Welcome to The Empire Monthly Challenge!
You are all welcome to stretch your artist legs. Get out of your comfort zone or artist block, and unleash your full potential!
There are no winners or prizes, it's all about challenging yourself. The deadline is purely to indicate the start of the next challenge, if you need more time to finish up, that's okay!
Modifiers are optional rules for the challenge that allow you to push your skills even further!
The traveller's tavern
In medieval Europe, on a particularly engrossing winter's eve, a traveler is seeking refuge from the piercing breeze and enclosing mist. Hooves and steps crack as mud is covered by frost, and the air is sprinkled with snow. Approaching the tavern, voices and cheers can be heard through the walls. Stories are told, local stew is served, and a young lad is threatened by a rowdy drunkard who's clothes now smell of a bit more beer than intended.
So, grab yourself a cup of hot cocoa and put yourself in the shoes of the arriving traveler, and the people managing the establishment. Rather than copying the concept, let it fuel your imagination and come up with your own unique vision of what a medieval tavern would look like.
What kinds of objects would you see? What materials would the locals use to build it? What kind of traffic walks along the path and how does that affect its surface? If yours is in a thick forest, how does that affect the objects and materials, and how differently would people design the buildings to deal with its issues?
Take your time exploring the possibilities and breaking down the work ahead. You got this!
"Tavern by the road" by Vladimir Manyukhin https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q4NlL
Grilled seafood skillet
Need a break from hard surface modelling and texturing? Here's a good exercise to practice different types of shapes and materials. I'm sure you can put love and details into each element, but can you also achieve good readability, and avoid it becoming noisy at a distance? Let's find out!
Here you have more shots, closeups, and the recipe: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/skillet-grilled-seafood-and-chorizo-paella/
Packaged android parts
Hyped about Cyberpunk 2077, or fascinated by the idea of artificial humans? Get your fix by experimenting how to design fictional articifial body part packaging.
How are you solving the different layers? Are you going full procedural, or maybe a hybrid approach? What about the soft surface, plastic part? Simulated? Sculpted?
Vitaly Bulgarov's Ghost in the Shell packaged android parts: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/l46qz
A door to another world
Let's make an ancient, magical looking door that looks like would act as a threshold between worlds. Use tileables, trim textures, decals and procedurals to bring it to life!
Kirkton crypt, Stuart Mccallay: https://www.flickr.com/photos/99783048@N02/10484296905/in/photostream/