The waterfall and lake
Prologue
The landscape is the aspect of this project that I was most daunted by. I’ve modelled many pieces of jewellery that have been inspired by nature and engineering components designed to cut through the air as cleanly as possibly but I’d never sat down to model nature itself.
Perhaps unsurprisingly I therefore procrastinated to a level worthy of my black belt status in the art. But one day while trying to make some real progress I discovered a series of stylised tree tutorials in the great YouTube academy vaults that were inspired by anime and this turned the landscape from a daunting challenge into an exciting and inspiring prospect. The idea of trying to create a stylised environment was much more appealing to me than trying to achieve photorealism as I think it allows so much more scope for expression and creativity.
I’m really happy with how it’s turned out and I’m also really excited to keep exploring and developing our own studio art style.
Inspiration and Insight
The idea for our lakeside setting came to me pretty quickly because of special memories and a long held love of a series of paintings.
The shape of the lake itself references the south end of Ullswater in the Lake District and also details of the lake in Claude Monet’s idyllic artist’s garden at his home in Giverny to create a small sheltered natural harbour like lake within the main lake. While the little waterfall is inspired by the beautiful Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye.
Graham and I have hiked to a lot of very remote lakes, lochs and waterfalls over the years. They are such beautiful, peaceful places where often the only company is the local wildlife. Which makes them wonderful places to just sit and watch the world go by for a while and also the perfect place to get engaged (though I might be a little biased)!
I have loved Monet’s water lily series and the gardens that inspired it since I first discovered them in art class at school. Everything about these stunning gardens is so delightful, from the beautiful Japanese design references that give the place such a wonderful feeling of tranquility and serenity to the surrounding planting which includes some of my favourite flowers and trees - wisteria, water lilies, roses and willow.
I love researching and finding names with meaning and symbolism. I started thinking about what to call the world I was building after I finished the basic concept model and I was so happy to find Araluen during one of my late night searches.
This beautiful sounding word is Aboriginal and means ‘singing waters’, ‘running waters’, or ‘place of lilies’.
It perfectly encapsulates all the influences, natural beauty and the magical feeling that I wanted to imbue our little studio world with.
I added ‘The Vale of’ prefix because I think it adds to the ‘straight out of a fairytale’ vibe! I also wanted our little sheltered spot on the lake to feel like it was part of a vast wild landscape.
The water ripples and lilies are elements that just make me smile as I think along with the art style and the bridge they really give the landscape that Monet / Japanese feel I was going for.
I love the form and symbolism of water lilies; rising from a dark place into beauty. If I had to choose one flower to represent peace and tranquility it would be a white water lily.
I adapted a daisy tutorial I found to create the water lily flowers. It’s a great tutorial that you can create almost any flower head you can think of / imagine. While the lily pads were from the tutorial on dynamic ripples, so it was basically the perfect tutorial to find - both are linked below.
I really wanted to include a waterfall in our landscape as they are one of my favourite things to hike to, but I knew it was going to be quite a challenge.
To me waterfalls feel, look and sound like nature in it’s rawest and most beautiful form. Some are huge, loud and soak you from a long way away, while others are small, tranquil and almost melodious. The beautiful Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye most definitely falls into the later category and just seemed to fit the feel of the world that was gradually taking shape on my screen. I can definitely see why these gorgeous little falls got their name! I have quite a few ideas for future projects inspired by them after our visit to see them.
I’m really grateful to Kristof Dedene for his great tutorial on creating an anime waterfall (linked below of course) as it was the basis of Araluen Falls. I wouldn’t have had a clue where to start without it!
Tutorials AND referenceS
These are all the tutorials we’ve used to create our studio tower, please note that we didn’t make them but we found them very helpful.
2D images to 3D Blender models
I used this technique to create both the phoenix and the lettering on the weather vane.
Stylised Tree
The wisteria trunk and branching system is based on the node system in this tutorial.
Path and Stepping Stones
I based the pathway that leads up to the door on this node tree but created my own cobble stones.