A palace concept art developed for my personal worldbuilding project named Butterflies.
It’s a peaceful and prosperous kingdom and story. The mountain area is /extra/ fancy, with ample space and a privileged view of the landscape. They barely have defenses, walls, fences, as those aren’t needed.
Software: Clip Studio Paint
I wanted this scene to feel very ‘vertical’ and serene. There’s nature, mountaintops, and pools for the citizens to enjoy.
Despite the lack of walls, the palace uses its height and the landscape as a barrier of sorts, isolating itself from rest of the world.
I painted several scenes and locations from this world, and these are some of the characters that populate it.
Long description
This session has a long text description of the picture above:
A concept art style painting of a palace. It’s a daylight, aerial view of a palace on top of a mountain. There’s a large white dragon statue in a patio. Two small humanoid figures swim in a rectangular pool.
Palace progress pictures
Borborema means ‘wasteland, empty place’ in Tupi.
Concept art and references
The mountains have faces of old dragons and leaders carved onto them. They serve as gigantic, silent watchers.
Pilgrims and merchants visit their temples and caves to light lanterns, plant flowers and put offering inside their hollow eyes and mouths.
The moodboard above has old paintings of Azhdaha, a group of snake-like gigantic creatures from Persian literature and Iranin folklore.
There are also architectural examples of contrasting tiles (ablaq) and photos of the Azem Palace, a Syrian building constructed in 1749 (now a museum.)
And photos of a red crest-like tropical flower named Justiça-Vermelha.
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