The Adelphi Armoury

Following up on my previous post, I began this week by moving onto developing the armoury from my thumbnail concepts sheet. Aside from producing the result, my aim for this task was to dig into photobashing for the first time. Photobashing is an industry standard practice for concept art, particularly within the Triple A space, as it enables artists to produce results quickly and to a desired level of realism, making it an essential skill for me to learn as an aspiring concept artist. The photo above is one that I took, and it served as the base image for this concept. I found that working closely from a pre-apocalypse reference photo really helped me to envision the decay that occurred beyond that point. Overall I spent around two days on the piece, although I'd say the bulk of the piece was done on the first day. That said, I still need to be much faster and my aim is to be able to produce a piece like this in a matter of a few hours, so I still have a lot of streamlining to do in my process. For now though, here is the finished concept for the Adelphi armoury.

As you can see, my main idea for the armoury was to have a spread of gear ready for collection under a tarp shelter at the front entrance of the Adelphi, making the armoury more of an outdoor space. I wanted the building itself to look suitably overgrown and decayed, and the crumbling corner on the top floor was really helpful in achieving this. The crumbling roof also makes the indoor space less useable, which is why a lot of the armoury is now placed just outside. I'm hoping the concept implies that the armoury used to be indoors for a time until the building began to crumble, at which point the PMA re-established the armoury outside in rather simplistic fashion. The outdoor setup also has the added benefit of accessibility compared to the indoor space, as there would likely be a lot of traffic in the preparation period before patrols. In my mind the indoor space is still used as a sort of workshop, where damaged gear is taken to be repaired before being put back out for collection. It could also act as a storeroom for gear that is not expected to be taken out on patrol, according to the weekly assignment rota. If I have time I'd like to explore the indoor space of the armoury, but it's not currently a priority, as I want to explore other elements of the compound first and the close of this four week project is approaching.

Aside from the practical position of the Adelphi for use as an armoury within the compound, I also had a more thematic motivation for the decision. The reason I singled out the bar to become the armoury was to highlight an important ideology that permeates the PMA's existence. They are a group that is all about functionality, practicality and efficiency, and what better way to represent this in my environment design is there than to take a building that was once a social and recreational space, and have it be converted into one that is purely functional in its applications? I chose to leave the 'live sports' and 'awesome burgers' (etc) signs mostly intact for this exact reason, and I hope that their inclusion has helped in accentuating the contrast.

I also made sure to make a copy of the piece without the outdoor armoury setup, so that I had a version where the front of the building was unobscured, for clarity:

I'm probably going to be exploring the Canopy concept next, as it needs a lot of work, and I'm also excited by its potential as a standout feature of the compound. 

Thanks for reading!