William Bretthauer - Concept Art Portfolio 2024

2024 Worldbuilding Project

'The bifurcations of time and reality have diverged greatly from that which was anticipated. Our world is poised to sunder under any greater strain. Civilisation and our very reality is on the brink of total collapse. Only the music of the spheres will guide us from our strayed path. May the stars save us.'

The archbishop paused, in anticipation of retort. The suzerain was silent. The remaining residents stood stalwart, while knights of the guard watched dutifully, awaiting the moment. The great machine was switched on.

The Abyss

Lying in the lands of the Steppe, an enormous, bottomless chasm spans the width of the realm, growing by several centimeters each year. Civilisations have risen and fallen over thousands of years to prevent the Sundering. All failed, before the Astrologians somehow halted the process. It is said that they sacrificed 'the very nature of their being' in order to save the realm from further bifurcation.

'Albin made cursory glances over the grandiose hallway, towards the star-dial. Nothing was different today, the growing crowd of white-clothed figures meandered towards the orrery steps. Would these astrologers be any different? Would they still remember who they once were when this was all over? He reminded himself of his duty, the duty to carry on no matter what, to watch over all that came before, and all those that come after.'

Design Process

The Grand Orrery is largely based on a design combination of an observatory, library, cathedral, and an orrery map, a type of mechanical astrological clock that dictates the positions of the planets in their solar orbit. Significant focus was placed on creating intricate annular details that accentuate a radial design language.

Thumbnailing was relatively straightforward, as I knew the idea I wanted to pursue already. I made small camera and prop position adjustments as I went along to find better compositions, along with recieved feedback from peers.

The modelling process took advantage of Blender's geometry nodes system for ground clutter, cloth simulation, and rigid body simulation. Materials were modified from Quixel Bridge. All geometry was modelled by me.

'We stood in the courtyard, peering over the edge of an enormous cistern. A dozen or so robed figures stood idle, peering deep into the pit below. I decided it would be prudent to observe along side them, and so we waited. Before long, a tumultuous, hollow echo rang out from below, the sky burst into brilliant flame. Rising from the cacophany, a flock of small spheres, flesh-like, writhing and undulating. We watched them grow into children before our very eyes, faceless and barely formed homunculi. Mesmerized, we gazed skyward as they rose higher and higher into the enormous cavern, glowing a brilliant hue. The children of man united with the children of the spheres, pinpricks in the velvet blanket of night.'

Design Process

The design of Lecit and the Astrologers is largely based on the Czech lands of Bohemia during the time of the holy Roman empire, combining the Pagan esotericism of astrology with the catholic church. The design philosophy is gothic with a focus on stardial annular design language to represent astrological symbols.

I started with the main element of visual interest first, the cathedral, and then designed a floor-plan to base the city structure from. Housing blocks were created in collections and mirrored across the city. Again, all the geometry was modelled by me and bashed across the scene from common elements. The sky card I sourced from Ivana Cajina on Unsplash.

Thumbnailing was done entirely within the blender scene in order to gauge the ideal camera position and focal length choice.

Central cathedral structure

Modelling this structure created most of the geometry kit assets for the scene and largely determined the design language for the rest of the buildings. This was the initial look development for the scene:

'Go forth with no past, no future, nothing to your name. You are no one, you will find no hope and feel no joy. A thousands suns will burn and die and you will not age. The Abyss absorbs everything.'

Character Design Process

The designs of the Deepbound are based largely around historical armor and fashion, with influences of dark fantasy from the 80s and 90s. I started with an initial character sheet  based on three distinct design principles (I hope these are self evident from the design!).

The Cathedral Knight, Sir Albin

The cathedral knight design went through several iterations, and had the most design rework time. I started with something more comfortable in my style, and got as far as rendering color palletes. I recieved feedback on the visual interest and narrative of my design, and decided to redesign the character with more narrative in mind.

The Poet

This design was relatively straightforward and I deviated only slightly from the original design idea. The prop of the book Rolodex was swapped for a simpler book holder strap to preserve the sillouette.

The Astrologer

This design went under significant changes during the final iteration, to reflect a more unique sillouette from the other figures, giving the character a more pagan and 80s style.

Personal pieces done over the period of 2023 - 2024, I've come a long way in a short time so I wanted to cover some of my favourite and most influential pieces!

Crawlspace

A piece I did for Adrian Bush's class on Narrative Illustration back in April over a 2-day period. I started this piece in value and built color in after.

Little Mage in the Darklight Caverns

Some slightly longer 2.5 hour pieces where i placed a character within some daily paints to start exploring narrative aspects of illustration.

Seaside

A piece I did in November of last year. This was a one-day project mainly for fun, it turned into one of my favourite pieces from that year!

Novice Astrologian

A character design done in November of last year. The inspiration was a combination of fashion and kids fantasy outfits. I tried to merge something fun and whimsical with some more baroque tracery elements.

Environment Dailies

I want to include a sample of some of the painting I've been doing since 2024, I've learned a lot about color and light during this process and tried to limit these to within 1-2 hours.

Studies

A small sample of some of my favourite study and small creative pieces.

Portraiture

A combination of daily works and longer studies from the last year:

Thanks so much for looking through my work, I'm really excited to keep growing and expanding my world and illustrative ideas!