the bay, using the fluent forms of Art Nouveau.
Sketches & Doodles : based on the Art Nouveau jewellery designs by Maruice Dufrene, I’ve scanned some scribbles from my sketchbook below.

I also found a stock photograph of 5 high divers from the 30’s, and was just struck at how powerful and beautiful and scary it looked seeing people jump out into the air with such confidence. I immediately thought that’s what the Night Elves would look like…and if they had the capabilities to breath underwater (they are magical beings after all) that would introduce some interesting concepts. I’m hoping to make these “divers” a minor element in an extremely tall vertical illustration, to give the sense of how difficult it would be for the Night Elves to return to their homeland at the bottom of an ocean bay.

…the lower left of the image below shows a small doodle I created which I think captures what I’m thinking of doing with an underwater landscape.

Here is a cropped portion of a more realized sketch on vellum… I started this thinking that the lost city should be in ruins…but now that I’m thinking my concept would be the city is actually inhabited (perhaps, gasp, by merelves). I may revisit this before putting paint to paper.

Where I go from here : Re-sketch before I start the final illustration…