Archeage

For the initial sketch, I used my Wacom Intuos tablet to draw in Paint Tool SAI. After I did my sketch and drew the shapes to break everything down, I moved into Photoshop CC 2017 to begin the true work. Basically every shape was created with the pen tool and maneuvered into place or the shape I wanted it. For the tree, I actually drew the different bits of bark with my tablet, as I wanted the lines to be wobbly, and doing that with a pen tool would take forever. To clean up the gaps, I went a layer below and simply used black to smooth out the edges as well. The cherry blossoms are a brush I found from Obsidian Dawn (a site I've used for years for Photoshop brushes) and tweaked slightly.

Archeage is a sandbox MMORPG (Massive-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) published by Trion Worlds, and developed by XL Games.

My main character was named Abrahms, after my cat, and I lead the friendly guild Anypost Owls. Over time, I got my brother to join the game as well, and we both made alts (alternate characters or accounts). I decided to make my other cat, Vimes, and over the months it became common for guildmates to see Abrahms with Vimes either riding shotgun in the car I had, or sitting backseat on my mount -- it was just the easiest way to keep track of him! Even though he was also in our "alt"-guild, the Anypost Pigeons, most of his costumes had our guild crest stamped on it, which was an owl with gold-tipped feathers carrying a letter.

Near the end of my time in Archeage, my brother and I had quite the spread of land in a zone named Windscour, most notably our many treehouses which stuck up above everything else. Often if I was waiting on plants or trees to finish growing, I would have Abrahms and Vimes rest on the roof of my thatched cottage, just enjoying the view looking out over other player houses, and watch as the day passed.

For the image, I really wanted to capture the kind of relaxed memory of just enjoying what I had built over my time in Archeage, and my guildmates often teased me about how I used to put beach-chairs and all sorts of crazy things on my roof so I thought having them on the roof of a thatched cottage was fitting. Abrahms was usually the one who got the fancier outfits (she was my main account), while Vimes tended to get the servant/grungy looking ones -- fitting since he usually was who did all the "yardwork" on my land. Using that idea, I thought it would work well if looked like they were relaxing after a long day, as Vimes plays on his flute (in the game, you could use sheet music, and Vimes was a "bard" of sorts as well).

The treehouses were a large accomplishment towards the end of my time in Archeage, and the cherry tree referenced in the image was the one I built to act as the guild house -- a place where often one might find an Owl just lounging about! I thought it would be a good way to break up the background/sky since otherwise Windscour (the zone I owned land in) was mostly a desert plain.