This is an exploration of a concept I started developing years ago. My goal with this was to capture the same feeling I achieved with the 2D concepts that were born from the chaos created by textured oil brushes and a muddy color palette.

There was a particular dreamlike, eerie feeling that I knew would be lost if I over-rendered the image (a problem with 3D in general), so I spent a significant amount of time exploring ways to create a 3D environment without losing this feeling. I decided to experiment with new ways of exploring ideas in 3D, and ended up creating my own abstract textures with the very same oil brush that I used in my initial 2D pieces. I created some abstract foliage using a textured alpha mask, as well as textured translucent materials to obscure the edges of the assets I assembled together. I resisted the temptation to add lots of bright, emissive materials, and instead just used translucent materials, backlit with point lights for a more subtle effect. I spent a lot of time adjusting the colors to maintain that same dark green/brown color palette, which I felt worked quite well. I also added in some fog, and adjusted the color to a blue/cyan hue, which I felt made the whole image come together, similar to the the way a toned canvas creates a sense of cohesion in a painting.