Seaside concept development

After some thought, I realised that the problem with my previous thumbnails for the seaside scene was that they were all rather small in scope.  It occured to me that there was an increase in the size of the environments as the story continues, from the claustrophobic and crampt lava tube through which the protagonists access the underground world, to the larger mushroom forest, and finally the enormous scale of the underground sea.

I've tried to convey this sense of scale by using a large, panoramic picture, using references from the previous influence sheet.

blocking in basic shapes

Taking my inspiration from the limestone islands of the south china sea, I wondered if I could try to convey that the image is underground without showing the ceiling (which in the book is described as being permanently hidden by cloud).  Hence, the islands are meant to be enormous stalagmites.

added background detail

sea and sky added

started to add colour and detail

finished adding colour

clouded the sky and added some waves to the sea

since adding every wave would be both time consuming and difficult, I concentrated on adding waves where they would be most noticable - at the shore (where the breakers are white) and in the foreground - so hopefully they suggest the rest of the waves ^^;