Into the magic circle

**Crimson_diabloS** · July 18th, 2009, 11:08 AM

Slowly approached the courageous knight the back of the evil cave. His long quest to save the fair maiden from her peril was about to end with only one obstacle left.

There he was, face to face with the creature that struck fear into the hearts of many! Towering above him was a dragon unlike he had ever seen. Suddenly the dragon let out a thundering roar!

"WOOF!"

My first time posting here and I must admit, it is kind of strange to post between all this talent. Anyway, I have been working on a new style for myself since last year. Before I was mainly drawing in a style inspired by anime, but I found myself getting more bored with each picture, so I decided that this wasnt the thing for me. Since I was contemplating to start with a more "storybook" kind of style, I figured this to be the perfect chance and 3 creations later, here I am!

It was also my first time working with a 4point perspective (only used 1 and 2 so far).

I have created this piece based on Johan Huizinga's "Homo Ludens", the first book written to be about games and play (in their broadest sense). Mr. Huizinga stated that all play takes place within a so called magic circle; a circle with its own rules that stood apart from the real world.

Even something as seemingly simple as make believe play would be part of this magic circle. Children would impose rules on each other and if one would break those rules, he wouldnt get away without at least complaining from the other people he was playing with.

That is what inspired me to do this piece; as a game designer I am quite intrigued by this magic circle and how much sense it makes to me.

**Murgen** · July 18th, 2009, 07:35 PM

Not familiar with the book, but I like the piece. Really cute characters and I am enjoying the style. Not sure what is going on top left though.

**FalyneVarger** · July 18th, 2009, 10:56 PM

I like this a lot and while I think the textures are WHY I like it I also think that they are overdone in some areas. Like in the entire left part of the picture. It's hard to understand exactly what is what.

**merrycarousel** · July 19th, 2009, 03:25 AM

I get what the image is about from your written description and understand what you're trying to convey but the cave apparition on the left seems to confuse people... one way (that i could think off the top of my head now) is to make the imagined parts to be of a certain ethereal-dreamy transparent colour and not as heavily textured as the reality's.

However, if you'd really like to retain the dragon's colour/texture (as it seems to be where the main action is!), you could do so but have the rest fade off to the whole wispy "ethereal-dreamy transparent colour etc" (the cave).

besides that, it's really good that you're ventured out of something that you're used to... for a departure from your usual style, this is really nice! love the colours, the character' are charming... good job in short!

**Crimson_diabloS** · July 19th, 2009, 06:59 AM

@murgen and FalyneVarger;
The topleft and the left in general is part of a cave that takes place within the imagination of the kids. The idea was to blend their imagination with the real world (hence dog becomes dragon). While the real world takes place in just an ordinary living room, their fantasy takes them to other worlds. However, blending the cave apparition with that of the normal world (and the objects in the normal world it is based on) was pretty difficult to get right.

@merrycarousel;
I actually tried to get that area to be more "ethereal"

. Turns out that the effect wasnt good enough. I also tried to lessen the presence of the cave part so that the real world would come out more and the whole drawing would be a little less... busy. However, by doing that I felt that the entire idea of having their imagination blend with the real world would lessen.

Maybe I should try something with lighter colors next time?

**Murgen** · July 19th, 2009, 10:24 PM

not sure what you mean by lighter colors.

I don't think the colors are the problem - its the readability of this imaginary world. I like it being transparent in parts with the 'real' world, but I think as it goes towards the window it should be more opaque.