My entry for the banner art contest for the Technoblade Discord server, inspired by a parenting story Technodad shared on Reddit.
More ramblings about process below the cut!
I didn't have time to document much of my process, so I'll be dropping bits of trivia as they come to me.
The contest announcement dropped 08/08, and for a few days I thought I was gonna skip out on it because I couldn't think of a decent idea. But then inspiration struck when I rewatched Tonko House's The Dam Keeper short. I also recalled Technodad's sweet parenting story, so I decided to mash the two ideas together for my entry.
Most of the time spent on this piece was on the 3D modeling in SketchUp! I started modeling on 08/11, and had several false starts before settling on the final build on 08/18. Technodad mentioned in his story that his family lived in a condo in San Francisco, so I referenced the more iconic architecture of the location's residential areas. He probably lives in more modern housing, but I'm a sucker for the old-fashioned aesthetic. Artistic-liberty!
The theme of the banner art contest was "autumn", so I roughly blocked in the location of two trees which I would paint in autumnal colors. The street lamps were recycled from another banner contest I entered around 2020 for the CrankGameplays server themed after "spring" - I think it's fitting that it's reused in another seasonal-themed contest. Everything else was modeled from scratch!
I wish I documented more of my painting process, but all of the painting was done in a span of 1.5 days while I was recovering from a bug. Normally I'd take at least a week to finesse things, but I was in a rush. I needed to submit my entry before the deadline so there was ample time for upvotes, and I also had a commission I needed to wrap up before next month. I get restless when I have more than one project on my plate, especially when both are time-sensitive!