Imaginary landscapes. Easy, right?
The world in is ever changing character. We live dynamic relationship with it as it influences us and we change it in return, therefore it’s important that environment conceptualization is taken into just as much care as the people who live in it. Bestu Bay is a carefully crafted world that exemplifies this, visually showing rather than telling of its complexity under the surface. This page goes into the behind the scenes process behind it all. Enjoy!
Grandparent’s Home
This is David’s room. The images in the gallery are what I consider to be the sketch/planning phase of the project. The idea, though, started long before I had the courage and knowledge to continue doing it. At the time, my idea was overly ambitious and required a lot more skill than I possessed. Pro tip: when you do art that is completely out of your comfort zone, you tend to get unmotivated. And well, that’s exactly what happened. I gave up in frustration and for two years it sat unfinished in my files gathering dust. Until recently, I was forced to actually understand how drawing objects in perspective worked. With this newfound knowledge, I could return back for round two! Looking back at why I quit before, arrogance was my downfall… for the moment I stopped believing I knew everything was the moment I was able to create a masterpiece! I mean can you see the difference in confidence from that first idea to the finished product?!
However, there is an elephant in the room. Not really, but you might notice a few big changes from the sketches to the final. 1- David got Thanos snapped from the picture, and 2- the tone has shifted. Keen observation! These changes are (definitely, totally) on purpose (from the start). See, this is David’s room at his Grandparents house in Bestu Bay. You know,,,,, the one that burned to ashes in minutes right before his eyes? Ouch. Therefore, memories of this room may be peaceful and calm, demonstrated with the glowing sunset illuminating some of his favorite things, but in the end they are tainted with this melancholy feeling, hence the grayscale. Below, you can see this moment visually unfold.
The piece is a pivotal and emotional story moment that sets everything into motion. But overall, wanted to show even through the fires of our lives, the lighthouse is brighter. God is our lighthouse, He guides and leads us in this dark world. He is also there with us, he shares in our pain, weeps with us. He provides us shelter from the storms. We may see the hard times in our lives as a reason to be angry at God, but He uses all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world or live with perfect people, for if God interfered with everything we wouldn’t have free will. But we can rest assured God always loves us the same amount unconditionally even if we don’t love Him back. But he always wants the best for us and to help guide and be there for us, what is there not to love! We see life in puzzle pieces, but God sees the whole picture and knows it won’t be in vain even when it’s hard to see it in the moment. Because overall, this part of the story, though being the most tragic event in the entire series, it leads to a change for the better in David. And through him, revival of spirits in his whole community.
In the beginning of the conceptualization process I had such a clear image of what I wanted to create for so long because of how important this scene is. But I honestly didn’t have the technical skill to create it at first. Especially since this is all from my head and it would be really hard to find/make a reference photo. So I played around with thumbnail sketches and more of the conceptual/ iconographical side of the composition before deciding. In between, I realized I needed to learn how to foreshorten properly, so I watched videos and put it into practice. That is the result of the bottom two sketches! From there I imported that last sketch to digital and just painted over it, refining as I went!
This is the floorplan and the downstairs space of Grandparent’s home in isometric drawing! All colors, layout, and objects are inspired by my actual grandparent’s home.
Does this look familiar?! If you’ve read the Grandparents meet the character page you’ll recognize this was the unfinished concept from long ago, now finally finished! Here we see a scene of them all by themselves in the far past before the house burnt down. It’s a quiet moment that shows the tender wholesome love and connection they share when the world isn’t watching, a beautiful kind where everything else behind fades behind you, the present and future both in front and right beside you.
The Lighthouse
CONCEPTUALIZTION +
SCREENSHOTS
Click the images view them in full screen!
After taking a lot of great screenshots in-game, I narrowed it down to my favorite three and made thumbnail sketches to see how well the curves would translate to paper. I then did a rough rendering of light in each of the pictures using the reference photo, and eventually went with the first choice!
The first two images are some in-progress pictures of the painting. Figure it would be interesting to share the process of a three point perspective drawing for noobs like I was. You’ll notice that you can only see two of the three vanishing points on screen, which is normal. The last point is wayyy off to the left of the screen. Whenever you do three point perspective, always know that two of the three vanishing points ALWAYS horizontally line up (they simulate the horizon, similar to two point perspective), the third point determines the angle (whether you’re looking up and see the underside of objects: above the horizon, or whether you’re looking down and see the topside of objects: below the horizon line). In this image we are looking down, therefore the top two points will horizontally line up to simulate the horizon, and the third point is below it. With all this technical advice, I’ll give you a nugget of real practical advice: you don’t have whip out a ruler and spend hours drawing everything 100% precise! As long as you determine an imaginary point and keep the lines consistent with it will still turn out great. Just trust your artistic instincts, and often, this will lead to more interesting and life-like artwork. Try creating your own scenes freehand this way, it’s so empowering to see what you’re capable of!
The last picture, is the final painting with a simple grayscale filter… the values have not been manually edited! How cool is that?! My favorite principle of art to play with is the idea that you can use any color as long as it retains the same darkness and lightness value. This proves that I did the color maths correctly in my head! If you try this technique, constantly take pictures and try the grayscale filter to make sure you are on the right track.
Designing the lighthouse in Minecraft first made for a much smoother and enjoyable process, however it came with limitations. It’s blocky nature can’t fully represent the tilted lines, curves, or diagonals, hence why I found it important to sketch out how I truly imagined it to all look in my head. But one thing I found was that traditional perspective was not a great way to document it’s true size for future reference compared to isometric perspective(which makes isometric images).
What is an isometric image? …you may ask. Essentially it’s a blueprint that doesn’t follow normal perspective rules, and instead has consistent perspective grid (without a horizon) so the size of objects don’t warp the further it gets from the horizon line. It’s useful to document exact measurements and display complex architecture. For example, notice in the in-game screenshot/drawings of the lighthouse with traditional perspective vs the isometric render picture to the left. Minecraft follows normal perspective rules while you play: below the horizon line you can see the top of objects, and objects above the horizon line you can see the underside. Now look at the isometric render. All angles are the same from top to bottom!
To the left is a project I worked on in my Digital Design and Fabrication class. The challenge was to make an interlocking 3D puzzle made of 1/8th inch ply wood and utilizing the 3D software and laser cutting/engraving machine that could cut the pieces. With the final product including 90 pieces I may have gone overboard, but I proud of the result! Keep in mind: NONE of this is glued… it’s only held together by creative ingenuity, hours of complex calculations, and reverse engineering. This is the second prototype, I’m very happy with the result! Though, I already am making plans to improve this for the future, and even possibly sell this since I can easily re-produce it. Let me know if you want one, we can arrange for it!
The Bay Map
After all these years, this illustration is one of my proudest creations. This is the full aerial view of Bestu Bay with every single detail carefully constructed and thought about from every angle. With that, I’m thrilled to announce the Bestu Bay 3D modeling project within Minecraft! How and why did I do this? Continue down to find out the process from humble beginnings to final illustration!
Step 1: Building the world and foundations! I started by carefully planning out the top down map, using all my knowledge to make the most realistic yet fantastical world of Bestu Bay. I took from what I’ve personally experienced/noticed in all the places I’ve lived/visited, about city planning from my dad being elected on a city council, my college courses I took on physical geology and human+historical geography, seeking knowledge from a friend about docks and marinas work/their placement/how to prevent the tide from overpowering property, realistic simulators I’ve played, and so much more!
Step 2: Integrating the architecture! Much easier said than done… this has taken me over four months(even with the Axiom mod to help me build faster)! My statistics for the file say I’ve played 10.24 days (245 hours)! From the bottom of my heart I’ve enjoyed every second of it, the beaming child-like smile has never faded when I see it all. It’s like you’re exploring it again for the first time, discovering brand new unexpected views as you walk around in a world that is truly yours. It’s a complex puzzle that you’ve passionately crafted every aspect in your mind for years and now it’s finally on paper… not in individual pieces but all working together in one beautiful picture. Currently, I calculated that I have built 80+ unique residential houses, 40+ unique structures and recreational places (shops, community parks, entertainment, activities, etc), and unique 100+ trees(many copied but always uniquely added to and pruned from 10 different various sized built models), and many small fun details and lore in between! In the slideshow playing is the progressive progress and below it shows where it is at currently. It’s been so cool seeing the skyline grow over time! As time as gone on, many thins have changed from the original top down map, soon I will be remaking it!
You may be thinking, Hannah, this is a silly block game… is all this work really worth it? To that I say, when does a wall become a million dollar mural? At what point can pixels on a screen be considered art? Is it wrong to paint with a hairbrush, or use a sandbox game as a 3D modeling software? The only limit is your mind… the world is a canvas waiting to be used to it’s fullest! Not only am I simply having the best time of my life playing Minecraft for college credit, but here are the benefits that any other ‘artistic’ software can’t do. So absolutely it’s worth it.
1. You can easily build everything to scale of the real world without any worry about number calculations or scaling. Each block is 1m (3 ft) and you as the player are two blocks tall. Not only can you fly around this 3D space, but you can walk and engage with everything. And others can join in with you at the same time!
2. The simplistic blocky nature of this game actually allows for greater creativity and less time worrying about every detail or texture. It makes you more intentional of how you use the space, instantly creates memorable designs and silhouettes. The limited palette you have to work with(which still has a huge variety) saves a ton of time. Overall, it helps you focus on the overall picture like a thumbnail sketch.
3. Did I mention you as the player are a professional camera that you can easily and fully adjust/toggle every minute cinematic setting from colors, light, object reflectivity, to the specific time of day? And it does all the visual calculations and keeps consistency for you!
4. Because everything is a grid, you can use it to take reference photos of complex scenes and trace back all the vanishing points, and when you draw over it, it instantly calculates the distortion of objects as they recede into space, and maintains the consistency of distance in relation to everything! Above, is an example of how I used that for this project. Below and to the side is my process of combining the physical and digital!
Above is my first attempt without using a reference photo, it took so much time and frustration… started optimistic but ended poorly.
This is my second attempt with a reference photo and drawing over top, made everything so fast and realistic! However, I had to completely make up the whole lighting scenario, colors, and figures using all my artistic knowledge which took the majority of my time. This is the most complex illustration I’ve ever done because this was all conceptualized from my head from head to toe!
Lastly, wanted to share the this in-progress illustration. It’s a view from Sunflower Square across the bay. Notice the grandparents on the porch swing!
Here is main street. Notice the magenta building on the right… that is the same building in the left of the Sunflower Square! Corner (of the) Coast Coffee. This was so much fun to make. I didn’t use reference for this one as it was early on in the process, I hadn’t even built these buildings in Minecraft yet!
What a clever way to enjoy learning more about the world of Bestu Bay, ey! I definitely could imagine this poster in the welcome center or a classroom. Because Bestu Bay is based off of Ocracoke NC, I did a lot of research regarding the wildlife in the area, and eventually narrowed it down to these lucky fellas who happened to be associated with a distinctive color! Hence, COLORS OF BESTU BAY! I had a lot of fun putting this together, especially the little illustrations and descriptions. But arguably the most important element in the rudimentary map of the Bestu Bay area! Beside it was my first rough drawing of Bestu Bay as a whole back in October 2023, which inspired the final pan that you see throughout the site banners!
Atmosphere
This painting is a commission I made for my Uncle who lives in Ocracoke. I LOVE the vibe of this artwork, the blue blanket of light contrasting the yellows and oranges that dominates the scene create a peaceful yet dramatic piece. It is a 20×20 inch painting. Probably one of my most personal proudest achievements as a painter, as I have never worked with painting water or scenes so complex. click the photos below to see the process!
This piece took a total of 6 hours, and was the first time I used pencil for a complete drawing since 9th grade! Not bad, ey? Goes to show how all art mediums are meant to be treated as interconnected rather than separate. Skills learned from one medium transfer over and enhance the other. The concept is similar to learning languages: the more you learn the easier it gets!
For this piece, you’ll notice that it’s a pretty stark contrast compared to everything else I’ve made on the site. This is because it’s not meant to be a official landscapes in Bestu Bay, rather practice of what is yet to come. Bestu Bay is a fantasy world, but in order to give the place the right amount of realism (including architecture, environment, ecosystem, and culture) and relatability (so its memorable), I had to base it off of a real place on Earth. What you see in the pictures above are real places in Ocracoke, NC, a small but thriving bay city along the Atlantic coast! I’ve done tons of research of places around the world to make sure every detail would fit with what I intend to exaggerate with fantasy elements. This even includes the right type of body of water that the type of turtle Granny is based off of (Diamondback Terrapin) would live!
On the artistic side of things, you’ll notice a very soft texture and nostalgic vibe. This is intentional because Bestu Bay for David is a place where he always felt safe and happy, so I wanted to practice that idea through various methods such as vignette, gentle yet quick strokes with the side of my pencil for shading, and picking reference photos that have a lot of light space. I wanted to evoke that feeling of warm fond memories that could exist in the viewers mind, but in reality don’t. I also carefully chose and laid out my reference photos in a way that would smoothly take the viewer on a journey as they read the image. Try and find the lines/shapes/shading that subtly manipulate the way you look at it! Crazy, right?! Art is cool like that. Anyways, thanks for reading!
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The Legend Of Bestu Bay 
Dude, this is seriously so beautiful. And seeing you take your craft and do studies on perspective so seriously is challenging, motivating, and really inspiring.
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I love this room! It is so pretty and detailed. The scene really gives such a great context for the characters.
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Wow!! So much improvement!! I love seeing everything tie in together. It’s special to be able to watch your progress!!!
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The lighthouse wooden model and boat painting are really impressive. It makes me think of a Monet Painting with a similar color palette.
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