Behind The Scenes: Alchemy Lab

I had a plan to create some stylized textured building this week, to utilize sculpting and baking a little bit  and try to recreate the style of the Blizzard games. As it often goes, what you start with is not necessarily the thing you end up with :)

As I was searching for some reference, between the buildings popped up an fantasy medieval interior render with alchemist and his lab. It reminded me of my former Witch's Lair diorama and I suddenly wanted to do that instead.

So don't be afraid to be led astray sometimes. When working on your personal projects, it's important to feel inspired and look forward. Otherwise it can soon turn a bit bitter if you try to be consistent. 

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I went ahead and gathered what I could on my Pinterest board to have all the necessary reference and some inspiration. You get extra points for spotting a Baldur's gate reference on the board :)

I came across this alchemy table and immediately knew I want to have that as a main asset in the scene. So I went ahead and searched for more versions of the table to get a better picture and to see more of the glassware reference.

I've gathered some images of cupboards and shelves as well to get a glimpse of what equipment I could include. After a while the objects and motives started to repeat. That's my signal I probably have enough to go and let my imagination do the rest. And that's what I recommend, when you're researching something. The moment you feel repetition in the references, it's time to pick few things that caught your attention the most and you have yourself a framework to build on.

There was a lot on the board, that I could include, so I had to be a bit smart about this. In the end, the diorama scene format offer only limited space and since I wanted really exaggerated stylized elements, I had to account for slightly larger objects.

So I started with the table and established desired object proportions and scale. One of the things I wanted to have was a fireplace of sorts and a cupboard and with the scale I started with, they would surely take the whole wall. To leave a bit of breathing room, I reserved the other wall for the windows and just one small shelf. 

In the end, I felt something missing on the left, and I first thought about some furniture. But then I saw interesting astronomer's office on the board and thought it would be cool to include some small globe model. I'm sure you need to account for planet movements if you're trying to change iron into gold right? :)

I cannot emphasize enought how important is the research and sketching process for every scene I make. It helps to streamline my thoughts, maintain a style and in the end, saves a lot of trial and error.

You can watch the process video on Youtube

So that's it for the latest illustration and I hope it will help you with your own work.

See you in the next one! :)