Designing Eldritch Clowns at the End of the World
A dragon clown girl sits in front of a psychedelic green halo and a purple background. To her right, ballooned letters read, "Hello, I'm Quinn."
Experiments Can Lead to Strange Journeys
It all started with an experimental technique to paint faster. I wanted to focus my practice around a silly idea that I would be comfortable throw away if I gave up. I ended up committing to this idea of a dragon clown girl and even sculpting custom letters in Blender to complete the full poster above.
It gets worse…I even wrote some lore around her:
Lore: "I'm just a clown bro. I don't even know what I'm doing here. I'm just good at sneaking into places and getting silly. A-an-and I'ma be honest with you, it's not my fault! It's a Quinn family trait, an honored profession. My birthright! Near and far, we have a deep need to clown around and, eventually, we always end up finding someone who loves us for it. A lot of people hate us, but we only need the one to care."
Ah poetry.
From Character Building to World Building
Over time, the clown brain rot spilled into a concept art course I was enrolled in titled, “Bring a Waterfront Game World to Life with Anna Hollinrake.” Anna was an incredible instructor who encouraged me to really lean into this clown concept. In fact, they even suggested sprinkling some H.R. Giger in there!
At the end of the course, I ended up exploring a game concept I created titled “R&Devious.” It was a hypothetical top-down tactical pet simulator where you play as dam-side community of cursed clowns who care for their eldritch elders.
Lore: What do all desperate dying things do? Fumble around in the dark like children hoping for a miracle or a guide you. In the wake of a flooding microplastic-ridden world, these humans cried out. From the depths of our world, something answered their cries, and it had a sense of humor.
This new generation is blessed to live another day, but cursed to grow into the shape of their new step-god-- the honest horror, the constructing crab or the scaffolding fundament.
Environmental Painting & 3D Techniques
I pushed myself to experiment with this course. To anchor the pieces, I sculpted and textured a dam in Blender to create fixed perspectives for matte paintings.
The decaying clown kaiju resting on a brutalist waterfont told a visceral story alongside the organic lighthouses and tents. To blend my painterly approach with my 3D renders, Anna kindly encouraged me to lean more into the biotech textures of H.R. Giger.
I used public domain macro images of radula and physiology from sea creatures for texture. I used a round brush and the lasso tool to create the soft edges on top of the render to curb the render's realism back. I then used gradient maps and layer modes to add funky colors.