I wanted to create a piece that really worked on the worldbuilding, especially around Philberts home. I did a lot of research on both fantasy and real life houses, and especially lighthouses. I wanted the house to function as a lighthouse, but with a crystal as the bulb. I was thinking a lot about Philberts mom, and what she would do. If she was a distant lighthouse keeper, as well as a botanical witch, it would make a lot of sense for her to live in this manner. I wanted the house to feel hers, not Philberts. As I have mentioned on previous blogs about the plot so far, I want Philberts mom to have an omnious story, and a lot of secrets. In this lighthouse, I imagine Philbert can stumble on a lot of secrets.
These are some sketches I did for the house, and I am happy with the one on the right. I discussed some with a friend, and we ended up agreeing on having the lighthouse on a cliff. I did want to incorporate a waterfall somewhere in the cliffside, but it got a bit too messy, and I left it without.
I have thought Philbert should live a bit far away from the rest of society, and Pepper would be the delivery witch, which is how they would become friends.
Making the house on a cliff is very favorable in creating storylines, which is essensially the base of my Philbert Project. I want to create water grottos underneath the house, filled with stalactite and crystals. Creating this home was crucial in this process, and I ended up building a room from this sketch. The room in the final piece is of Philberts mom, now Philberts, bedroom. It is on the higher level, and has a view over the ocean. I wanted to make it clear that this was more his mothers room than his, and made it very feminine. Philbert feels more like a guest in this room, than the owner of it.
In this piece, Philbert is holding a photo of his mother, which the viewer can't see. The atmosphere has these clashing emotions, as I wanted to get both Philberts love for his mother as well as his sadness over never getting to meet her. He is a curious boy, filled with questions about her, that no one wants to answer. In this image, I imagine that he is asking the picture something. However, the picture doesn't reply. Magic isn't always so great, huh?
You can see my process on this piece above. I tried to work with rough sketches, and everything done on one layer. I did the sketch-colour this way as well. I had dialogue with a friend about things she felt it missed, and got constructive ideas that way as well. I had some fairy lights that I ended up dropping in the final work. I think they would have been a bit too modern, in a sense. I just can't imagine this world having batteries.
In the process images, and gif, I have the shadows and light in seperate images, which makes it seem I did shadows before, but in reality I did them at the same time. It is very hard to capture that, but I went back and forth to find the balance I wanted. The shadows are also colours that compliment the light, as some places have warmer colours and some places have colder colours. The image where its just the shadows therefore looks a bit odd, or unnatural, and that's truthfully because that's not exactly how the sketching went. I try to keep it as genuine as I can.
My favourite thing about this piece is the feeling of loss that it gives me. I like that it shows that something is missing. It's a sunny day, the water looks great, but Philbert is just sitting inside on his bed, looking at old photos. I love the idea of nature not agreeing with your mood.
I think I was first introduced to this idea in "En Bondebegravelse" (a farmers funeral) by
Erik Werenskiold. He studied realism and naturalism, and is focusing on that in this image. I love how the sun is shining, and it is such a great day, but it is also the saddest day. How dare the weather disagree with my emotions? We are so used to seeing rain and black umbrellas in funeral scenes that those that are during sunny days, seem unnatural.
It's no secret that I live in a very coastal country, where every town is near the water. This means, of course, that we have a lot of light houses. Norway is known for fjords, which have mountain, rocks and sharp reefs in the ocean. On an island I mentioned in my Researching Teodor Kittelsen-post, Jomfruland, there are two famous lighthouses. One is older, and one is newer. My boyfriends family has a cabin out in the distance there somewhere, on a small island, where you can barely see them both. This has definitely given me an interest in lighthouses, and must've pushed me to wanting to include them in my work.
I will be honest and say I was kind of wary of creating a lighthouse, and placing it on a cliff, simply because there is one in Steven Universe (which I write a research focused blog on here) but in the end I figured, I am creating one because of my own experiences and inspirations, and I am sure Rebecca Sugar is too. I don't want to limit myself and my creations to seem less similar in my works.
I painted this while I was in Kragerø, on the cabin, in July 2015. Looking back on old works is quite interesting, especially when the theme comes back after a few years.
Looking back on this piece, I did a lot of research before I even began on the sketch. I wanted to have an idea of what the house and surroundings were, before I created some room. It is a lot easier to work with building a room if you have the house set first. So this journey might have looked a bit messy, but I think it was worth it in the end. I think the image works a lot better knowing there is something to build on further as well.
Perhaps I could have done it differently, or without sketching and world building all these assets that didn't end up showing in the final piece, but I think it was valuable time anyhow.
Thanks for reading!