AEMPYREAN DECADENCE



ÆMPYREAN DECADENCE

Imagine cities, that large that it all is built in levels. One on top of another. Like it’s kind of happening in Hong Kong today. Your position in society is reflected by on what level you live. Now this society has risen up so high that it couldn’t stand on its own feet anymore. Society, as well as the architecture, starts to fall apart. The ignorance of wanting it all more bigger and larger than large doomed them to break apart. Only a few search and rescue teams, all volunteers, mustered up the strength to go out there. Millions of people trappend in this catastrophe, finally realizing the downfall of their, once so strong and inspiring, empire.

Well, that could be one of many interpretations of what’s going on in the picture.

This one surely made it into the top ten of my fav paintings so far. It all started with a concept i made from the ship/transporter. I, earlier, had a small concept of a ruined futuristic city. Unfortunately never connceted to it. So i left it. First when i had this ship concept done i thought about creating something for the background. Much like on my ‘Descent Heart’ painting i started to see shapes i really liked. So this painting became a larger project. Above the basic painting i added tons of photo textures to suggest detail. Without wasting too much time on perspective. I tried to align everything very quickly… and good enough to make it work. Also used parts of the destroyed city concept i made earlier. So basically you could say that i was just throwing stuff together here… and looked how the cocktail may taste. Most of the time it was good. Sometimes not so much. Trail and error as usual.

The final result is pretty rough but still gives a lot of detail for the eye. The painterly style adds a lot and gives the eye something to do. I like it that way.

5760px wide – photoshop – intuos3 – 1 week

Regards

wallpapers available

signed

3 Responses to “AEMPYREAN DECADENCE”

  1. Yenkaz Says:

    Very atmospheric image, the large city in the background feels depressing and empty, even if you do not read the back story.

    The city seems to rise very high, but the upper parts of the picture suggests that this part is located in a cave of sorts? (you can see earthly pillars and the light shines as from a hole in the ceiling)

    I am kind of curious about the red tint from below as well

  2. Tigaer Says:

    that’s true… parts of this city lie between mountains. it’s an alien planet… so you can’t really tell how the mountains in this world really look. except for the parts in the pic. i added these things rather late because i wanted an element in there that makes the viewer think about how this world could look outside the scene we’re observing. i like to place elements that make the viewer curious. i mentioned that the cities grow very high… but also below the surface. so it could also be a cave. =) the red glow has no special meaning. =) thanks for the feedback!

  3. scienceofidentityfoundation Says:

    Nice meaning to the picture…that’s so true about society. If we keep treating each other the way we do, and grow so big that we can’t handle it an more, then what’s the use? Like that book Us or Them: The Science of Identity foundation book about different societies and cultures – we should feel kinship and not grow so big that it’s so impersonal.

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