DESIGN PROJECT : Bollywood Stormlight

[direktator]

New member here!

So I just finished Oathbringer and my heart just shattered into pieces knowing that Kaladin/Shallan isn't happening. Don't worry, I'll learn to live with it! (or maybe I'll ship the OT3, because why not?)

To channel my woes and sorrows, I decided to focus on the other thing I love about this series : the unique world building. In here I'll be challenging myself to design concepts for a mock Stormlight IP (be it a game or a movie, I'm still not sure). DISCLAIMER : The designs I post here will take liberties from the description the have in the book. My mind's eye is kind of a rebel in that sense. The artwork you will see will be a combination of the book's description, Shallan's sketches and my own flavor mixed in.

I hope to post every week to keep my skills up and eventually have a complete portfolio for myself. Suggestions and inputs for inspiration and references are greatly appreciated!

07/01/2019 - INSPIRATION

I started reading TWoK 2 years ago and only got back to it this year. I got hooked enough to finally finish all three books and the Alethi culture just screamed 1300s Middle East-South Asia. The Kholin Monarchy, where you had one king and a dozen or so high princes with a 'department' assigned to them reminded me of Persia's shah and sastraps system. Another clue that really influenced the design I wanted to make was the concept of a safehand and havah, two fashion elements that brought the sari, kameezes and kurtiz in mind. ladymxdnight from discord, really helped me out on that one. And lastly, the one element that really sealed the deal on how I saw SA's world was the Parshendi singing in battle. When I read that, I knew I had to go Bollywood. Yep, you read that right. If it were up to me, SA would be a Bollywood film.

Thankfully, a really great Bollywood film came out a few years ago that got me really excited to design SA in this direction : Padmavaat by  Sanjay Leela Bansali   

INTIAL SKETCHES 

As any concept artist will tell you, warm ups are important. After seeking out my references, studying them and recreating them to an almost maddening degree, I started doing simple and quick sketches to further flesh out the designs I see in my mind. Below are quick concepts for the Kholin Uniform, Jasnah and Shallan's Kharbranth havah and initial portrait sketches of Adolin, Elhokar and Kaladin. 

 

See you next week!

 

Edited July 1, 2019 by direktator
UPDATE

[direktator]

I wanted to share the concept sketches for Navani and Jasnah! I'm pretty happy with these roughs and will proceed to finishing them

 

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine he/him]

Awesome work! It's really fun to see a Bollywood style take on SLA.

The havah designs are great, and I love your stylized incorporation of the glyphs too.

 

One thing that would be great to see is infused gems in the costume designs, I'm excited to see what else you come up with!

[direktator]

3 hours ago, hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

Awesome work! It's really fun to see a Bollywood style take on SLA.

The havah designs are great, and I love your stylized incorporation of the glyphs too.

 

One thing that would be great to see is infused gems in the costume designs, I'm excited to see what else you come up with!

That's a great idea! Alot of Middle Eastern/ South Asian armor and fashion have metal like bindings to them and it'll be an interesting look to add to the Parshendi

[JWerner]

Ooooh, that's a cool idea!

[direktator]

I'm still low key mad at Shallan but my heart has healed enough for me to do a sketch of her

[sheisrysn]

Wow, really love these! Jasnah is pitch perfect to me. thank you for sharing!

[nofrodelius]

Wow, these are absolutely stunning! I am a huge fan of Padmavaat, too, and LOVE this take on the Alethi garb.

Edited August 7, 2019 by nofrodelius

[SingingMosaic]

OK, I just would like to say, now that you have put forth this idea, I seriously need this to exist in full and I need its soundtrack. Not one of those we released an album with the best bits of the music, but one of those massive many disc every bit of song that ever happened in this thing is on here soundtracks. This would be one of the most brilliant soundtracks in the history of soundtracks everywhere. It would also be a massive project, and you would need the kinds of people whose attention to detail is intuitive and instinctive. People who pay attention. People who listen, you might say.

Do you think you could do image descriptions, or know someone who might if not? If they're here already and I'm missing them don't mind me, I'm new and still figuring this thing out.

[direktator]

20 minutes ago, SingingMosaic said:

OK, I just would like to say, now that you have put forth this idea, I seriously need this to exist in full and I need its soundtrack. Not one of those we released an album with the best bits of the music, but one of those massive many disc every bit of song that ever happened in this thing is on here soundtracks. This would be one of the most brilliant soundtracks in the history of soundtracks everywhere. It would also be a massive project, and you would need the kinds of people whose attention to detail is intuitive and instinctive. People who pay attention. People who listen, you might say.

Do you think you could do image descriptions, or know someone who might if not? If they're here already and I'm missing them don't mind me, I'm new and still figuring this thing out.

Hi SingingMosiac!

I don't really know how to make image descriptions or anyone that makes them. But if it helps Padmavaat's soundtrack really helped me come up with the designs.

 

Here's an colored update for anyone still following this project

 

[Honorless he/him]

These are really cool!