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SaltmarrowReading edition

Art direction

Art bible

Painterly gouache on clean shapes. Big readable silhouettes, few values, one warm light.

About 3 min read3 sections9 images
Milestone
Alpha
Track
Art
Saltmarrow references
Key art v2
ApprovedIdris Okafor
Colour script
ApprovedIdris Okafor
Marrowstead in fog
ApprovedIdris Okafor
Archive reading room
ApprovedIdris Okafor
Hauling a crystal home
ApprovedIdris Okafor
Material swatches
Idris Okafor
Harvester props
ApprovedIdris Okafor
Key art v1
RejectedIdris Okafor
Cold, quiet, salt-bleached, with one warm lantern glow

Palette

Saltmarrow core palette
Export
  • Ink navy
    Background
    Lightness 21
    Night planks and the deepest shadows (sampled from key art v2)
  • Deep sea teal
    Surface
    Lightness 36
    Sky and open water
  • Night teal
    Secondary
    Lightness 30
    Upper sky, fog in shadow
  • Oxidised rust
    Accent
    Lightness 44
    The lighthouse; the only saturated mid-tone
  • Lit rust
    Highlight
    Lightness 65
    Rust where the low sun or a lantern touches it
  • Bone white
    Text
    Lightness 91
    Salt towers in light; never pure white
  • Lantern glow
    Accent
    Lightness 80
    One per scene

Hard to tell apart: Deep sea teal / Night teal

Contrast

  • Bone white on Ink navy13.7:1AAA
  • Lantern glow on Deep sea teal5.7:1AA
  • Bone white on Oxidised rust6.2:1AA

Rules

  1. One warm light per scene: a lantern, the lamp room or a low sun on the horizon line, never two.
  2. Rust is the only saturated mid-tone. Everything else is teal, navy or bone.
  3. Silhouettes first: every character and landmark reads as a flat shape at 64 pixels tall.
  4. Brush texture lives in the large planes (sky, flats, towers), never in small props.
  5. Salt is bone white with blue shadows, never pure white.

Colour script

Dawn, noon, high sun, storm, dusk, night

Deliverables are reviewed in Key art reviews, Character and creature deliverables and Environment deliverables; the Art review board presents the current state.

NODARYEnd of document