I was given a simple prompt for this commission: inspire hope. I quickly decided on a village—to me, a community of warmth and harmony with nature feels incredibly hopeful and inspiring in the modern world we live in.

With these ideas in mind, I researched how existing communities, in places like the Amazon Rainforest, interact with their environments, and I pushed those concepts for this fantastical world. For example, I found that mushrooms are a popular forged resource, so I imagined that in this community, there are luminescent mushrooms that are used in a variety of ways, such as to light the outside of their homes and for celebratory adornments.

Due to the scope of the content, this was one of the most technically difficult illustrations that I’ve done. I ended up struggling with the perspective and how I wanted the scene to be set. As a result, I taught myself how to use Blender, and built a 3d model to use as a reference. This gave me a significantly better understanding of objects existing in space, and how I would alter the visual development process of my projects in the future.

2025