I finally managed to sketch a few environment thumbnails last week.
Well, they’re not technically thumbnails, as I believe the original file was, like, 4000×3000 px, but I swear it was zoomed out a lot while I was drawing these.

This kind of 30 minute-warm-up thumbnails used to be part of my morning routine a while ago (like here, here, here and here)
I would switch my computer on, wait for my coffee to get to the temperature my wife would define as disgustingly cold, read my emails and sketch a few environments.
Due to unusually busy times, during the past few months the routine had switched to sit down, switch-on and OH MY GOD STUFF TO SORT OUT.
Hopefully now I’m back to normal, so here are some thumbnails.

I’m not one of those guys who launch Photoshop, create a new file and start pouring awesomeness on the canvas as though their mind were already full of beautiful images just patiently queuing to see the light of day.
I need the fucking reference.

Not that I keep an image on one side for this kind of exercise. That would kind of defy the purpose of it.
But I need a couple of minutes of browsing random images before I eventually manage to come up with a couple of rough ideas, like “I can paint a couple of rocks” or “those rocks would look nice at dusk”.

In the end, I’m quite happy with these sketches. They took roughly 10-15 minutes each, and from a distance they actually look like something.
I might even decide to develop a few of them from thumbnails to proper drawings at some point.
For example, the one at the top right could become a nice vista.
I didn’t give much thought to the towery thingy in the middle, which in fact looks kind of crap. But hey, it’s a sketch, right?

I can totally see something happening underneath the arch at the bottom right. Maybe an army marching, or weird futuristic vehicles racing, or people riding alien creatures, or maybe something even more imaginative than this.

I’m happy about the lighting of the sketch in the middle, but I don’t know what else those rocks could be a part from, well, rocks. Maybe the heap of stones in the distance could a be an ancient tomb or something like that, I guess.

Anyway.

I immensely enjoy these warm-ups, I hope I’d be able to make more in the future. Although I’m starting to see a pattern: every time I say something like “I will totally do this in the future” it never happens. So we’ll see.

by Paolo Puggioni