Inheritance Art Breakdown: Master Bedroom (Patreon)

This is going to be a fairly long breakdown, so pull out your lawn chair and pop yourself a bag of popcorn.

This is one of two pieces I commissioned back in April.  My usual practice is to share a link to an artist's gallery when I share their art (Yeah, I know I forget a lot of the time.) but in this case I wont be simply because of how everything played out during development.  I'm a little grumpy about how "Two weeks" became almost "Four months" and the only time I ever saw updates was when I sent a message to ask what the hold up was, and those tended to be fairly minimal (As you'll see the progression below.)  How I see it, that's unacceptable.  That said, the artist is incredibly talented and did some truly amazing work.

With my grumblings out of the way, let's get started:

Our initial talk about the art for this included my sharing the in-game description of the Master Bedroom.

This first image was intended for layout.  I loved what they did with the window and most of the layout looked good.  I asked them to move the bathroom door to the other side of the bed.

The first actual sketch:

I thought this one looked good, we discussed the angle a little bit  and overall I felt this was a good starting point.  I asked them to pull the image closer to the viewer so the bed and such filled the image a bit more, but emphasized that we keep the window in the view as-is.

Second sketch:

I thought this one looked much better and gave them the green light to continue.

Line art:

I was pretty happy with this.    The detail work gave a really nice feel for how the image would eventually look.  I know we talked about a couple of details here, but since it's been so long I can't remember everything discussed anymore. :S

First colors:

I liked the colors for everything and enjoyed the wood work on the bed.  The rest of the colors are still flats in this one. 

Second colors:

This was a fairly minor update.  Basically it just included some detail work for the chair, table, and night stand.

Third colors:

Now this one we have a lot going on with.  I liked how things were shaping up, but this was where I noticed a couple of issues I wanted to point out.  The mirror in the closet I asked for some kind of border, and I also asked them to cast a reflection of the clothes in it to make it more clear that it was a mirror rather than just glass.  I also mentioned to them that the colored band between the ceiling and the wall looked a bit off, especially in the left corner.  To me, the long stretch of that band made it look like the top of the wall, but the left zig-zag area didn't have the same definitions as the wall so that portion looked like part of the ceiling.  I asked the artist to do a bit of work on that area to make it clear what belonged where.

Fourth colors:

In this version they did the work I had asked for with the mirror which I thought looked really good.  They added a carpet under the bed I hadn't asked for, but it turned out fantastic and I loved it.  They had not yet addressed the left corner issues I had though, so I brought that up again at this stage.

Fifth colors:

In this one, the artist basically removed the band that was causing confusion where the wall meets the ceiling, then widened the trim just a bit.  They softened the greenery outside the window in a way I was very happy with.  And they turned on the light in the room.  I mentioned to them that while one of the two night time images would have the light on, the daylight version of the image would not need the light on.

The final Day version:

I thought that the lighting in this was great, clearly indicating that the light source comes from the window to illuminate the room.  Bright enough to be comfortable, dark enough to clearly indicate that the lights were not on.

Night time with Lights on:

Loved how the soft glow of the overhead light illuminates the room.  I love how all of these turned out, but of the three, this is probably my favorite.

Night time, lights off:

With the lights off, the room gets just a hint of light from outside, just enough to make out some detail, but dark enough to show the room clearly as night time.

Honestly, the artist is very talented, and they do some truly fantastic work.  I'm very happy with the images I received from them.  I will however be unlikely to do business with the artist again due to the wait time.  I'm not sure what the delay was, two weeks turning into nearly four months, but that kind of wait is unacceptable.  If there were complications or real life issues that pulled their attention away, I have no problem with that, but to be left in the dark and only hear from them when I send a message their way to ask how things were progressing is not ok.  The proper way to handle things would have been to send me a message to let me know that there was going to be a delay (No matter the reason) and either offer a refund or at the very least give me an update to let me know what to expect moving forward.  When I drop significant amounts of money on art and am told a time frame to expect it in, I expect it to happen.  After all, I view what I do here as a business, and when I commission art, I like to tell you guys about it and show it off.  I have an obligation to all of you as my supporters to commission art the way I say I'm going to, and if I'm going to uphold my promises to add art to our games, then I need to invest money into art from artists who can produce work in a timely manner.  

I wish the artist the best of luck in their future endeavors.  They're clearly one of the more talented artists I've had the privilege of working with.

In the coming days, I'll share with all of you the other image set I had the artist create, it's every bit as impressive as this one.